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Archery

Paris 2024: History-maker Mariana Zuniga’s training keeps her on target

February 27, 2024 by Tara S

By AMP Media | For the IPC

Chilean Paralympic archer Mariana Zuniga was 10 years old when she watched the animated movie “Brave”, where the main character, a young Scottish princess named Merida, uses a bow and arrow.  

“There was this iconic scene where Merida puts one arrow after the other like Robin Hood, and that scene made me fall in love. I told my mom that I wanted to experience that,” Zuniga, 21, said. 

She had tried out wheelchair tennis before but not really fallen for it. Archery was love at first sight, and Zuniga was good. When she was 19 years old, she won the individual compound W2 silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. 

Para archer Mariana Zuniga holding up her silver medal on the podium
Zuniga celebrates her historic silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics © Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images


She was the first Chilean archer to compete at the Paralympics. Her medal was the first won by an archer from the Americas in the compound open women’s category. 

“Tokyo was a surprise,” Zuniga said. “We weren’t going to Tokyo expecting a medal. We were looking to gain experience, just living the experience of having qualified for the Paralympic Game And then the medal came.” 

Balancing act  

Today she combines psychology studies at a university in Chile’s capital Santiago with training five to six times a week and preparations for Paris 2024. 

Every day looks a little bit different as she is trying to fit those two sides of her life together.

“This semester I am studying in the mornings, so when I get up, I prepare things for the university and also for training because after studying I go to train,” she said. 

It always, though, starts with an alarm clock.

“I would love to be able to wake up with my biological clock. But that’s impossible because I really like to sleep.”  

Where many people get over that morning tiredness with a cup of coffee, Zuniga does not. “I feel like it makes me shiver. My pulse goes up, and of course, especially on training days, that’s not good for the precision,” she said, adding that her breakfasts are usually rather all about eggs. 

When she is not training, she can allow herself some caffeine. “If I’m at home on the weekend and have nothing to do, then I might have a cup of coffee.” 

She likes to cook but she prefers it when it is simple. She either prepares something to eat at home – “usually something Latin” – or eats at the university after her morning classes are over. 

“They always sell good dishes there, for example salads that are very complete and dishes with carbohydrates, with proteins. There I also buy some snacks for the afternoon. After that I start with my bow assembly.” 

Before she arrives at the training ground, she has already put together her archery gear. She lives 45 minutes from the range, so every minute saved between practice and university is valuable. Assembling the equipment takes about five minutes. 

“I get to the field and start the warm-up, beginning with a joint movement, moving the arms, in different directions,” Zuniga said. 

“Then I do a little warm-up with an elastic band, and then I start the training.” 

Perfecting technique  

She admits she does not have a stretching programme, but always does the same movements including stretching the shoulder blades, neck and torso. 

And it works. Zuniga says she has never had any serious injuries. She only feels a little pain in her chest and in the trapezius muscle in her upper back when she gets a massage at the end of the week. 

Female Para archer Mariana Zuniga smiling while holding her bow
Zuniga trains five to six times a week while also studying at university © Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images


What she does in training depends on where in the season she is, and in what stage of competition she is in. 

“If we were closer to an event, we are only polishing details of the technique. It depends a lot,” she said. 

“When I for example need to polish a very specific technical aspect, I stay short, usually three metres from the target. There are times when I spend a whole week shooting from three metres.” 

“Archery is a sport in which one is always learning and unlearning. One can return to a technical aspect or improve something that I worked on, for example, three years ago.” 

A general training session lasts for three to four hours. Zuniga likes to train shooting from 70 metres.  

“It is a challenge to hit the target from further away and it is also part of the exercise to polish the timing of the shot,” she said. 

“I like it a lot, that exercise feels like a very different sensation. It’s like that thing of wanting to be more accurate when shooting.” 

Some training days she has been shooting at 18 metres, another competition distance.  

“I generally tend to be more slick when shooting at close range than at long range. Yes, there I don’t know what the principle is, but I think that maybe when one is closer all the movements become a little smaller,” she said. 

Para archer Mariana Zuniga pulls back her arrow ready to shoot
Zuniga’s training session last for between three and four hours per day © OIS


Zuniga also goes to the gym about twice a week. “There my physical coach does different exercises with dumbbells, with a ball, elastic, and co-ordination exercises. I’m terrible at co-ordination exercises,” she said. 

