PARIS — The Les Invalides is a historic landmark in central Paris. It’s a stunning complex featuring a bright golden dome, military history, monuments, even Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb.
Across the street, they’ll be shooting a whole bunch of arrows at bulls-eyes in the coming days.
An impressive Invalides stadium built to host archery at the Paris Olympics hints at a good time. It has a capacity of about 7,400 and expectations of packed crowds for upcoming sessions. That number of attendees may not sound like much when measured against other sports. But for archery? ‘May well be the biggest live audience for an archery competition in history,’ wrote the World Archery website.
It could be raucous, rowdy and very noisy – all things you wouldn’t expect at an archery event.
And Brady Ellison is here for it.
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The louder the better, said Ellison, the lone men’s United States archer at these Paris Games and a five-time Olympian.
‘I want it to be like the Waste Management Open: You know, the 16th green? Just people throwing crap and just loud,’ said Ellison, referencing his home state of Arizona’s PGA Golf tournament famous for the party atmosphere of its stadium hole in Scottsdale. ‘I want to step into that stadium and have it be so loud that they’ve raised the hair off of my arms. It’s what we’re here for, right? We’re here to put on a show.’
On the practice range Thursday, Ellison shot a 677 (out of a possible 720) to finish seventh out of 64 archers in the men’s ranking round. He’s thus the No. 7 seed in the individual bracket – as well as a part of a third-seeded U.S. tandem with women’s star Casey Kaufhold in the mixed competition.
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Both are opportunities for Ellison, 35, to do what he never has in a long, outstanding career.
Ellison is one of his sport’s all-time best. He has won world championships. He has the best 72-arrow score ever (702), a world record from 2019 that still stands. He’s been up there in the world rankings for years.
He has been to five Olympics in a row. He has also won three Olympic medals, two of them silver.
Ellison has never won gold, though.
‘I’ve had my opportunities,’ he said. ‘I would say this year is probably I’m the least looked at to win that I have been. I haven’t been shooting great this year. Just kind of off. Hopefully, I’m saving all of my luck for in there.’
In discussing a box not yet checked in her career, Ellison passed along what his wife (Slovenian archer Toja Ellison) told him heading into the Paris Games: ‘You’ve done a lot in your career, and I know you really want to win a gold medal. But if you don’t, like, your kids still love you. You’re not a better father. You’re not a better husband.’
‘If it happens, it happens,’ Ellison added. ‘I’d like to get a couple more medals, and that’s the goal. But I’m just going to go in there and try to walk out with my head held high, knowing I didn’t make a mental mistake and I gave it everything I’ve got.’
Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@gannett.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.