Three-time Olympic medalist Brady Ellison and world No. 1 Casey Kaufhold won the U.S. Olympic Archery Trials and in Paris can become the first Americans to win an Olympic title in the sport since 1996.
Catalina GNoriega and Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez also made the team on the women’s side by finishing second and third at trials.
Trenton Cowles and Jack Williams, the second and third men at trials, will compete in Paris if the U.S. qualifies two more quota spots later this spring.
Five athletes also qualified for the Paris Paralympics at trials: 2012 silver medalist Matt Stutzman, Tracy Otto, KJ Polish, Eric Bennett and Jordan White, a 15-year-old who became the youngest U.S. archer to ever qualify for a Paralympics, according to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Ellison, 35, is set to tie the American archery record by competing in a fifth Olympics.
He took men’s team silver medals in 2012 and 2016, plus individual bronze in 2016.
Ellison entered the Tokyo Games ranked No. 1 in the world and lost in the quarterfinals to eventual gold medalist Mete Gazoz of Turkiye. He is now ranked No. 2 in the world behind Marcus D’Almeida of Brazil.
Kaufhold, 20, made her second Olympic team. In Tokyo, she was the youngest female archer from any country, plus the youngest U.S. Olympic archer since the 1988 Seoul Games, according to the OlyMADMen.
Kaufhold was eliminated in the round of 32 in her Olympic debut, then took silver at the world championships less than two months later.
Then last summer, Kaufhold became the first U.S. woman to claim the No. 1 world ranking since the rankings were created in 2001.
Ellison and Kaufhold could compete together in Paris in the mixed-gender team event, where each qualified nation fields one man and one woman.
The last time the U.S. won Olympic archery gold was at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Justin Huish, a ponytailed, backwards-cap wearing phenom, swept individual and team titles.
Huish, now 49 years old, competed at the trials for Paris and was eliminated before the final stage.
