A Pennsylvania archer who became the first United States female archer to win a medal in the Olympics in more than 35 years reflects on her Paris experience, including meeting one of her favorite NFL football players.
Casey Kaufhold, 20, of Lancaster, earned a bronze medal Aug. 2 in the mixed team event of the Paris Olympics with Brady Ellison, 35, of Billings, Montana.
The last time a United States woman received a medal in archery was in 1988 when the women’s team won a bronze medal at the Seoul Olympic Games.
“It feels really good. I think just knowing that I was the one to kind of break that drought feels really good and I think it’s hopefully something that will inspire other people to work hard and achieve something like that,” Kaufhold said Sunday in a video interview.
Ellison is someone she’s shot with at tournaments over the years and she has looked to him for advice at major events.
“It meant a lot to me to be able to medal with Brady. We’ve been shooting mixed teams for I think five years now. So this is definitely our biggest accomplishment as a team, so for it to be my first Olympic medal means a lot to me. He’s helped me a lot in my archery journey,” she said.
More: USA’s Casey Kaufhold, Brady Ellison win team archery bronze medal at Paris Olympics
She also placed 17th in the individual competition and ninth in the women’s team event with Catalina Gnoriega and Jennifer Mucino, both 21 and from the West Coast.
When Kaufhold stood on the podium with her medal, it finally sunk in what she has accomplished.
“It was just amazing. That’s a moment I’ve been dreaming of for a long time. Standing on the podium, getting that medal and wave to the crowd. That was such a surreal experience. It was hard for me actually. I couldn’t stop crying. It was so emotional, all the happy tears were coming out up there,” she remembered.
With the teammates living close to 2,000 miles apart, they practice together at competitions. “We practice our own technique and everything at home. But then once we are at competitions, on practice days we’ll practice our rotation and maybe do some matches against other teams for fun,” she explained.
Reflecting on the three events
“I think with the teams round, that was the first event we did. I think we were a little disappointed. I don’t think any of us shot how we would have liked to. But we took that as kind of getting experience being on the stage, feeling those nerves, getting used to the crowd. All that goes into shooting on an Olympic stage,” Kaufhold said.
Archers shoot recurve bows at targets that are 70 meters (more than 76 yards) away.
“During my individual matches, I felt like I shot OK. I had some moments where I would just get really shaky because of nerves or my shot going a little long. Sometimes, I was able to push through it and make a good shot and other times it would venture out into the eight (ring out of a possible 10 point score). It’s a lot easier when you’re staying in the yellow (9 and 10-point rings). After that, I was a little bit disappointed. That’s definitely not where I wanted to finish individually but I used that again, now I have another experience shooting on the stage, I know what I did wrong, I know what to fix and I felt like I did everything better during the mixed team,” she said.
It’s not an easy event to win. The last time a U.S. woman won an individual medal in archery was in 1976 at the Montreal, Quebec games.
Kaufhold said the weather was nice during the qualification round.
“The weather was super still, barely any wind. And actually, someone in the women’s division shot a world record.” (Korea’s Lim Sihyeon shot a world record of 694 points.) “The conditions were pretty great. During matches on-stage, since we were in a stadium, the wind tends to get a little swirly and inconsistent. So at times, it would be calm and other times it would pick up a little bit and be hard to gauge. But for the most part it was fairly calm. The crowd was a huge thing. There were 8,000 people in the stands, which for archery is a pretty large crowd, and that definitely took some getting used to as well,” she explained.
Getting ready for Paris: Pa. archer Casey Kaufhold may be first US woman in 48 years to medal in Olympic archery
Some of the crowd members included her parents, family and friends. Depending on the day, 10 to 12 of her family and friends were there rooting her on.
“It was really nice having my family there. It was something that I missed about the Tokyo experience,” she said.
Kaufhold also competed in the 2020 Olympics that were held in 2021 in Tokyo during the COVID-19 pandemic. No one could travel with her and the stands were empty to reduce the chances of the disease spreading.
Memorable moments
In Paris, she was able to get out with her entourage eat dinner and see the sights like the Eiffel Tower. Besides the competitions, she pointed out two other things that happened that will be remain memorable.
“The first one would be the first time I saw my family after winning the medal. I actually didn’t see them for about five hours,” she said about her obligations after the match. “So I didn’t see them for quite a long time after. I think that was just a long-awaited moment so it was really cool to share that with them,” she said about her parents Rob and Carole Kaufhold, owners of Lancaster Archery Supply, a world-renowned distributor of archery gear for target and 3-D shooting.
“The second one would be meeting Jason Kelce, (recently retired) Philadelphia Eagles center on the Eiffel Tower. That was pretty amazing. He was so nice to talk to. His wife, Kylie, was there as well. They were just nice people for being so high-profile celebrities. It was really nice to chat with them and take pictures,” Kaufhold, an avid Eagles fan and listener of Kelce’s New Heights podcast, said.
What’s next for Kaufhold?
She’s taking what she learned from Paris in stride and is already thinking about the next Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I did write a lot of notes to myself about my experiences and I think that’s something that’s so important to remember what happened, what you did that didn’t work and what you did that did work,” she said. “And being able to remember that and capitalize on it the next time.”
She’s already getting ready for her next match. On Monday, she left for Lubbock, Texas, to compete in a national archery shoot for her last outdoor competition of the season. In November and December, she will be involved in indoor competitions.
“I just want to thank everybody who has been following along with my story, my journey. It’s been great to see people in Lancaster have ‘Go Casey’ signs on their front lawns and I see American and Olympic flags, and billboards with ‘Congratulations Casey’ which is so cool. So I want to thank everybody for following along and cheering on not just me, but Team USA,” Kaufhold said.
She would like to see more people get involved in the sport as well.
“For anybody looking into archery, give it a try. It’s something that I fell in love with at a young age. It’s something so different. It’s not your usual soccer, football, swimming or basketball, it’s something so different and I think that’s what makes archery special,” she said.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website’s homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: What medals did Casey Kaufhold win in the Olympics?
