Shining on the big stage
A teenage Casey Kaufhold entered her first Olympic competition at the Tokyo Games with no expectations put on her to win a medal.
Fast forward a few years later, Kaufhold was one of the favorites to stand on the podium at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and she did exactly that by winning bronze alongside Brady Ellison in the archery mixed team event.
Kaufhold, who’s now 20, was seen punching the air and yelling with joy the moment she and Ellison defeated India.
“That reaction to me explains everything how I felt about winning a medal,” Kaufhold told NBC Olympics. “Brady and I have worked so hard, not just individually but also as a pairing team. We’re both believers that everything happens for a reason. We qualified in a good spot that put us in a good bracket and we did our jobs. That reaction of us winning shows all the hard work we’ve put into it.”
SEE MORE: U.S. archery’s Brady Ellison, Casey Kaufhold bring home historic bronze
Kaufhold was the No. 1 world-ranked archer in 2023 and won silver in the women’s individual event at the 2021 World Championship. But when it comes to the Olympics, not everything is a guarantee.
Archery is a sport where the result of a match is decided by razor-thin margins, and athletes must be nearly perfect to defeat their opponents.
Kaufhold knows this, and she was unable to win a medal in the women’s individual or team events in Paris.
SEE MORE: U.S. women’s archery team falls to Chinese Taipei
She admitted not getting on the podium in any of the women’s events took a toll on her. But luckily, it was the people close to her that helped Kaufhold navigate those difficult moments.
“I want to live up to what I think others’ expectations are and that’s something that hurt my performance,” she said. “After I had lost my individuals and before mixed team day, my mom told me, ‘Don’t do it for anybody else but you, don’t go out there and try to perform for us, don’t try to perform for your coaches, for Team USA. Just do it for yourself.’ That was a big difference for me because after that, I wasn’t trying to win the medal for anybody else but me and sharing it with Brady.”
The new Olympic medalist also said Ellison gave her a pep talk, saying there’s very little time to be upset after being eliminated in the individual event and it’s more important to pick yourself up to get ready for the next competition.
Kaufhold’s resiliency to get her mindset back on track and win a medal proved to be a coming-of-age milestone in her career.
All of her accomplishments before Paris were key benchmarks to set her up for the major test – can the young star perform on the biggest stage?
“At only 20 years old to have my first Olympic medal is a great feeling,” Kaufhold said. “I think this is the start of something beautiful. To see that it’s taken all this time and hard work to get my first Olympic medal is awesome. This is definitely one of the biggest accomplishments of my career.”
Reflecting on her young career
Kaufhold has been competing in archery since she was 8. She credits her parents on making a siezable impact on her career in the sport.
The journey to winning an Olympic medal required 100% determination for Kaufhold. She decided to not go to college so she could have a career in archery. That was easier said than done as Kaufhold knew she had to compete at an elite level right away as a teenager to not only become one of the best but also live a good life.
“I’ve made a lot of choices that a lot of people my age wouldn’t make like leaving college to pursue archery more full-time,” she said. “I chose not to have a job outside of archery. I learned that in order to support myself, I’m going to have to win everything and that’s OK because archery is one of those sports where you got to be consistent to make a living at it.”
“That’s part of my motivation to do well,” Kaufhold added. “No matter what happens next, I’m just proud I took a chance on this because it was a goal of mine for so long.”
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