TOKYO, Japan – With less than 24 hours to go until the start of the archery competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Team USA Archery’s veteran Olympians shared their first impressions of the venue. Overall, the team is upbeat, positive, and looking forward to a great start to the Games.
They’ve had a few chances to practice at the official practice field and each received 30 minutes of familiarization practice in the finals venue. One major difference between the Olympic Games and any other event is that every single match is shot in the finals venue, from the 1/32nd round on. Every match is shot one at a time, with alternate shooting, just like medal matches. So the pressure is on from the very beginning, if being on the Olympic stage didn’t carry enough pressure on its own.
Jacob Wukie, back for his second Games after winning a team silver in London, shared: “Familiarization went really well, we’ve been able to shoot in the stadium twice now at different times of day and different conditions. It’s a great setup and awesome to stand there and start putting together a game plan for competition day.”
Two-time Olympian Mackenzie Brown commented: “I’m feeling really good. It’s very warm, which reminds me of summertime at home in east Texas a bit. It’s a really nice venue, a little challenging as far as wind goes because there’s a wall behind us that we don’t typically have and there are buildings to the right, trees all around, and it’s challenging in the middle of the field where there are no wind indicators.”
Four-time Olympian and three-time medalist, World Champion Brady Ellison agreed: “Humidity hasn’t been too bad but picked up the other day and you could see the whole entire field starting to feel it. The finals field feels about 10 to 15 degrees hotter than the actual practice field, so that’s interesting.”
On the wind, Ellison added: “There’s a tricky wind that keeps switching left and right, left and right and it’s hard to see a lot of that. I’m expecting pretty good scores in the finals venue because the wind’s not too bad there; it picks up for sure but It’s a lot more manageable, so when the wind switches, you may not shoot 8s, might just shoot a 9 on those misses.”
Ellison predicts that unless the wind calms a good bit, it’s unlikely we’ll see the third straight Games with a world record qualification score. He currently holds the 70-meter record at 702 but says top scores tomorrow may come in around the 690s.
Brown has boasted some solid practice scores, including calling and shooting a perfect 60 her first night in the venue. She’s also excited her bow matches the stadium décor perfectly – it always adds some confidence when your gear is looking good and shooting well!
On general fun at the Games so far, she added the media chatter about the beds in the Village is a myth, and they’ve enjoyed great Japanese food. For the final night before competition, the team is planning a movie night at the athlete resource center and prioritizing sleep.
Follow Team USA in qualification via live scores, and tune in for video streaming of all matches, beginning with the introduction of the mixed team event this weekend in Tokyo. Photos courtesy of World Archery and @mackbrown14 on Instagram.
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