Olympic athletes have something to impress with their extraordinary physical abilities. Subjected to intensive training, they reach a high level, at a very young age for some. Even if it seems difficult, it is not impossible to get started in a sport that fascinates us on the screen these days, on the occasion of the Paris Games. For adults, it can even be an excellent idea. Today: archery.
“It’s a sport that has no age,” explains Brandon Xuereb, a member of the Canadian national archery team, who we met during a training session at the Club de tir à l’arc de Montréal (CTAM). Despite the echoing hubbub of the Claude-Robillard sports complex, we can hear the arrows whistling and cutting through the air before hitting their target, under the concentrated gaze of the few students of all ages present.
“The advantage of archery is that it is not a high-intensity sport, it is easy to learn at any age,” adds the man who has been a coach for almost 10 years. He has been practicing the sport for 17 years and dreams of one day qualifying for the Olympics, like his colleague and lover, Virginie Chénier, who is currently in Paris for the Games.
The difficulty of this sport comes from its complexity rather than its intensity, which makes it very accessible to adults. Even though it may be easier for an adult to understand some of the explanations related to the level of precision in muscle positioning and concentration.
“Letting go, relaxing, managing emotions, concentration, these are things that are perhaps easier to develop and apply in adulthood,” says Marc Ricard, who started archery at the age of 33. He had done it a few times in summer camps when he was a child, but it was in adulthood that his great interest in this sport developed. “To be efficient and precise, it is still demanding, you have to shoot hundreds of arrows per week. For a young person, repetition can make this sport less interesting.”
“As an adult, it’s not necessarily the ability that’s lacking, but the time, especially to develop endurance,” notes the 28-year-old coach, who won the bronze medal as a team in South Korea last May, a first for Canada at a World Cup. Equipment evolves with the endurance of its archer: bows intended for beginners have a draw weight of about 9 kilos (20 pounds), while in competition, we’re talking more like 27 kilos (60 pounds).
Within a few classes, the distance and size of the target quickly become more difficult. In a 10-week beginner session, the target can go from 3 to 15 meters away and get smaller, as the sport aims to always go “further, smaller.”
From “Lord of the Rings” to “The Hunger Games”
It is while viewing The Lord of the Rings that Brandon Xuereb and Marc Ricard wanted to try archery. “The popularity of the sport increases when movies are released that show archery. I’m from the generation Lord of the Ringsbut there were the Hunger Games, Bravethe Avengers, etc.,” Brandon Xuereb points out.
Films can really change the perception of the sport and attract a new wave of fans. He remembers seeing, especially after the Hunger Games, an increase in the number of women, sometimes with braids and dressed in black, joining his classes.
The coach notes that his beginner and intermediate classes fill up faster than his competitive classes. Archery is so popular that it attracts people from all walks of life and ages. His classes are mixed, because archery is one of the few sports where gender disparities are less.
For Marc Ricard, it was the mysterious side of this sport that he saw on screen that convinced him to take it up. “I also think that what interested me was the feeling of aiming, holding the bow, seeing the arrow go off to hit a target at a distance by having applied the right tension. It’s very physical.” It’s also an activity that he likes to do with his family. He practices it with his daughters in live-action role-playing games (LARP), with LARP arrows that have a foam tip.
“It’s an introspective, repetitive, detailed sport. […] “It’s really a sport that deserves to be better known,” believes Alexandre Gagnon, who started archery again about two years ago after doing it as a teenager. It’s largely the competitive aspect that he missed, and it allows him to get out of his routine, as he is the technical services coordinator for marine assets at Parks Canada.
An accessible sport
Brandon Xuereb, originally from Ontario, finds that various resources in Quebec, and in Montreal in particular, facilitate the practice of this sport up to a competitive level. Already, the fact that there are four shooting ranges in the greater Montreal area, compared to only one public outdoor range in Toronto, is a positive aspect.
Since arriving in Quebec last year, Brandon Xuereb has also noticed that the Montreal archery community is tight-knit, “because it’s quite small, even though there are several clubs. Most archers go to at least two or three shooting centres. You meet the same people, and it becomes easy to make friends.”
Even in a competitive environment, the introspective side of this sport fosters healthy competition and community spirit, explains Alexandre Gagnon, who is part of the provincial team. “We’re pushing against ourselves first and foremost. […] There is a great synergy between archers, even in competition.”
While the equipment can be quite expensive (a beginner’s bow costs between $500 and $800), given all the gadgets you can get to improve your performance, it lasts a long time.
The investment in equipment is recouped over years of practice and enjoyment. “An Olympic bow has no age,” says Brandon Xuereb, who says Canadian Olympians Jeannot Robitaille and Denis Canuel have been using the same bows for nearly 30 years. The longevity of the equipment and the ability to buy it used contribute to the accessibility of the sport.
There are different disciplines of the sport, including traditional (wooden) archery, compound archery, longbow (or barebow) and Olympic (or recurve) archery. The latter is the only one present at the Olympics, as the proposal to introduce compound archery at the 2028 Games was rejected. Brandon Xuereb is, however, hopeful that events at various venues (field or 3D archery, among others) will one day make their way to the Olympics.