Havers the youngest of all archers to compete in Paris, at 16
Sixteen-year-old Megan Havers will be the youngest archer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games when competition starts on 25 July.
Antti Tekoniemi is the sport’s oldest contender in the French capital, at 42.
Havers and teammates Penny Healey and Bryony Pitman confirmed a full women’s team quota for Great Britain at the Final Olympic Qualifier in Antalya last month.
“Feels great!” said Megan on being the youngest on the Esplanade des Invalides. “I’m excited to compete and experience all that there is at the Games.”
“A month ago I graduated from secondary school, and then I had my prom and now I’m at the Games.”
Havers only made her international senior debut in April this year.
“Being young means I have a long career ahead of me and I hope to compete at more Games,” the teenager added.
Born on 2 December 2007, she is one of two 16-year-olds on the shooting line at these Olympics, with Colombia’s Andrés Hernandez Vera, the youngest male participant at Les Invalides, turning 17 in September.
Havers and Vera are two of 128 archers in the sport’s most coveted competition, with over half the participants born in the 2000s – 66 in total.
Seventy-two of them are under 25 at Games’ time.
Despite his experience, Paris 2024 is Tekoniemi’s maiden Olympic Games and he is Finland’s sole archer this summer.
He is one of 10 Olympic archers born in the 1980s featuring in Paris.
“Time goes quickly and archery is to me more lifestyle nowadays, so truly I don’t feel that I’m old,” said Tekoniemi on being the elder statesman of the competition.
The 42-year-old is in his 17th year representing Finland on the global stage after being first selected for the national team in 2006.
He has two international medals to his name, winning silver last year at the European Field Championships and bronze 14 years ago in the European Archery Championships, both in Italy.
“I have had an extremely good couple of last years and I feel so excited that I’m finally getting to my best level of archery so, I feel more now maybe that my archery career’s greatest achievements are just being realised.”
“I think that it is much more difficult to earn the spot to Olympics than do a good competition there, so I am already winner, and my plan is I enjoy the Olympics atmosphere, enjoy shooting and represent Finland proudly,” he added.
Archery competitors in Paris start first, as the 70-metre 72-arrow qualification rounds is being shot on 25 July, one day prior the opening ceremony.
