Colorado Springs, CO – Fittingly, the Final Nomination Shoot for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Archery will take place just miles from USA Archery’s national headquarters and the U.S. Olympic Training Center, on June 1-3.
The top sixteen Olympic hopefuls – eight men and eight women – will compete at The Grace Center, 1655 Pirate Heights, Colorado Springs, CO 80907. Competition will be hot at this final installment in the three-event U.S. Olympic Team Trials process, with five Olympians and several World Champions competing. Just three men and three women will secure the hotly contested nominations to the Olympic Team.
Archers to watch on their respective roads to London include number-one world ranked male recurve athlete Brady Ellison (Payson, AZ) – the only archer in history to win three consecutive World Cup stages and two consecutive World Cup titles. “Hunger Games” archery coach and four-time Olympian Khatuna Lorig (West Hollywood, CA) will also take to the field.
Throughout the three-event Trials process, archers earn and accumulate ranking points thanks to performances in three types of events: individual ranking rounds, individual elimination rounds, and individual round robin match play. Archers also earn bonus points for their three-arrow average scores. Points are cumulative and carried over to each event.
Heading into the Final Nomination Shoot, Ellison leads the men’s field by a solid margin. Jake Kaminski (Buffalo, NY), ranked eleventh in the world and a Pan Am Games team gold medalist, is in the second spot with a healthy lead, though with lots of points at stake in this event, it’s still very much anyone’s game. 2008 Olympic Team Alternate Jacob Wukie (Oak Harbor) currently occupies the third spot.
Close behind Wukie are World Cup gold medalist Joe Fanchin (Oceanside, CA) and five-time Olympian and Olympic team gold and bronze medalist Butch Johnson (Woodstock, CT). Dan Schuller (Mercer, PA), Thomas Stanwood (Middleboro, MA) and three-time Olympian and silver medalist Vic Wunderle (Mason City, IL) round out the men’s top eight.
On the women’s side, World Archery Indoor Championships silver medalist Miranda Leek (Des Moines, IA) is leading the pack. Leek is followed by two-time Olympian Jennifer Nichols (Cheyenne, WY) and Lorig, all of whom are looking for the top spot – currently, just one women’s spot is qualified for London, though the U.S. has hopes of qualifying a full women’s team in June.
USA Archery Resident Athletes Heather Koehl (Sheboygan Falls, WI) and Kristin Braun (Los Angeles, CA) hold the fourth and fifth positions, while Lori Cieslinski (Howell, MI), Mackenzie Brown (Tyler, TX) and Holly Stover (Brighton, MI) complete the top eight.
Complete event information, including a detailed schedule, can be accessed at http://www2.teamusa.org/USA-Archery/Events/2012/June/01/US-Olympic-Team-Trials-Third-Nomination-Shoot.aspx. The event is free and open to the public, and spectators are encouraged to attend the competition, which begins at 8:00 a.m. on June 2 and 3 and continues until approximately 3 p.m. each day.
Members of the media are also encouraged to attend, and will be bound by the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Media Access Guidelines. Credentialing is available on-site.
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