Ten shooters and support staff will take part in the tournament, part of the US National Fullbore Championships.

Whalen has been shooting since he was 15, but only returned to full international competition just over a year ago.

At Bisley in the UK, Whalen’s NSW team won every event they participated in except one second against 1100 of the world’s best shooters.

At the event’s conclusion Whalen was presented with a St George’s Cross and Queen’s Badge for finishing in the top 100 shooters.

He followed that up with an impressive performance at the World Individual Long Range Championships in Ottawa, Canada, where he was the only Australian shooter to finish with an individual medal, a bronze in the World Long Range competition and a world record sized group of 19mm for six shots at a thousand yards.

He also finished in the finals of the Canadian Championships winning a Presidents badge.

The Australian team won overall bronze in the “Palma”, the Teams event for the World Championships, its best result in 24 years. A month later Whalen won Gold in the Oceania Games with the highest over all individual score.

He is currently midway through selection trials for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India and is considering a switch in discipline to try out for the 2012 London Olympics.

“I’ve only really come back seriously in the last two years,” he said.

“We’re halfway through the Commonwealth Games selection process, 15 months of elimination competition before a year of training and practice.

“I’ve also had a few people trying to convince me to go to another discipline, one that is contested at the Olympics.”

The team competing at the Spirit of America tournament falls under the banner of the NRAA (National Rifle Association of Australia) and will be captained by George Wittorff from Bunbury, Western Australia. Shooters will compete in a number of individual events as well as the America Match for National teams on September 14.

“We have put together a very strong team which should perform extremely well in the US,” Mr Wittorff said.

“And the international spotlight will be on Australia in the lead-up to the World Rifle Shooting Championships, which will be hosted in this country for the first time in Brisbane in November 2011.”