“We increase the load, depending on the period. And there we also work with specific muscle groups, depending on what my coaches see in the actual shooting practice.”  

In archery it is important to be physically strong:  “The main muscles that one – hopefully I – should have super good all the time are the triceps,” she explained. 

“The triceps give us a lot of stability in the arm that supports the bow, and that means an improvement in aiming.” 

But working on her strength has not always been a favourite activity for the young archer.  

“At first I hated it because I didn’t train with the gym coach but my coach who watches over my archery. He did the exercises for me and they were only elastic band exercises,” she said. 

Feeling like she was getting nowhere, she started training at a gym with her teammates, and loved it. ”Especially those days when, for example, I’m more stressed about university or things like that. I get to the gym and throw out all my energy and it’s clearing up a little,” she said. 

Dreaming of Paris 

After training, Zuniga goes back home to take care of the homework from university and other housekeeping. She has dinner – “usually something Latin” – and spends some time with her family and boyfriend. The same goes for Sundays, which are usually training-free. Zuniga’s boyfriend is also an athlete, so they also get to see each other at training, to which her parents drive her. 

Her close connection to her family is also something that made her recognise herself in Merida in “Brave”. 

“The movie shows a lot about the protagonist’s relationship with her mother. My mother has also been fundamental in my personal and sporting process, she has always been the one who has supported me in everything,” she said. 

At around 11pm she goes to sleep, ready to repeat it all the next day, over again until this summer’s Games. That is where her focus is right now. After that alarm clock rings, her dreams are about winning another medal, perhaps one in gold. 

“I think that whenever an athlete goes to a mega event or tournament in general, he or she always dreams of reaching the podium. If not, I wouldn’t be there,” Zuniga said. 

Filed Under: Archery, Athlete Spotlight, Paralympics

Hyundia World Archery Cup: Williams Tops Ellison In All-American Final; Kaufhold Claims Women’s Crown

October 27, 2021 by Tara S

With the Hyundai World Archery Cup held on U.S. soil for the first time, it was appropriate the men’s title match was an All-American affair.

Jack Williams of California won a shootout over Brady Ellison of Arizona for the gold medal Thursday at Riverside Park, the last two standing from among the division’s eight best men in the world.

Their finale not only guaranteed gold for the U.S. but also marked the first time that the host nation has won the World Archery Cup.

Williams said he felt great about his performance, and winning the gold medal in an All-American final on U.S. soil made it that much sweeter.

“For something like that to happen for the first time, and for me to be that person, is amazing,” he said. “For an archery tournament, this was a really good crowd, and it was great to have all these people cheering for us.”

The two men weren’t the only ones making history for the United States while in Yankton. Last week, Casey Kaufhold of Pennsylvania claimed silver in the women’s recurve at the World Archery Championships, the highest finish in 33 years for a U.S. woman in a world championship. On Thursday, she returned for the World Cup finals and fell just short of another medal.

And she’s only 17 years old.

“It feels really good to win the silver medal, and it makes it even more special to win it in your home country,” she said. “It felt wonderful to have people here supporting me. I have my coach and a lot of teammates here, cheering me on. It was a great atmosphere, and I’m super happy to win.”

[Read more…] about Hyundia World Archery Cup: Williams Tops Ellison In All-American Final; Kaufhold Claims Women’s Crown

Filed Under: AOTM, Archery, Athlete Spotlight, Women in Sports, Women's Sports Tagged With: casey Kaufhold

Meet the Athletes: Casey Kaufhold

October 27, 2021 by Tara S

Casey Kaufhold Shooting an Arrow

Casey Kaufhold is a 17-year-old archer looking to make her Olympic debut. She won bronze in the women’s individual recurve event at the 2019 Pan American Games and took gold in the mixed team event paired with veteran Brady Ellison. She also won gold in the women’s team event.

As part of our preparation for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, NBC Olympics sent questionnaires to a wide range of athletes to learn more about their lives on and off the field of play. 

Here’s some of what we found out about Casey Kaufhold:

Tell us about your family.
My parents, Robert and Carole Kaufhold, own Lancaster Archery Supply. My dad has an archery background and made two national field teams for the U.S. My [older] brother, Conner, is also involved in archery. He also likes to hunt and fish.

