Athletes that compete professionally: archery at the Olympics from 1996 to 2020
The biggest Olympics ever held were hosted in North America in 1996. Tennis, track cycling, and archery were all competed in Stone Mountain Park, a beautiful location 15 miles outside of Atlanta. Olympic fans can buy Olympic Archery Tickets from our website.
Instead of its legacy of sporting prowess, the larger event is likely best remembered for its gaudy commercialization (which ultimately led to the rigorous branding laws still in place today), a few organizing missteps, and a terrorist attack.
But one of the biggest surprises in Olympic history was revealed at the archery competitions. The first qualification and quota system was implemented in Atlanta when 128 archers—64 men and 64 women—were set as the maximum number. As a result, archery became one of the first Olympic sports to feature equal gender representation.
All 72 arrows in the qualifying round were shot at 70 meters, cutting the original round of 144. After qualifying, match play began in the competition. In the first three rounds, individual matches were decided by total scores over 18 arrows, while quarterfinals were decided by total scores over 12 arrows.
The top seeds were Italian Michele Frangilli and Ukrainian Lina Herasimenko. With 684 points, Frangilli set a new Olympic record and was considered the favorite. A San of Korea eventually won three gold medals in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, breaking Herasimenko’s astonishing record of 673 which had astonishingly stood as an Olympic record for 25 years.
Justin Huish, who barely made it onto the USA team as the third man, was one archer about whom nothing was anticipated. He was a 19-year-old man wearing wraparound sunglasses, a ponytail, earrings, and a reverse baseball cap. He resembled a skateboarder more than an archer.
Huish’s parents ran an archery business, but he had never exhibited much enthusiasm for it and had thought it was “boring” until he took up a bow at the age of 14 and discovered he was talented at it.
I could make the Olympic team eventually, [US coach] Lloyd Brown told me from one of the first few times I met him, he said in 2021. I simply made fun of him. Huish, who was coached by Brown, competed in the 1992 US Olympic trials but came in well behind schedule.
“I just never compared myself to Jay Barrs, Darrell Pace, and all the greats in that situation. At the moment, I just didn’t think I could ever defeat them,” he said. But I began to shoot the same numbers as those guys in 1993.
Huish relocated to Chula Vista in 1995 to pursue full-time training at the Olympic training facility, which had just established a residential program for archers. He claimed, “I didn’t know what I was doing with my life, so I filled out an application form. “I knew I wanted to shoot, but I still didn’t think it was possible to qualify for the Olympics.”
Rod White and Butch Johnson, two other residential athletes, as well as Huish, who at one point all shared a room, hunkered down and put in the work to win the national championships in 1996. The US team for the home Games in Atlanta would eventually be made up of the three guys.
The boisterous Californian adolescent grabbed media attention in the run-up to the Olympics, and Huish even made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
“I just didn’t want to lose that first match; the questions were about getting gold medals. The rest would just be gravy,” remembered Justin. One thing is making the Olympic team. However, how about actually succeeding at the foolish thing? No way, I mean! Olympic fans can buy Paris Olympic 2024 Tickets from our website.
The teenager qualified for the Stone Mountain qualifying round with a good ninth seed despite having no prior international success. Huish rushed into the men’s field and started to tear it apart with domestic support behind him. In the video of the event, you can see him gaining self-assurance with each battle and victory while being encouraged by the home fans.
The thought crossed my mind, ‘Hey, I’m an Olympian. Just for the experience, I’m here. In any case, I had already dramatically exceeded my expectations, so I think it helped to alleviate any pressure I was putting on myself. It simply had a national vibe, he remarked.
Out of all 10,300+ athletes competing in the Games, Huish had somehow, by some strange twist of fate, been given the number one as his athlete identity.
“Everything that occurred was exactly as intended. I had the impression that even if I had fired my arrow in the opposite way or behind the target, it would still have boomeranged back and struck the 10-ring. I felt as though I was perfect.
Huish defeated six opponents in a row before overcoming Sweden’s Magnus Peterson to win the gold medal in the last double shoot-off of the tournament. Fragile was the top seed and the fan favorite.
His entire universe just blew up.
Despite needing to get up at seven the following morning to cover the men’s team eliminations, Justin didn’t conclude the round of media interviews until it was three in the morning. (In 1996, on the final day of play, both the men’s and women’s team finals were shot.)
It was simply a frenzy, so I probably should have said, “No, I can’t do all these things. Huish admitted, “I didn’t know any better.
Even though Huish claims his teammates carried him through the first two matches while he was worn out, the US men’s team—composed of Justin, Rod, and Butch—rose to the occasion. He mustered the strength to eventually compete in the gold medal match against the Korean men.
Huish said, “When I needed to come through, I did.”
Although there was some nerve-racking measuring needed in the end, the three eventually defeated Korea by two points after shooting 251 points in all four rounds of match play in the then-27-arrow contests.
Although they also won back-to-back silver medals in the competition in 2012 and 2016, the US men’s team gold in Atlanta remains their only medal in the Games to date. As the first male archer to ever win both an individual and a team gold medal at the same Games, Huish made history. Unmatched until Ku Bonchan in 2016, it wouldn’t be. Huish is still the only non-Korean archer to win several gold medals at the same Olympics.
Atlanta was already home to many Korean ladies. Kim Kyung Wook won the individual gold, and the women’s team won the team competition for the third time in a row.
Huish was surrounded by a media frenzy that persisted for a while.
“Archery receives zero love in the US,” he remarked. They only really cover baseball, the NBA, and the NFL; they don’t cover any other sports.
“But because I wasn’t your stereotypical [archery] athlete and had the ponytail, hat on backward, and sunglasses, it carried over quite a bit into the mainstream media. Typically, USA Today’s fourth page might feature a mention of you. I received all the major interviews and was on the first page.
“I got to ride with Vice President Gore from the basketball game to the closing ceremony, go to a lot of things that would normally be left for the guy who wins the 100-meter dash,” the athlete said.
Up until 2000, when his career and life abruptly changed, Huish remained a member of the US squad. After being discovered selling marijuana, he withdrew from the Sydney Olympics and was later given a four-month prison sentence and a two-year suspension from the sport.
After almost 20 years, Huish returned to competitive recurve archery, making his way up the ranks and around the US circuit. He hasn’t yet ruled out competing in a potential second Game. For many people, the Olympic rings represent the summit of a mountain. Some people have been training since they were four years old and have devoted their entire lives to it, according to Huish. “However, there can be two different routes to take. I guess I took some of the side roads.
Justin Huish embodied the lucky amateur in many ways. He appeared seemingly out of nowhere, put on one of the most spectacular performances ever witnessed on the Olympic stage, and was subsequently thrown into increasingly professional limelight. The role of an Olympic Champion, even an Olympian, stretched far beyond the competition field after a century of strict amateurism in the Games.
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