The perfect Gellenthien family trip to Lausanne, the start of a compound dynasty?
It is not uncommon to see couples in sport with athletes regularly coming across each other in several meets around the world numerous times a year.
The term “power couple” or “super couple” though defined by Wikipedia is a “popular and/or wealthy pairing that intrigues and fascinates the public in an intense or obsessive fashion,” in other words, two powerhouses of the same or different respective industries.
In archery, two of the current most well-known ones you could argue are five-time Olympic medallist Brady Ellison with his wife Toja Ellison, the compound women’s 2022 Indoor World Series Champion, and compound men’s world number one Mike Schloesser and his spouse, the recent World Field Championships silver medallist Gaby Schloesser.
However, Braden and Tanja Gellenthien must surely be added into the mix after the married pair both won bronze at the Swiss Open in Lausanne, the opening stage of the 2025 Indoor World Series, after the two topped the compound men’s and women’s qualification rounds.
Not only did they win a medal together - and of the same colour – but USA’s Braden and Denmark’s Tanja were able to climb the podium in front of their newborn son, Thor.
“Yeah, it was a really fun trip,” said Braden who made his international debut 21 years ago at the New York 2003 World Archery Championships. “It’s so crazy how much my priorities have changed from even a year ago or six months ago. Everything that I do now is all about Thor.”
“I train as much as I can. It’s not much these days. It’s 30, 45 arrows in between shifts at work. We came here and we did our best. It was really cool to bring our practice scores to the tournament.”
“I’m so happy that we got to bring him (Thor). He was the best travel partner we could ask for,” concurred Tanja.
With their son born just three months ago, parenting has more than understandably taken over the Gellenthiens aspirations in archery with the Swiss Open being both Braden and Tanja’s first international appearance since the Vegas Shoot back in February where the latter won bronze.
There seemed to be no hint of rust however in Lausanne, the home of the International Olympic Committee, even early in the tournament as Braden scored 599 out of 60 arrows in the qualifications with Tanja getting 592.
The 2017 Hyundai World Cup Final Champion Braden though admitted that being a dad for the first time had taken his toll upon arriving at the World Archery Excellence Centre.
“I don’t want to let everyone know, but I am tired. When the announcer told me I have shot 201 international matches, it was like ‘Oh, okay. Being tired makes sense’,” the 38-year-old laughed.
“But I felt this year when we had the child that I felt like I wanted to do it to prove to him that dad’s still cool.”
“I think I’m used to having no sleep, running on fumes with the baby, it was making jet lag feel a little bit easier.”
Absence has certainly made the Gellenthiens heart grow fonder for archery, the very thing that connected the two, as they remained in Europe to continue in the indoor circuit.
Last weekend, they competed in the prestigious JVD Open, which this year took place in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Boston born Braden admittedly maybe on the tired side but his wife Tanja, who he has now lived with in the States for three years, is eager to make the most of the archery competitions Europe has to offer coming back from a pregnancy.
“It feels great to be back again; I really missed it,” said the 2021 European Champion who defeated three-time World Archery Field Champion Paige Pearce in the Lausanne bronze medal match by one point.
“I know I missed a couple of tournaments, but I still need a little practice to feel like myself, even though the scores might be there, but the muscles aren’t quite there."
“I think I came here with no expectations and just see how it went,” added the 29-year-old.
No expectations, little practise, little sleep but still it turned out to be a highly successful trip to Switzerland, which Braden labelled a “second home”.
What is different about these two, however, compared to the Ellisons and the Schloessers, is that they are both in the same event, whereas as one of each of the others compete in recurve or compound.
For the moment, Braden and Tanja’s full focus will be on bringing up Thor, but once they have found a way to balance parenting with the persistent nature of the sporting calendar, there may well be a chance to make a name as the power couple of compound archery with potentially a family dynasty on the way.
What was a perfect family trip for the Gellenthiens could turn out to be the start of something even more special.
Header image courtesy of Gas Pro.