What’s a typical training day like?
I train during outdoor season about four to five hours each day, and for indoors I practice three to five hours a day. I sleep about eight hours, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

What’s your favorite workout?
I like doing cardio like running, swimming, or biking. I’ll go on runs with my coach and we will race each other on the way back.

What’s the most grueling workout you’ve ever done?
When I used to do gymnastics, we would have workout days during our camps and the hardest circuit we did was a five-minute dead hang on bars and then a two-minute wall handstand followed by 20 leg lifts from a dead hang again.

What’s your first memory of archery?
My earliest memory of me doing archery is when I used to do compound archery. I was on a 3D target course and I had to “sneak up” or move closer to the targets because my bow didn’t shoot the length of the full distance. I think that memory was when I was 5 years old. I liked archery because it was so different from any other sport I had ever tried. I wanted to dedicate my life to it when I placed top three in my first national senior outdoor event.

What’s your earliest memory of watching the Olympics?
The first memory of me watching the Olympics was when Simone Biles, a U.S. gymnast, went to her first Games is 2016. At the time I wanted to go to the Olympics for gymnastics. I definitely wanted to do something I loved in a setting that big.

Is there anything you wish you could change about your sport?
I wish that archery had the rushing feeling of performing like gymnastics or figure skating does. I miss the way performing for the crowd and how moving to the music felt in gymnastics. I wish a part of archery could give me that same feeling of exhilaration.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve overcome?
In order to participate in the 2020 Olympics, I had to begin competing at 70 meters at 14 years of age. I skipped over valuable competition years at 50 and 60 meters in order to achieve my goals.

What’s your music of choice while training?
My go-to song before a competition is “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. I like a lot of older music. My top five songs on my playlist are “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” by Paul Anka, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass, “Careless Whisper” by George Michael, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye, and “My Girl” by The Temptations.

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Filed Under: AOTM, Archery, Athlete Spotlight, Olympics, Women in Sports, Women's Sports Tagged With: casey Kaufhold

17-YEAR-OLD ARCHER CASEY KAUFHOLD’S SILVER ENDS 33-YEAR MEDAL DROUGHT AT WORLDS

September 27, 2021 by Tara S

Casey Kaufhold Wins Silver at Worlds

By Karen Price | TEAM usa

The world may not belong to archer Casey Kaufhold yet, but the keyword there is yet.

On Sunday, the 17-year-old who is coming off her first Olympic appearance won the silver medal at the World Archery Championships in Yankton, South Dakota. It’s the first women’s medal at the world championships for the U.S. in 33 years. She lost to Korea’s Jang Minhee 6-0 in the final.

“I literally thought of it as I have nothing to lose,” Kaufhold told USA Archery. “I’m 17 and I’ve only been shooting international tournaments for, like, three years so why hold back? I put everything out there, didn’t hold back pretty much and that was my main goal, to leave it all out there on the stage.” 

On the men’s side, Brady Ellison didn’t get the opportunity to defend his world title after losing in the semifinal but held on in windy conditions later in the day to defeat Olympic champion Mete Gazoz of Turkey for the bronze medal 6-2.

Ellison, ranked No. 1 in the world, was looking to become the first man ever to repeat as recurve world champion but lost in an upset to Marcus D’Almeida of Brazil in a semifinal tiebreaker. Ellison competed at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 for the fourth time this summer but failed to medal for the first, finishing seventh overall. 

Ellison, Jack Williams, and Matthew Nofel did win the recurve men’s team gold final against Olympic champions Korea earlier this weekend.

For Kaufhold, a teenager from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, appearing in her first world championship final, it was another big step in her rise in the sport. 

Earlier this year she broke the under-21 world record in the 72-arrow, 70-meter qualification round the Olympic Trials, becoming the first in the junior age group to shoot higher than 680. She scored 682 out of 720 points, beating Korean An San’s record of 678 set in 2019. She made the Olympic team and finished 17th overall. 

On Sunday, she scored a major upset in the semifinals, knocking off the Olympic gold medalist and the woman whose under-21 record she broke back in May, San, by a score of 6-2.

Unfortunately, Kaufhold struggled with consistency in the gold medal match and trailed Minhee 4-0 going into the third set. Both archers shot nines to start things off, but Kaufhold shot another nine on her second arrow and Minhee responded with a 10. A second 10 finished things off and Minhee claimed the world title.

Karen Price

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.

Filed Under: Archery, Athlete Spotlight, Team USA, Women's Sports

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