PARIS — He’s 36th, just like he was last year in Berlin, where the rain poured, his coach acted the fool for an adoring crowd, and Eric Peters calmly shot his way to the end of the bracket, before settling for world championship silver in a showdown with the Turk.
He’s 36th because he just couldn’t find the middle of the target on Thursday, and that’s frustrating, but he’s 36th at the Olympics, and wishes mostly that his dad Chris knew he made it here.
He’s 36th, but it’s just the ranking round, archery’s necessary evil, a two-hour, 72-arrow seeding event staged behind closed doors on the practice field at the Esplanade des Invalides. There were no fans, no family, no friends; they have to wait for the elimination matches in the 8,500-seat arena next door, where drama drips from the do-or-die format. In the first elimination round of men’s recurve action on Tuesday, Peters meets Kazakhstan’s Ilfat Abdullin, who shot 663 in the ranking round and finished 29th. It’s a toss-up.
Thursday was a day to shoot arrows and seed archers; a placid scene for just 64 athletes, scads of support staff and a smattering of media. It’s the boring part, Peters says, and it’s clearly not his jam, but he got through it. The score was one thing, a disappointing 659 out of 720, well off his personal best of 683, but lining up here without his dad, that was something else.
“Oh, it was hard. As we were getting up to the line to shoot our first practice ends, that really hit me,” said Peters, a 27-year-old who was born in Ottawa but hails from Kitchener, Ont. “Kind of wish he could have seen it, you know. My mom and fiancée are here, well not here because there weren’t any spectators, but they’re here in town and hopefully I get to see them before matches start.
“It was tough thinking about him not being here. I think it’s OK to take it with me. He’s a part of me, always will be. Do what I can, hopefully make him proud.”
Chris Peters died in 2022, after suffering a stroke in 2018 and then being diagnosed with cancer. It was Chris who had finally ceded to Eric’s constant pestering and bought him a bow, then went all in on the idea of being an archery dad.
“He was there with me for everything,” said Eric. “He got me into it; let me get into it, I should say. Drove me to all the tournaments, he was my coach for the Youth Olympic Games. But he had a stroke in 2018, and didn’t really get to fully appreciate the burst onto the scene that I got to have, so it’s tough. Day by day.”
Arrow by arrow in fact. That’s how Eric manages this now. It’s a mentally demanding sport at the best of times, and he has leaned on performance coach Joe Lesner for guidance since they met in 2019.
“He helped me let go a little bit,” Peters said. “Today was definitely a day where in the past I would have been a lot more frustrated, a lot angrier. I had a little bit of a spit about it halfway through, but I can take this in stride a lot better than I ever could have before. It’s a lot lighter, a lot easier mentally on me. Gives me some more context as to what is actually important for this.
“Because life goes on. Unfortunately, archery is not a place where I am going to make a full career for the rest of my life, so I have to enjoy it while I’m here and just do it, because it’s just a game in the end. It’s a thing I can do the rest of my life, but I’m not going to be doing it like this.”
In Berlin, he shot his way past archers who finished the ranking round in 77th, 29th, fourth, 13th, fifth and 49th place before advancing to the final against Mete Gazoz, the Turkish delight and reigning Olympic champ.
Peters and Lesner put together a plan for those elimination rounds, though critics have portrayed it as mere foolishness. Lesner was indeed animated to the extreme, playing to the crowd during what is generally a stoic, staid event.
“What we did was backed by science and theories behind mental performance,” Lesner said Thursday. “It was just a very creative and bold plan that I think most people wouldn’t be willing to do. I was willing to accept people might hate me, they might love me. If (Peters) wasn’t successful, I could be seen as the biggest idiot, and if he is, maybe as the commentator called me, a genius. So you accept that risk. We make a plan for Eric and it worked out in that case.
“For sure, there are some people who don’t like me, I would say. No one has really ever said anything mean to my face. But we know it was controversial and we know there was a bunch of people who didn’t love the idea and there was a bunch who did, mainly the fans seemed to be the most into it. I will say for those who are angry, they didn’t fully understand what was happening and perceived it as more disrespect to the sport. Even World Archery made a little mini-doc and made it seem like I was talking through (opponents) shooting to distract them, which definitely did not happen.”
Some of those opponents griped about the spectacle, but fans gobbled it up, and Lesner said it was chock full of mindfulness touchstones. Peters loved it because it fits seamlessly with his bigger picture of the sport.
“I don’t think I ever felt more relaxed,” Peters said in the World Archery video. “I’ve always been super nervous, weak at the knees, high heart rate, just feel my heart pounding in my chest. I was laughing, having fun, shooting arrows. … Have some fun with it. We’re not doing anything that serious. It’s the most serious, unserious thing we will ever do in our lives.”
He loves the elimination round format — five rounds of three arrows and a 16th if a shoot-off is necessary to break a tie — because it ramps up the intensity. The ranking round only ramps up the intensity of his tan lines.
“I’ve never been the strongest qualifier. It’s not something I’m really good at, but give me three-arrow matches and I can do that pretty well,” he said Thursday. “It’s where I thrive. It’s the head-to-head, it’s the higher intensity that just gets me in the right head space to shoot good arrows. I like it. It’s what I grew up doing; 720 is just not my thing, it takes too long.”
On Thursday the archers shot their 72 arrows in 12 ends of six, with a break halfway through. Peters’ second half was better than his first, but he never caught fire. He also never really screwed up.
“I was shooting honestly really good arrows and was just outside of the 10-ring on a lot of them. I think I’m tied on score with (Japan’s Takaharu Furukawa), a five-time Olympian, who’s got seven 10s on me for the same score. So I really wasn’t missing very much, I wasn’t shooting really all that bad, I just wasn’t finding the middle, so it was a tough day. That’s fine. I qualified in the same position for world championships and came second.”
Lesner said they will talk about the results, but only in the context of looking forward, because that’s the proper focus. Stewing about the ranking round would be wasting energy, like the old days.
“For sure it was very difficult for him at times in the past to stay focused on the task and not let his emotions get the best of him,” said Lesner. “But now he’s really embraced a broader mindfulness approach, really acknowledging what’s happening, simply just noting and then proceeding on with your day. Knowing that things are going to happen no matter what. He’s going to shoot six arrows, he’s going to walk to the target, he’s going to get them, he’s going to do it again. And really embrace the moment itself and not get too caught up in the narrative and the judgment. It’s always a work in progress, but I think it’s a reason why he can call himself an Olympian and has been such a successful archer in the last little bit.”
He laughed off the pressure in Berlin, thanks to Lesner’s spotlight stealing performance. Might that work here?
“Whatever we have to do to put him in the best mental spot, we’re going to do it,” said Lesner, who wasn’t tipping his hand. “I definitely had fun that day, it was definitely a good plan and it definitely worked out for Eric and it was when we qualified for (the Olympics).
“That’s a medal that Eric has won and is always going to be proud of, so to me, that is so much of the goal. I know a lot of athletes who throw their medals in garbage bags and never look at them again. I feel very pleased that Eric will literally never not have good memories about that medal, and it was such a fulfilling experience. To me, that’s what the job is all about.”