Brady Ellison (born October 27, 1988) is an American

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

who competes in recurve

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

. He is currently a Resident Athlete at the

United States Olympic Training Center The United States Olympic & Paralympic Training Centers (OPTCs) are two campuses created by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) as training facilities for its Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They are located in Colorado Sprin ...

Chula Vista, California Chula Vista (; ) is the second-largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the Largest cities in Southern California, seventh largest city in Southern California, the List of largest California cities by population, fifteenth largest city ...

. He holds the record for the longest continuous period as the world number-one-ranked men's recurve archer, from August 2011 to April 2013. He earned his nickname "The Prospector" during the 2015 world championships due to his proclivity for 'finding gold'.

Personal life

As a child, Ellison suffered from

Legg–Calvé–Perthes disease Legg–Calvé–Perthes disease (LCPD) is a childhood hip disorder initiated by a disruption of blood flow to the head of the femur. Due to the lack of blood flow, the bone dies (osteonecrosis or avascular necrosis) and stops growing. Over time, ...

and wore leg braces for some time. He has had subsequent health issues with his knees, particularly in the lead-up to and during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and the fingers of his drawing hand. Ellison married Slovenian archer Toja Černe (now known as Toja Ellison) in April 2016. He credits his wife with introducing him to alternative medicine, which was used to cure pain in his fingers in late 2018. The pair had their first child in November 2020. Ellison started archery as a child in Arizona. Initially, Ellison shot with a compound and represented the United States internationally as a youth archer with the bowstyle. He switched to recurve on the recommendation of coaches at the national training center in Chula Vista, California, where he has spent much of his time.

Career

Olympics

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Ellison finished his ranking round with a total of 664 points, which gave him the 15th seed for the final competition bracket in which he faced John Burnes in the first round. Ellison won the match 111–89 and advanced to the second round. Here he was unable to beat another Canadian Jay Lyon, who was too strong with 113–107. Together with

Butch Johnson Richard Andrew "Butch" Johnson (born August 30, 1955 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an archer from Woodstock, Connecticut in the United States. He has competed in the Summer Olympics five times, and was a part of the gold medal U.S. team at th ...

and

Vic Wunderle Victor Steven "Vic" Wunderle (born March 4, 1976 in Lincoln, Illinois) is an archer from the United States. Personal Wunderle was raised in Mason City, Illinois and is the son of the famous archery coach Terry Wunderle. His passion for archery ...

he also took part in the team event. With his 664 score from the ranking round combined with the 653 of Johnson and the 652 of Wunderle the Americans were in 10th position after the ranking round. In the first round they lost to Chinese Taipei, 222–218. Ellison secured his spot for the 2012 Olympics at the USA Archery's Olympic Trials in

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. He is sponsored by Solve Media, Hoyt Archery, Easton Arrows, and Axcel Sight and Scopes, among others. He won a silver team medal together with his teammates

Jake Kaminski Jake Kaminski (born August 11, 1988) is an American archer. Personal life Kaminski was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Elma, New York. As of August 2016, he resides in Gainesville, Florida with his wife Heather and children Kai and Gen ...

and

Jacob Wukie Jacob Wukie (born May 11, 1986, in Massillon, Ohio) is an American archer. At the 2012 Summer Olympics he competed for his country in the Men's team event and the men's individual event. He won a silver Olympic medal along with his teammate ...

. At the 2016 Rio Games Ellison, won individual

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

and team

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

medals. He represented the United States at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

held in Tokyo, Japan. He lost to

Mete Gazoz Mete Gazoz (born 8 June 1999 in Istanbul) is a Turkish recurve archer. He won the gold medal in the men's individual event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. He also represented Turkey at the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de ...

of Turkey in the quarterfinals of the men's individual event.

World Championships

Ellison won medals at several editions of the

World Archery Championships The World Archery Championships are a series of competitions in Archery organised by the World Archery Federation (WA). The first competition held under that title took place in 1931. Competition archery takes a wide variety of formats, but the ...

. Two months after the 2020 Summer Olympics, he won the silver medal in the men's team event at the

2021 World Archery Championships The 2021 World Archery Championships was held from 20 to 26 September 2021 in Yankton, United States. Medals summary Recurve Compound Medals table References External links Results Book {{World Archery Championships World Archery Cha ...

held in Yankton, United States. He also won the bronze medal in the men's individual event.

The World Games

At three editions of

The World Games The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 d ...

(2013, 2017 and 2022), Ellison won the silver medal in the individual field recurve competition.

Other

In 2022, he won the men's recurve event at the Vegas Shoot held in Las Vegas, United States.

Pop culture

Ellison appeared in an episode of the American-based TV show ''

Mythbusters ''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television program, developed by Peter Rees and produced by Australia's Beyond Television Productions. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast internatio ...

'', where he helped to test the myth of the Ancient Greek 'arrow machine gun' (a mythical device that could fire arrows in a way similar to modern machine guns). With Ellison's help, the myth was deemed ''plausible''.

Individual performance timeline in Outdoor Recurve

References

External links