No, i dont consider pro archers to be athletes.

In my opinion an athlete need to develop his body in some sort of way... Run faster, jump higher, punch harder.

I think pro archers are as athletic as pro chess players.

 

I'm afraid I wouldn't call pro archers athletes Dan, looking at any shooting line will show that you do not need to be athletic in any way to shoot well. You do need to have a great deal of talent to be competitive and also put in a lot of hours but you do not need to be an athlete.

 

So Olympic archers and pros don't train?
DB

 

Why did my mind jump to Reo Wilde after pondering this question ?

All archers are sportsman, some are athletic, some are not.

 

No, I do not consider many of the morbidly obese Pro Archers athletes. I admit that they do shoot lots of arrows and practice excellent Archery form. The obese Pro Archers are poor examples for our youth IMO. I believe it looks ridiculous to see a Pro Archer on YouTube at full draw with a huge pot belly protruding.

My heart goes out to my two favorite senior female USA Pro Archers that are struggling with obesity. It is outrageous that the USA coaching staff is not helping them ( every year they get larger ). It is not just the USA that has weight problems. These people are role models and they all need to shape up IMO.:sad:

 

Talk to anyone who trains for a triathalon and you will see that archery is a far cry from an olympic caliber athlete in terms of physical conditioning. The biathalon skier-shooters in the Olympicls are probably the "cross-over" athletes of the shooting world, but imagine some of the big gut archers having to run a 5K race and then shoot their best scores. The course would be littered with vomit and ambulances for heart attack victims I am afraid.........

 

Cameron Haynes is an athelete. The rest im not so sure about

 

Agreed.... Keep Hammering!!!!

 

the coaches are scared to mess up a stable shooting platform.

 

I think they are athletes. Saying an archer is not an athlete is like saying a pro golfer is not an athlete. I see obese people playing football..... ( offensive line of the NE patriots come to mind) so your body shape has nothing to do with you being an athlete. it is the SPORT or archery, and sports have athletes.

 

I will have to disagree sports have competitors it just so happens that 98% of thous competitors are athletes. The other 2% are just competitors.

 

Afraid not bud. I think there about as athletic as pro bowlers. Like others have stated they have talent,skill, maybe even good eyesight and timing. I think the amazing hand/eye coordination is a bit of a stretch as well. I consider a Major League Baseball player getting in the batters box to face down a 98mph fast ball and hitting it an amazing feat of hand/eye coordination and timing. Also, as far as "training hard as any athlete today." I don't think even remotely close not even a little bit.

 

No and I don't consider archery a sport either. I know, I know, the wikipedia definition of "sport" would include archery.
That doesn't mean the top level archers don't dedicate as much of their life into being the best, but there's no way they train as hard as a MMA fighter or football player. Their bodies are broken at 35 because of the training they do.

Idk who said it, I think it was Rhonda Rousey, but I thought the quote is very fitting.
"If you don't break a sweat, it's not a sport, it's a skill."
That doesn't mean you need a lot of training and dedication to be good at it. You need that for being good a video games too and I think most of you that consider archery a sport will agree with me that playing Counter Strike is not.

 

League of Legends was the first video game to officially be considered a professional sport in the US (this means the people that play can get work visas to come to the US and play for pro teams)

so your example is not a good one even video games are considered sports and the definition of "athlete" is changing from what it was even 5 years ago.

 

Would that make me an amateur athlete?

 

About the same as a golfer to me. Same amount of skill and strength required.

 

If your BMI is greater than the GNP of a small country and you can't go up a flight of stairs without effort, you are not an athlete.

 

I'm helping my wife train for the muck fest, we are running 5k's to get ready. If you can't do stairs without a problem how will you drag that deer out of the swamp.

 

Levi is

 

No, they are in the same league as someone who plays golf. They might be extraordinarily good at what they do but its not athletic.

 

100% athletes. IMO.

 

I say yes archers are athletes. Some may not appear physically fit but that is changing. Shooting a bow is an atheletic action.

 

From Webster's:

: a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina

Agility isn't required for archery; therefore not athletes

 

Good point of reference. Archers are not athletes. Golfers are not either. Gamers are not, chess players are not, etc. Go to the definition and you can't go wrong.

 

Im not real sure stamina is a part of it either. Smoe may have it but I dont believe it is necessary to enjoy the activity..

 

I would have to say no.

 

Archery and pistols are in the olympics.
How could anyone not consider it a sport.

 

The idea of removing Archery fom the Olympic games has been discussed in great depth ,may be removed for other mass participation sports. (rugby for example)
However money talks and .....archery is at the bottom of the food chain.

 

"That's a negative ghost rider, the pattern is full."

 

I suppose it depends on what your definition of an athlete is. According to mine, Professional archers are not athletes. Cameron Haynes is an actual athlete that also makes a living in the archery/hunting industry, but I wouldn't consider him a Professional Archer.

 

archery is a sport.... it invovles skill, training, strength, and not everyone can be a pro. same with golf... its a sport, maybe its not full contact like some of the sports mentioned but yes it is a sport.

same with bowling... skill, training, strength, competition ect ect. if it wasnt a sport, why arent more people doing it? i mean hell work one saturday a month for a 100k pay check. thats a hell of a pasttime.

 

I was at a 3D shoot a couple years ago, and there was a guy (probably in his 60's) with a longbow.
This guy would step up to the target, take his shot, pull his arrow, and then run (and when I say run, I mean run not jog) to the next target.
That guy RAN the whole course.
I consider him to be an archery athelete, but as for the rest of us...not so much.

 

This thread refers to Pro archers. Thats about 60 shooters nationwide. I would say that 90% of these guys are in pretty good physical shape. The ones that aren't could probally be better archers if they would loose there pot guts. I watched another Pro bet Tim Gillingham that he couldn't run to the top of the ski slope at Seven Springs in 10 minutes. He jumped over the fence and ran to the top of that mountain without stopping in less than 10 minutes. I will bet there is few athletes that could of done that. I am betting that Tim G,LevI M,Jack W,Nathan B,Jeff H,and many others could of been very good baseball players,track stars and golfers if they wanted to go with them sports. See some of them on outdoor channel carrying heavy backpacks and gear on Hunting trips. Do I consider a lineman on an NFL football team an athlete, I hardly would say so,most can't see there toes.
A Biathalon man is probally your only true athelete.