When Fatoumata Sylla received the call-up for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it fulfilled the dream of not just an ambitious girl from Conakry – but marked a huge step forward for her country.
This will be the first time Guinea has a representative in archery at the Olympics.
The country has been actively participating in the Games since 1968, four years after its national archery federation was formed in 1964, but had only sent athletes to compete in seven sports.
“I didn’t know what to say,” says Sylla. “I felt so great because I had just made the dream of an entire federation come true… all the archers, coaches and members of the federation placed their trust in me.”
The thought of standing on the shooting line at Invalides invokes goosebumps.
“Wow! Paris Olympics! I already feel like I’m in a great sporting celebration where I’m going to meet the best archers in the world,” she says.
It‘s a big responsibility that the 22-year-old bears, after securing one of the four available invitation places for promising young athletes to the Games.
“I have to work a lot harder than before to maintain this pride and confidence from my federation,” she says.
No doubt she’ll be ready to take on the challenge.
Having been introduced to the sport in her school in Conakry, Sylla said the challenges to play the sport are plenty in Guinea, a country facing socioeconomic challenges.
“For all Guinean archers, beginners and elites, the biggest problem in our country is equipment,” she explains.
At the beginning of her career, she trained with a PVC bow and rattan arrows shooting on cardboard targets, still a common situation in the country.
“In the winter season training was even more difficult,” the youngster adds.
Fatoumata also faced difficulty in integration into the national team, as Guinea had quite a few female athletes who were already participating in international competitions.
“Among these girls, I had to find my place in the team,” Sylla pointed out. “That wasn't easy.”
“I had to work morning and evening outside school hours and even on weekends.”
After the initial struggle, she joined the Matam Archery Club, which trained 20 archers - boys and girls.
This was ponly the beginning of her journey.
“When I first heard about the Olympics, I said to myself – what are those?”
“But when I evolved and participated in the African Youth Games in Algeria and the African Games in Rabat, in 2018 and 2019, I started to realise what the Games are,” she says.
Since then, she’s had only one goal.
Fatoumata took her first step towards Paris when she was enrolled at the World Archery Excellence Centre in Lausanne on an Olympic Solidarity scholarship.
This would prove the turning point of her career.
“It has been an invaluable experience,” she says. “I learned a lot of things – how to choose and set up the equipment, and above all I matured in competitions – I can control my emotions better now.”
“My highest score in competition was 553 [points] when I arrived. Thanks to the training technology and the competition level and experience of the staff in place, which gave me the motivation and resources to work hard.”
In May, Sylla posted a career-best – 646 out of possible 720 points – during the Lausanne Challenge. She’d reached the standard required to compete at the Olympics – and broken the old African continental record of 639 set by South Africa’s Kirstin Lewis back in 1996.
“It’s my greatest performance ever and I plan to repeat it again in Paris,” she says.
Sylla’s been shooting 400-plus arrows a day for years.
A level of commitment that was necessary to make such a huge leap in performance.
“I had to make a lot of sacrifices to reach this level as I arrived at the Centre with a relatively low level. I knew I must master the technique. So, with or without a coach, I worked a lot,” she says.
Fatoumata knows the sacrifices she made to reach Paris will leave a legacy for Gineau.
“This will help us to have more than just one archer at the next Olympics,” she says.
There’s a future far behind Paris, too, and a future in the sport.
“Because in my country there is still no female coach, all our coaches are men,” she explains.
But before that, she knows that her place is on the shooting line – most rapidly with 63 of the world’s best recurve women, with Olympic glory on offer.
And Paris is just the beginning.
