MEDELLIN, Colombia – The push for places at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris moves to South America this week and the Pan American Archery Championships, which get underway on Wednesday.
There will be 10 quota places available for the Olympic Games, with six of those being awarded to the team winners. There are also four on offer from the individual event, though as the USA has already won at least one quota slot they are not eligible to compete.
The USA’s recurve team is represented by Gabe Anderson, Brady Ellison, Jackson Mirich and Jack Williams on the men’s side, with Catalina GNoriega, world number one Casey Kaufhold, Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez and Molly Nugent competing on the women’s side (pictured above).
If Mexico’s recurve women win gold in the team event, then the quota slots will go to the silver medalists.
As well as the recurve event, which has Olympic ramifications, there is also barebow and compound competition.
The compound men consist of Eli Bartron, Steve Marsh, K.J. Polish and Isaac Sullivan. The compound women archers are Liko Arreola, Olivia Dean, Carson Krahe and Alexis Ruiz.
Bartron was silver medalist in compound U21 men at last week’s Arizona Cup, whereas 17-year-old Dean took gold in the compound (senior) women. Sullivan finished fourth in the compound (senior) men. Polish was a double gold medalist at last year’s Para Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile. Ruiz claimed a gold and two silvers at the Pan Am Games.
And, while there are Olympic quota slots to be won in recurve, there are three spots up for grabs in both the men's and women's compound categories for the World Games. A country can only win a maximum of two spots in each gender.
In barebow, there are defending champions returning for this edition of the Pan Am Championships, among them Arizona Cup champion Marcus Cooley and Christina Lyons (pictured center).
Lyons was a triple gold medalist two years ago, winning individual gold in barebow women, as well as enjoying women’s team and mixed team success. Cooley was among the gold medal-winning trio of Matt Yacca and Rick Stonebraker which set a new world record on their way to barebow men team gold. Cooley also claimed individual silver.
The barebow archers representing the United States this week include Kari Caulfield, Patrick Fisk, Arizona Cup winner Johana Czako, Amy Rayner-Cooley, Matthew Seidemann and Binh Tran.
There will be 206 archers competing in Colombia in the coming days, from a total of 23 countries. Individual matches begin on Wednesday morning, with team matches starting in the afternoon. The recurve team gold medal matches take place on Saturday.
The Final Qualification Tournament will be held with World Cup Stage 3 in Turkey in June. Remaining quota slots will then be allocated to the host nation and other countries based on team world rankings in June. (Read the 2024 Olympic Games Qualification System).
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