Archery | From amateur gymnast to Olympic archer

(Paris) In competition, Virginie Chénier is used to shooting her arrows at targets set up in fields. Here, in Paris, she performs on a field set up between the Grand Palais and the Hôtel des Invalides. There are worse things.

“I noticed yesterday that we could see the Eiffel Tower above the field,” noted the Quebecer, pointing to the tip of the iconic monument on Thursday morning. I’ve been looking for it for two days and I notice that it’s pretty obvious! […] The competition location is just wow.”

Technically, the Games have not yet started. But in a few disciplines, competitions begin even before the official opening ceremony. This is the case with archery. A sport that, let’s be honest, most of the time falls through the cracks when it comes to media coverage.

So we headed to Les Invalides on Thursday morning to meet the Lavalloise… and attend our first archery competition ever. There’s always a first time for everything, as the saying goes.

If Chénier is “a very introverted person,” according to her very likeable coach and former Olympian, Ron van der Hoff, she seemed rather at ease when meeting the three Quebec print media outlets present on site, Thursday. That’s because she’s trying to adopt a different approach for her first Olympic adventure.

“I set myself personal goals to get out of my comfort zone. I told myself: if I see athletes that I really admire, I’m going to come out of my bubble, go talk to them, ask for a little photo.”

Here, the archer mainly refers to gymnasts, which is not surprising when you know her background…

The third attempt

At the age of 5, Chénier was practicing gymnastics. From the moment she set foot on a mat, she dreamed of one day representing her country at the Olympic Games.

“In gymnastics, you decide early; I was already in the ‘no, you won’t go to the Olympics’ branch,” she says with a smile. “I was more destined for the national level, but we still dream…”

When she changed sports, she had only one thing in mind: “It has to be one where I can get to the Olympics.”

“That’s also why I do Olympic archery, because compound isn’t in the Games,” she said. “It wasn’t even a question when I was choosing what type of bow I was going to shoot.”

For the Rio Games in 2016, she was the second alternate for the Canadian team. For the Tokyo Games in 2021, COVID-19, injuries and psychological challenges prevented her from qualifying.

The third try was finally the right one.

A good start

For the qualification round, the 64 archers had to shoot 12 ends of six arrows over a distance of 70 meters. This then determined the 32 matches for the single-elimination tournament.

After a difficult first volley of 51 points which placed her at 49^e rank, the Quebecer slowly climbed the slope. After the third volley, she turned to her coach with a smile, a sign that things had settled down. She occupied the 38^e rank halfway through the qualifying round.

Chénier finally concluded the qualifications at 33^e rank… her fifth best result of the season! Her coach was telling us, before the start of the competition, that she was aiming to qualify among the top 40. She succeeded.

In terms of results, Chénier and Van Der Hoff have the same message: it is not realistic to talk about an individual medal.

“We know magic can happen, but for now we’re just curious and watching what happens,” says Van Der Hoff, who points out that archery is “80 percent mental.”

What’s really cool, too, is that she’s living her dream. It’s as if the photo of the Eiffel Tower she put up above her bed in 2013 was a prophecy.

“Without really thinking about it, it just so happened that it was meant to be. »