Building a bow… and ties

Four countries come together to keep Canadian in archery competition.

When Canada’s Brynnleigh Lohner first stepped onto the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games archery field she was missing a key piece of equipment: her bow.

Lohner had two stopovers on the long journey to Essen, Germany, and although she successfully made it to the Games in time, her equipment and luggage did not.

The University of Calgary student stood off to the side during practice on Monday, 21 July and watched her teammates get comfortable in the shooting lanes. As she looked on, the 21-year-old started to come to terms with the fact she might not be able to enter the women’s compound tournament.

When it came time to have their gear checked by the officials, she still joined to explain her situation, knowing there was a slim chance her stuff would arrive in time to compete the next day.

Competitor kindness

Giselle DeSousa from Portugal and Sydney Sullenberger from the USA stood behind the Canadian archers in the equipment check line and as Lohner shared the bad news with officials, they—along with student-athletes from Croatia and Singapore—jumped into action.

“It’s a little bit of a roller coaster because I was like kind of accepting the fact that I probably wasn’t going to shoot this week, and then, I was offered a couple bows,” Lohner said.

In archery, equipment is made specifically for each athlete. Each archer requires a distinct draw length, draw weight, and peep site height, plus, some use different elements like nose buttons. Then there’s the arrows—each set is designed to work best with the exact bow they’re made for.

“There’s a lot of work and a lot of hours that get put into setting up this equipment so when it goes missing it’s a little devastating,” the kinesiology student shared.

At first, Lohner was offered a bow two and a half inches too long, but then she tried out DeSousa’s back-up bow which turned out to be a perfect draw length fit.

There were a few more elements to work out, but by the time she lined up to compete on Tuesday, the Albertan was all set with borrowed shoes, a quiver, arrows from a teammate, and a bow that had been pieced together with help from four different countries.

“I definitely notice after being able to compete in a lot of other different international archery events that there is a huge sportsmanship component and a huge sense that everyone’s willing to help each other out, that’s just kind of the environment in archery,” Lohner said.

“Whatever you need, people are going to step in, and they are going to help you even though they have never met you before.”

Jody Wacowich, Lohner’s mother and the coach of Canada’s FISU Games archery team, has been trying to focus on the positives during this travel disaster.

“I think, as much as she probably doesn’t want to hear this, it has been a growth opportunity. We have to learn from the challenges. You don’t ever learn from the easy parts, right?”

Waiting for the precious cargo

Although Lohner qualified for the second day of competition while using the makeshift bow, she was unable to shoot all 72 of her arrows for fear of injuring her shoulder due to the draw weight being too much. She will continue in the tournament with a match against Leann Drake of the United States on Wednesday, 23 July and is wary of continuing with the backup bow.

“Even though I am not able to shoot to the best of my ability, and everything is kind of crazy right now, I’m focused on just enjoying the experience anyways, and being able to be proud of how I’ve overcome this kind of experience.”

The first archery medals of the FISU Games will be handed out on Friday, 25 July for the men’s and women’s compound and recurve events.

The Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games take place from 16-27 July. Watch all the competitions live on fisu.tv. Click on the link to find the full schedule.

Written by Sarah Maat, FISU Young Reporter, Canada

The Young Reporters Programme exemplifies FISU’s commitment to more than sports competitions. At every FISU World University Games, a group of talented aspiring sports journalists are chosen to cover the competition.