Olympics: Kaufhold in strong position with 672 and fourth place

The USA’s Casey Kaufhold qualified in fourth place in the ranking round at Paris 2024 with a score of 672 points that was topped only by Yang Xiaolei of China and the Koreans Lim Sihyeon and Nam Suhyeon.

Lim shattered the world record with 694, while the Korean team set a new Olympic record with a combined total of 2046.

“I’m feeling relieved,” Kaufhold said. “I think there’s a lot of anticipation going into the ranking round because this is where we see everything happen, where everything starts and so to have it done, it feels good and to do it well feels even better.”

The world number one had not been qualifying as well this year as she would have liked to. Being usually like a solid 660/670 shooter, she’d dropped at some World Cups down to 650.

“So to shoot 672 today feels really good. It’s a lot closer to my average than I have been shooting in competition.”

The morning started hot and still, with near perfect wind conditions.

“I think I maybe aimed off one end in the first half and then the second half I aimed off about every end,” the 20-year-old explained. “Just a slight breeze. I was aiming just a little bit to the left in the yellow, but still it made it for good conditions, for good scores.”

Casey’s individual result puts her in a strong spot for a run in the individual women’s event, as well as putting her in the mixed team competition with Brady Ellison, due to start next Friday.

“I missed out on the mixed team in Tokyo and so to have this opportunity, I’m really excited. Brady and I are a good pair, a good match. So I’m hoping we can just get up there and do our thing.“

The USA women will start as eighth seeds in the team event on Sunday.

Competition continues with recurve men’s qualifying this afternoon at Invalides.