World Archery publishes nominees, opens public vote for 2022 awards

World Archery has released the list of nominees for its annual awards in 2022.

Fans can vote for their favourites archers in six of the 10 categories until the end of February 2023 through the WorldArcheryAwards.com mini-site.

This year marks the first time since 2012 an overall archer of the year will be named, alongside trophies for the four international championship categories (recurve men, recurve women, compound men and compound women), best male and female para athletes, as well as breakthrough, coach and judge of the year.

Among those nominated are reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champions Sara Lopez, Mike Schloesser, An San and Kim Woojin, and World Games Champions Ella Gibson and Miguel Becerra.

Lopez, Schloesser, An and Mete Gazoz (another name that returns on this year’s shortlist) collected category awards in 2021.

Lopez has received the compound women’s award each year since 2015.

Nominees for the nine shortlisted awards were received from national federations and members of the press. The overall athlete of the year is an open trophy, awarded on nominations from a closed media panel.

Award winners in 2022 will receive NFT digital trophies during an online presentation in March.

A shortlist for the inaugural inductees to the World Archery Hall of Fame has also been released.

Each of the 10 nominees has made an outstanding contribution to the international sport of archery as an athlete, official, coach or innovator, but has not been active in the respective role for at least five years.

Archery’s first modern Olympic Champions, John Williams and Doreen Wilber, both feature – as does innovator Doug Easton, on his company’s 100-year anniversary, and World Archery’s first female president, Inger Frith.

The selection committee will approve up to two people for the inaugural induction.

Shortlists: 2022 World Archery Awards

Categories indicated with a star (*) are now open for public vote at WorldArcheryAwards.com.

• Recurve man of the year*: Miguel Alvariño (Spain), Marcus D’Almeida (Brazil), Mete Gazoz (Türkiye), Kim Woojin (Korea) and Florian Unruh (Germany).
• Recurve woman of the year*: An San (Korea), Katharina Bauer (Germany), Choi Misun (Korea), Peng Chia-Mao (Chinese Taipei) and Bryony Pitman (Great Britain).
• Compound man of the year*: Miguel Becerra (Mexico), Jean Philippe Boulch (France), Nicolas Girard (France), Jean Pizarro (Puerto Rico) and Mike Schloesser (Netherlands).
• Compound woman of the year*: Toja Ellison (Slovenia), Ella Gibson (Great Britain), Lisell Jaatma (Estonia), Sara Lopez (Colombia) and Dafne Quintero (Mexico).
• Para man of the year*: David Drahoninsky (Czech Republic), Eugen Patru (Romania), Matt Stutzman (USA), Guillaume Toucoullet (France) and Ueyama Tomohiro (Japan).
• Para woman of the year*: Lia Coryell (USA), Elisabetta Mijno (Italy), Phoebe Paterson Pine (Great Britain), Vincenza Petrilli (Italy) and Milena Olszewska (Poland).
• Breakthrough of the year: Katharina Bauer (Germany), Nicolas Girard (France) and Jean Pizarro (Puerto Rico).
• Coach of the year: Sebastien Brasseur (France), Elias Cuesta (Spain) and Heber Mantilla (Colombia).
• Judge of the year: David Catalan (Spain), Indranil Datta (India) and Katy Lipscomb (Great Britain).

Shortlist: World Archery Hall of Fame

• Doug Easton, USA (innovator) –  Easton Archery celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2022.
• Neroli Fairhall, New Zealand (athlete) – The first Paralympic archer to compete at the Olympics.
• Clint Freeman, Australia (athlete) – The first compound archer to break 1400 points on 1440 Round.
• Inger Frith, Great Britain (official) – The president who led archery’s Olympic return in 1972.
• Kim Soo-Nyung, Korea (athlete) – The winningest Olympic archer of all time.
• Darrell Pace, USA (athlete) – The only two-time individual Olympic Champion (1976, 1984).
• Park Sung-Hyun, Korea (athlete) – The first recurve archer to break 1400 points on 1440 Round.
• Doreen Wilber, USA (athlete) – Munich 1972 Olympic Champion.
• John Williams, USA (athlete) – Munich 1972 Olympic Champion.
• Natalia Valeeva, Italy (athlete) – Two-time World Archery Champion (1995, 2007).