LIMA, Peru – A team of 17 athletes from the USA are in South America for the 2026 Para Pan American Championships, which run from Wednesday until Sunday.
Among those representing the United States is Travis Wyatt, who will make his international debut in the W1 men’s division. He will compete alongside Jason Tabansky and Ryan Lindstrom, who have made their way to Peru from Chile where they last weekend struck gold at the Hyundai World Archery Para Series in Santiago. The pair won the W1 doubles title, before Tabansky took individual honors.
“I was blessed to connect with Jason and Ryan over the 2025-2026 winter, and they helped me learn the W1 side of the house,” commented Wyatt. “I worked on a new shot process and had to learn a lot about recurve bows and that helped me massively. Then it was getting out and shoot.”
A Navy veteran, 45-year-old Wyatt (pictured) first took up the sport competitively in April, 2022. Within four months he was winning gold at the DoD Warrior Games in Orlando. From there, Wyatt began outdoor 50m archery in 2023 as an Open Compound. It was a para world ranking event in Chicago last year that he became a W1.
He added, “I’m feeling good. I’ve worked hard this year to meet new challenges and keep being able to do this sport. I met my archery goal in August this year to hit my W1 MQS (minimum qualifying score), achieving it twice at Target Nationals.”
The U.S. team in Lima also includes KJ Polish and Karen Sternfeld. Polish won gold in compound para men and Sternfeld bronze in recurve para women, also at the World Para Series in neighboring Chile.
Wyatt is surrounded by teammates with plenty of experience. The four who competed in Chile aside, the team also includes Paralympic archers, Tracy Otto (W1 women) and Jordan White (para recurve men). Others with vast international experience include Candice Caesar (para recurve women), Catalina Bustamante, Wendy Gardner, Brandi Iannoli (all para compound women) and Ben Thompson (para compound men).
Wyatt said, “My new expectations are to learn more about the international side and keep honing my skills to make the elite score.
“It really is a blessing to keep being able to represent USA through adaptive sports but I also have to remember to not put too much pressure on myself, especially since I have not been in the sport for very long.”
Not only are medals on offer but so too are slots for next year’s Para Pan American Games, which will also be held in Lima, Peru.
The top three doubles in the recurve and compound divisions will win two spots for their country. The highest ranked athletes in each individual medal event (excluding those that win doubles positions) will each obtain a maximum one qualification slot.
There are three individual slots available in W1 Men, W1 Women, Compound Men and Recurve Men, with one slot up for grabs in Compound Women and Recurve Women. In all, 38 quota slots for the 2027 Para Pan Am Games will be awarded this week.
Tabansky arrives in Lima as the defending champion in W1 men having defeated Eugenio Santana Franco in the gold medal match in Brazil two years ago. Tracy Otto is set to defend her title, also. The pair won W1 mixed team gold. Since winning in 2024 in Sao Paulo, both Tabansky and Otto have made their Paralympic Games debut. There was also a recurve women team silver for Caesar and Sternfeld (pictured above).
You can follow the U.S. archers’ progress (SCORES) as they compete at the 2026 Para Pan American Championships involving 91 athletes from 13 nations.
|
Catalina Bustamante |
Para Compound Women |
|
Candice Caesar |
Para Recurve Women |
|
Kimberly Garcia |
W1 Women |
|
Wendy Gardner |
Para Compound Women |
|
Brandi Iannoli |
Para Compound Women |
|
Ryan Lindstrom |
W1 Men |
|
Michael Minard |
Para Recurve Men |
|
Tracy Otto |
W1 Women |
|
Timothy Palumbo |
Para Recurve Men |
|
KJ Polish |
Para Compound Men |
|
Keith Sekora |
Para Compound Men |
|
Karen Sternfeld |
Para Recurve Women |
|
Jason Tabansky |
W1 Men |
|
Ben Thompson |
Para Compound Men |
|
Ephraim Tonn-Bourg |
Para Compound Men |
|
Jordan White |
Para Recurve Men |
|
Travis Wyatt |
W1 Men |
< Back to All News
