Games debutant Jordan White embarked on a new teenage life when he discovered archery

“It means everything to me,” Jordan White said after making his Paralympic debut at Paris 2024.

Aged only 15, the teenager is the youngest archer competing in the French capital, the youngest member of the US Paralympic team at these Games and the youngest archer ever to represent the USA at the Paralympics.

“Since I’m so new at archery since I haven’t been shooting a lot to be able to make it here and show off everything I’ve worked on and dedicated myself to, it means everything to me.”

“I haven’t ever shot with such a big crowd. I haven’t shot with everyone’s support. And it feels amazing.”

Jordan was so excited by first appearance that one day before the elimination round matches, he would stand for an hour, visualising himself shooting in the Invalides arena.

“I did imagine the crowd,” the debutant explained. “But nothing could have prepared me for the reality of having that crowd in there. I mean, everyone cheering for you.”

The 15-year-old was knocked out in his first match by Poland’s Lukasz Ciszek, but he will still be leaving Paris boosted with emotions and memories.

When he took up the bow four years ago, he could never have imagined joining athletes like Eric Bennett or Matt Stutzman on the US Paralympic team for Paris 2024.

Archery indeed changed Jordan’s life.

“I was born with congenital femoral deficiency and fibular hemimelia, which is a fancy way of saying that my leg is all messed up,” he explained.

He has had more than 20 surgeries on his leg, spent much of his childhood in hospital and had never really been able to do sport.

He would be stuck in a hospital or back home to learn, while other kids played around.

“I’ve always been a little bit of a nerd, so I’ve always focussed on school,” the 15-year-old admitted. ”I loved math, so I somewhat told myself that sports weren’t for me.”

“I was just going to do good at school, be an academic, and that would be all. But after I discovered archery, I realised that I had a chance in sports, I could play and be competitive like other kids.”

“After I found archery and my love of archery, I pursued it.”

It wasn’t until archery came into his life that Jordan discovered he could combine education and sport. 

And he says he’s quite happy that he didn’t discover archery until later, as those first years when he wasn’t able to take part in sport encouraged him to succeed in his studies.

“But today I’m here, doing well both in education and the sports field,” he said.

Archery also impacted Jordan’s attitude towards life, training hours every day and putting a lot of efforts into it.

“My work with my sports psychologist has changed my outlook on, like everything I’m saying, more positive in life. Archery has changed a lot for me. Pursuing archery and competitiveness has changed a lot.”

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that White fell in love with archery, as he was looking for a safe individual sport, which he could do outside and stay active during the lockdown.

He tried it out and stuck on it.

“My little brother wanted to try, so I decided to go out with him one day, and I ended up loving it,” he recounted.

“I found it outside of school at a YMCA recreation centre. They just had classes I took there for a couple of years. And then, after my first year or two, I decided to get serious. I transitioned to recurve.”

Since then, Jordan has been training every day to make it to Paris, where he became the youngest archer ever to represent the USA at a Paralympics Games.

It was early morning at home when he walked onto the stage at Les Invalides to shoot his first Paralympic match. His classmates were about to go to school.

“I’m sure they all watched it right before they went to school and saw how I performed,” the teenager assumed.

The competition in Paris continues with recurve men’s elimination and medal matches on Wednesday afternoon.