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Brady, Casey named to US team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

3 June 2021

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

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Casey Kaufhold and Brady Ellison will represent the USA at Tokyo 2020.

Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold have been selected to represent the United States at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games following the conclusion of team trials in Salt Lake City.

This will be Ellison’s fourth consecutive Olympics and Kaufhold’s debut at the age of 17.

“I’m really happy I just kept all the emotions together for the last day [of trials] and the hard work paid off,” said Casey. “It’s been a goal for me to go to the Olympics since I was little, so dreams really do come true.”

Ellison qualified a men’s quota for the Games by winning the Hyundai World Archery Championships in 2019. The women’s quota was added when he and Kaufhold took mixed team gold at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.

After a lengthy – and lengthened – selection process, due to the pandemic, it is the two archers who won the spaces who will fill them in Tokyo.

The USA has one last opportunity to upgrade its individual tickets to team quotas at the final world qualification tournament in two weeks in Paris. There are three recurve men’s team and three recurve women’s team spots available.

Kaufhold will be joined by Rio 2016 Olympian Mackenzie Brown and 18-year-old Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez in the competition for the women’s team ticket.

Ellison will shoot with Jack Williams and London 2012 team silver medallist Jacob Wukie, making his return to the international arena after an extended absence, in the men’s event.

“It’s pretty awesome that Wukie came back and made the team during these trials,” said Ellison. “We have to go now and get our spots in Paris. I’m pretty confident that we’re going go do that now, and I do believe that we have a very strong chance to win a medal at the Games again.”

The teams will remain the same for the Olympics should they be successful.

The USA has won three medals in the past two editions of the Games: back-to-back recurve men’s team silvers and Brady’s individual bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

The country has not had a women’s medal since Luann Ryon won gold at Montreal 1976.

As well as competing in the individual events, Casey and Brady will also compete in the mixed team competition, which is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo, even if the USA’s quota is not augmented in Paris.