Bermudian Chloe Smith is blazing a trail and fighting negativity in prestigious military shooting competitions in France.

Smith, who moved to France with her family in 2019, recently finished third in a competition in Essonne and has qualified for the regional TAR Championship, which took place last weekend.

She has come a long way since a family friend introduced her to the sport a few years ago in Marseilles, in the South of France.

“A family friend of ours, who is ex-military and was in special ops, introduced me and my father to shooting, and that's how I got into it,” the 29-year-old said.

“I really am drawn to anything that has to do with precision. It could be pool, it could be darts — and I just love focusing on a target. When I started shooting it was just such a thrill every time I would hit the target, and I realised pretty quickly that I was good at it.”

Smith’s recent display of excellence came in her first attempt at regional level. She competed in the FSA — Large Calibre (Seniors 1) category and finished third overall with a total score of 118 points (series scores of 81 and 37).

The event brought together civilian sport shooters from various clubs across the region and the competition was held at a distance of 200 metres in the prone position. Each competitor had seven minutes to complete two series of five shots (ten shots total), followed by an additional rapid-fire round timed at just one minute.

“I'm very proud of myself for finishing in the top three because it was the first time I’d ever shot in a prone position,” she said.

“As the gun club I’m registered at now is 40 minutes from Paris, I don’t really get the opportunity much to go out there to train at such a long distance. I would say maybe once every two months I get to go out there when my dad comes and visits me in Paris. He rents a car and we take the time to go out there, so I don’t really train.”

Smith was the only Black shooter in her recent competition, the youngest there and the only female to place in the top three. She has had to get used to shooting under pressure and admits it has been difficult to cope with some of the snide looks and comments.

“When I was competing I asked my boyfriend and my father to take videos of me from behind the screen because on the shooting ground unless you have a licence, you're not allowed to be there,” she said.

“There is a glass screen that separates the audience from the shooters but I could hear other people talking about me a lot throughout the whole time, making comments and stuff.

“It’s definitely apparent, especially being one of the very few women there as well as the only Black person. I don't know how to describe it. It’s not very subtle and it’s very apparent.

“But I don’t really take it to heart as much as I would have when I was younger. I actually feel very, very proud because it’s allowing me to open the door for other people who look like me to feel comfortable and to feel like they belong in spaces like this as well.

“There’s really no other Bermudians in Paris, let alone France, and so my goal is to really represent my country. Not many people know about Bermuda unless it’s to talk about the triangle, so this is also an opportunity for me to put our country on the map as well and to get people to know that we exist.”

Smith is also an underground music artist and enjoying life in Paris, but despite being half French she admits it took plenty of adjustment moving to the French capital.

“My father's Black Bermudian and my mom is White French from Brittany,” Smith said

“Obviously, I’ve been adapting well being half-French and bilingual, but it has its pros and cons. I was born and raised in Bermuda and I miss it every single day and Paris was the first time I moved to a big city, so it was a bit of a culture shock.

“But helpfully there’s a big music scene, whether it’s underground or artists more established, so it's a lot easier to get your name out.

“It’s only been two years that I've been working with the team and I have a manager. We’re scheduled to release more music and more music videos and I already have my stuff released on all platforms.

“Interestingly enough, my last music video and song that I released last November was literally about shooting. It was a collaboration with an underground producer, who is based in the US, called Lord Fubu.

“In the music video, I'm with my gun. It’s like a BB gun, but with metal pellets and I train with it in the backyard, shooting empty bottles or balloons and stuff like that. The song actually did numbers in Brazil, which was really random.