Judy Tant will be inducted into the Greater Lansing Sports Hall Of Fame on the evening of Thursday, July 25th for her record as a top competitive pistol shooter:

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/...nt/1738253001/

'Incredible ride' for pistol shooter Judy Tant continues with Hall of Fame induction
Brian Calloway -- July 16, 2019


When Judy Tant moved from Canada to East Lansing in the late 1970s for a job at Michigan State, she fully expected to continue her career as a pistol shooter.

But as Tant was making her way across the Canadian-United States border, she wasn't allowed to bring her guns into Michigan due to laws at the time.

That altered the side plans for Tant, who was hired at MSU as a faculty member and had a position in the counseling center.

But when a law changed in 1997 – nearly two decades after her arrival – allowing green card immigrants to purchase handguns, Tant decided to get back into shooting at the age of 47.

Tant joined a club locally, eventually imported the pistols she had left behind 20 years earlier and decided to see what she could do in the sport.

"I set my goals to just do the work of learning the craft," Tant said. "What was going to come out of it? I didn't really know. The image I had was I was just going to keep shaking the tree and see what fell out of it. And of course some really amazing things fell out of it. It's just been an incredible ride."

The incredible ride continues next week for Tant, who is among the inductees in this year's class heading into the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame.

Tant is being recognized for the success she's experienced during a pistol shooting career that has been filled with numerous honors over the last 22 years. Her first national title came six years after resuming her career in the United States and the 69-year old added to her collection of honors with an indoor championship earlier this year.

Tant has won three outdoor and six indoor pistol shooting state championships and 18 state women’s pistol titles. There also have been eight women’s national pistol championships and 10 times being the high woman in national trophy matches.

All of those championships and honors have come despite losing the prime of her shooting career.

"You don't have control over whether you win," Tant said. "All you have control over is what you put into it. If other people shoot better, you don't win. If they don't, you do. All you can control is yourself. My goals were largely internal. That was to improve myself in various ways, get better equipment, learn more about the mental side of the game and go to as many competitions as I could because that's how you really learn how to handle match pressure and deal with weird situations that come up and sort of get seasoned as a competitive shooter.

"I really put myself into it and it just took off from there."
Details of the induction ceremony:

When: July 25 - 4:30 p.m. meet and greet; 5:45 p.m. dinner; 6:30 p.m. ceremony

Where: Lansing Center

Tickets: $35 per individual, $280 for table of eight and can be purchased at lansingsportshalloffame.org

Hall of Fame class: Matt Greene (Grand Ledge, hockey), Gina Harrington (Potterville volleyball/basketball), Melissa Kegler (Holt, swimming), Roy Kramer (East Lansing football), Denny Myers (Lansing Community College cross country/track and field), Dave Poquette (East Lansing, rugby), Pat Stump (St. Mary’s football), Judy Tant (pistol shooting). Teams – 1988-90 Potterville volleyball, 1947-49 Vermontville baseball

Richard Letts Community Service Awards: Roger Love and Dr. John Pudliner

Sponsors: Dean Transportation, Auto-Owners Insurance, Accident Fund, Applegate Home Comfort, Two Men And A Truck, Shaheen Chevrolet, Dan Henry Distributing, Gregory Eaton Associates, Magic Johnson Enterprise, Edward Jones Investments, ASAP Printing.