Resilient Rhode: Shooter's setbacks don't derail road to Rio Olympic

Kim Rhode poses for photos at the 2016 Team USA Media Summit in Beverly Hill

Misfortune stacked up like spent shotgun shells in the four years since Kim Rhode won her third Olympic gold medal.
 A brutally difficult pregnancy. A debilitating recovery, one that's still ongoing. Emergency gall bladder surgery. A five-day hospital stay for mosquito-borne illness. Her husband's own health issues. Her father's broken leg. The deaths of six friends.
Bitterness was readily available. All Rhode had to do was let it in.
 Perspective prevented that door from swinging open.
For all that's been thrown at her, Rhode still has a healthy son, has herself on the slow road to recovery and will be joined by her family as she attempts to make history at the Rio Olympics next month.  "You just have to be thankful for what you have and know that there are people out there that have it worse, that are going through tougher times and just look at the positives in it," said Rhode, who turns 37 on Saturday. "I feel very, very thankful of where I'm at."
Rhode is one of the greatest athletes not just in Olympic shooting, but any sport.
She won double-trap gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as a 17-year-old senior from El Monte (Calif.) Arroyo High School. Bronze followed at Sydney in 2000, another gold in Athens four years later. Rhode took silver in skeet at the 2008 Beijing Games and gold again, this time in skeet, at London in 2012.   Rhode is the first American athlete in an individual sport to earn a medal in five straight Olympics. She is the only woman to win three Olympic golds in shooting.
At Rio, she will be the first American to qualify for Olympics on five different continents and has a chance to join Italian luger Armin Zoeggeler as the only athletes to earn a medal in six straight Olympics. She also has 14 national championships and 28 World Cup medals, most all-time.
But Rhode's road hasn't always been easy.
Heading into the 2012 London Games, Rhode had two major setbacks: A breast cancer scare and the theft of her $15,000 shotgun, "Old Faithful," which she had used in her first four Olympics.  Oh, and her dog ate her plane ticket less than a week before Opening Ceremonies. Her husband lost his passport.
No matter. Rhode has an innate ability to shut out distractions and had a singular focus in London.
Using her new gun despite the return of her old one - authorities found it while searching the home of a parolee - she tied a world record by hitting 99 of 100 skeet targets in qualifying and cruised to her third Olympic gold. She also finished ninth in trap and became the first shotgun shooter to compete in all three disciplines at the Olympics.
Adding a degree or two of difficulty, Rhode was pregnant in London and didn't know it.