10 athlete committee nominees announced

At every World Archery Championships that directly precedes an Olympic Games, a new athletes committee is elected to represent international competitors in the sport in World Archery’s governance. 

Member associations nominate athletes then it is put to the vote. 

Archers at the championships vote for their category’s representative to the committee: one each from the recurve men, recurve women, compound men and compound women. 

In 2015, the nominees are…

Recurve men 

1) Oh Jin Hyek  

Reigning Olympic Champion Oh Jin Hyek gave a rare insight into his unique archery technique earlier in 2015. He has three world championship gold medals – in team and mixed team events – and came second individually at the last two! 

2) Juan-Rene Serrano  

Juan-Rene’s best international results came at the end of 2007 with Archery World Cup Final silver and into the Beijing Olympics – where, in 2008, he qualified first and finished just out of the medals, in fourth. 

Recurve women 

1) Naomi Folkard

After having missed only a couple of Archery World Cup stages ever, Naomi is also a three-time Olympian who has collected multiple European podiums. She is the current World Games recurve women’s champ, a title contested in field archery. 

2) Viktoriya Koval 

Chairperson of the althetes committee and member of the World Archery Executive Board until the vote in Copenhagen, Koval was a 2008 Olympian and came second at the Archery World Cup Final in 2010. 

3) Celine Schobinger  

Twenty-five year-old Schobinger, who shoots for Switzerland, has previously won the Indoor Archery World Cup stage in Nimes – and now represents the club at events within France – while studying in her home country. 

Compound men 

1) Pierre-Julien Deloche  

World number one PJ has two huge individual silver medals in the last few years: Paris 2013 – the Archery World Cup Final – and Belek 2013, the last worlds.

2) Reo Wilde  

Winner of the first Archery World Cup Final in 2006, Reo has one of the longest medal rolls of any athlete still competing – 16 individual podiums on the circuit! 

Compound women 

1) Ivana Buden

Medallist at the 2013 worlds, where she came second, Croatia’s Ivana Buden has been active in field as well as target archery – both indoors and outdoors. She also came third at the World Cup Final in 2009 – in Copenhagen. 

2) Albina Loginova  

Two-time world champion and one-time world runner-up Loginova has been at the top of compound women’s competition since she made her international debut in 2006. 

3) Linda Ochoa  

Member of the athletes committee from 2011-15, Linda has been shooting internationally since 2002 and is one of the sports most familiar faces from Latin America. Fun fact: every single individual World Cup podium she’s climbed has been in Shanghai.