Armless Archer Has Olympic Dreams

[cigaretteman]

Matt Stutzman prepares to fire a shot during a match in Richland. Stutzman, 28, of Richland, was born without arms and uses his foot and jaw to shoot. (AP)

When Matt Stutzman of Richland unzipped his bow case and began assembling his compound bow, it drew a lot of attention from some of the other shooters attending a target match sponsored by the Webster County Bow Hunters and Archery Association.
There is nothing special about Stutzman’s bow, nothing special about his case, nothing special about the sights or the tools he uses to put them together with and nothing extraordinary about his arrows. They are all off-the-shelf items that any archer can buy.
What was drawing their attention was how Stutzman was doing all of this — with his feet.
Stutzman, 28, was born without arms.
He began getting serious about his archery a few years ago. During the last year, he’s picked up several sponsors. He said he shoots at one major match a month and at least one smaller club match during the same time. He began shooting at 16.

Armless archer has Olympic aspirations | TheGazette

[VeloClone]

Armless archer has Olympic aspirations | TheGazette

I have a buddy who is missing most of one arm. Years ago he was a national champion caliber archer who came close to making an Olympic team, but I'm not sure if it was the Olympic or Paralympic team. He used a strap clenched between his teeth to draw and release the bow string. His biggest downfall was that the tourny was in Las Vegas. He came out of the first day of competition comfortably in first place. He spent the night between the two days of competition getting ripped with his buddies. By the time he was setting up for his third shot on the second day his spotter was already putting his scope away.

Whooops!