Rick van der Ven: Lessons learned in preparation for Rio 2016

It was a tight match. A match that started so well for Dutchman Rick van der Ven, and could have meant his first Olympic medal…

With the Rio Olympiad coming ever closer, Rick’s motivation is on the rise. His training is focused on technique and the goal at hand, hoping that he’ll collect the medal that he missed by just a hair’s breadth at the London 2012 Olympic Games nearly three years ago.

The thing Rick remembers most about his first Olympic Games is the enormous size and the crowd of people in the venue, the city and the Olympic village – simply everywhere; and, of course, his final match.

At London 2012, he lined up opposite China’s Dai Xiaoxiang in the recurve men’s bronze medal match in Lord’s Cricket Ground.

The first set started with a triple-10 for Rick and two arrows out of the middle for DAI: 30-26 and a two-set point lead. In set two, both archers missed the centre once but Rick added to his lead – Dai’s arrow was an eight, Rick’s a nine – going 4-0 up in set points.

Then Dai caught up: 28-27, 28-25 and a tied match at four set points apiece.

Set five was tight. The first arrow hit the eight – for both archers. Then Dai’s arrow went into the middle. Rick scored a nine. Dai finished with an eight, Rick a nine: both 26, one set point each and a 5-5 tie for the match.

In the one-arrow decider, Xiaoxiang put a beautiful shot straight into the 10-ring, while Rick’s arrow missed the centre. Dai collected the bronze medal and Rick finished fourth at his first Olympic Games.

“It is, of course, my goal to take part in Rio and hopefully get a medal this time,” says Rick. “I was so close last time.”

“I find training quite boring, and if I have a goal like competitions that gives me the drive to go and practice.”Shooting many competitions is Rick’s regular training routine. Competing against other archers helps Rick to see whether he is still progressing in competition. In fact, following his fellow athletes on social media reveals that the Dutch squad is almost always shooting against each other.

He saw progression and improvement in 2014 performance. Now third in the world rankings, Rick collected his first individual Archery World Cup medal at Shanghai 2014 when he beat Australian Taylor Worth to bronze.

“That match was a very high level,” the 23-year old Dutchman recalls.

In the Shanghai rain, Worth and van der Ven split the first set 28-all. Rick shot two in the centre in the second while Taylor missed twice: 3-1. The pair drew the last three sets and Rick had the medal.

Three stages later – in Wroclaw, Poland – Rick went one match, two podium places better.

Drawn against Italy’s Mauro Nespoli for gold, Rick had the lead right from the start. Four-nil up, sets three and four were split and the match ended up 6:2 in favour of the young Dutchman, who won his first individual Archery World Cup gold.

It put him in pole position in the Archery World Cup rankings and top seed at the Lausanne 2014 Final.

There, in the Olympic Capital, he won his quarterfinal against the host-nation’s representative before coming up against the USA’s Brady Ellison: The only recurve archer to have won two Archery World Cup Champion titles at that time.

Rick went out in a five-set match that saw four sets end in a tie. Ellison shot a 30 in the second – the decisive two points he needed. Brady went on to make history as the first person to win the Archery World Cup a third time, while van der Ven took on Florian Kahllund, from Germany, for bronze.

Three sets in, Khallund was 4-2 up and in the driving seat.

Down, but not out, Rick finished with four of six arrows drilled into the middle and collected bronze, six set points to four.

“Technique is definitely an important thing in archery, but the mental game might be just as important because if you can’t think straight under pressure you can’t really execute your technique,” explains Rick.

Growth in Rick’s mental game might have been the reason for his impressive results on the Archery World Cup circuit in 2014. His next goal is to collect a medal at the World Archery Championships in Copenhagen and qualify a quota spot to the next Olympics for the Netherlands.

But Rick’s approach, with big expectations, is measured:

“I always try to improve my shooting and I think about my technique in my head. Technique can be developed at any stage in archery. When you start you improve very quickly and later on the steps become smaller. Those small steps are even more important in improving your level.”

Rick’s conscientious learning from his past results, drive to compete and approach to the future make him a real contender at both Copenhagen 2015 and in the Road to Rio.