King's Medal for Champion Shot
The King’s Medal for Champion Shot (French: Médaille du Roi pour tireur d’élite) is a Canadian military marksmanship medal created on 28 August 1991. It honors the top shooters in Canada: one member of the Regular Force and one member of the Reserve Force or the RCMP who achieve the highest combined score in the first two stages of the King’s Medal Competition. It first awarded in 1992 and replaced the Queen’s Medal for Champion Shots in the Military Forces in Canada from that year onward.
Two medals are awarded each year, one to the best Regular Force shooter and one to the best shooter from the Reserve Force or RCMP based on the competition’s first two stages. Unlike many other Canadian honours, this medal is won through open competition rather than by nomination. The medal can be awarded to the same person more than once; additional awards are shown by year bars on the ribbon and, since 2002, by sewing the bars onto the ribbon.
Design and appearance: The medal was designed by Bruce W. Beatty and is a 36 mm disk. The obverse features the reigning monarch’s effigy, and the reverse shows the winged goddess Pheme crowning a warrior. It is worn on a 32 mm ribbon with a central crimson band, bordered by black with beige edges. The year of the award is shown on a silver bar on the ribbon.
History note: The award continues a long lineage of champion-shot medals that traces back to the British Army’s Medal for the Best Shot and the King’s Medal for Champion Shots in the Military Forces. Canada began awarding its own version in 1992, with two medals issued annually to reflect top marksmen from the Regular Force and the Reserve/RCMP.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:57 (CET).