Archery a ‘whirlwind’ second life for Patrick French after picking the sport up two years ago

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT is presented by WIAWIS.

Whether you believe everyone should be given second chances or not, sport seems to find a way to mend what may seem unfixable situations.

For Patrick French, now a compounder from Kyneton, a town outside Melbourne, Australia, archery did not provide an immediate resolve to a horrific work accident he suffered after chopping a tree down. 

Nine years on though, it has since given him a career that his life pre-incident would never have led to as a para athlete.

“It wouldn’t have been a bad one, but I never would have chased athletic excellence,” said the 31-year-old on his former job as a concreter. “Every little kid dreams of being an athlete, going to the Olympics, Paralympics, whatever it may be, every little kid dreams that, but then you get to a point where life starts to take over, and then you forget about it.” 

“When I stumbled across archery, I was like ‘Alright, I’ll give this a go,’ and then it became a reality. It was almost like a whirlwind or something.”

French became a tattoo artist a couple of years following a drawn out legal battle to get compensation for his accident and only discovered archery two and a half years ago, initially wanting to do it for hunting.

The ‘whirlwind’ has quickly swept him right into world level archery with the Aussie now the world number 20 in the compound men open rankings and he is coming off the back of his first Paralympic Games this summer, a rapid rise to say the least.

From not knowing how to look through the peep of a compound bow, French nearly won a medal in the Australian para nationals within months, which triggered his desire to change career paths.

“I lost the bronze medal match unfortunately, but that was my first ever tournament. After that I’m like ‘alright’,” he explained.

“I stopped working and started shooting 300 arrows every single day in the lead up to getting the scores and then doing the trials.” 

“It was a lot of sacrifice for me and my family as well, they weren’t seeing me as much because I was always shooting.”

Understanding, however, that sacrifices are part and parcel of becoming an elite athlete, French’s determination pushed him to the ultimatum of para archery’s four year cycle in the summer, the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

Even getting to France was an astounding achievement having beaten Tokyo 2020 Paralympian and fellow patriot Peter Marchant in the continental qualifying tournament gold medal match via shoot-off.  

His time at Les Invalides was short lived, being eliminated in the first round by Singapore’s Ken Swagumilang, but French revealed the torrential rain in Paris that day affected his performance.

Water had filled up his sight and after the first four ends, French cleaned it, accidentally changing it in the process leading him to shoot two costly wide eights in the final end, sealing his fate.

Although his journey to Paris deserves accolades, the entry of archery into his life means French is becoming a sick perfectionist, not satisfied with his current standing and extraordinary trajectory but rather looking to build upon it.

“I’ve got a very hard callus here from pushing a wheelchair. If I grip the bow too far, it torques the bow on that callus,” he confided on the technical issues he is still learning. “The bow’s torque tuned pretty well, but it can throw wild arrows every now and then.” 

“When the shot breaks it pushes the bow on an angle, and it’ll take me like a couple of ends to realise that I’m doing it.” 

“Before I start to concentrate on getting that grip right before the shot, I go into motion, shoot, and then I realise, it’s back drilling the centre.”

French’s competitive nature was always within, but archery has managed to weave it out, making him become one of the fastest rising people in the sport.

Currently, his regiment includes shooting 200 arrows a day, six days a week as he gears up for the European Para Cup in Rome and the World Archery Para Championships in Gwangju in 2025. These would, by then, be just his fifth and sixth international tournaments. 

And French has also managed to enjoy the camaraderie of archery since joining its global community, a type of family and sporting synergy his concreting days would never have provided.

“It’s probably one of the best things about archery. There’s no intense rivalry, everyone helps everyone because we all understand.”

“It’s out of our control, so we might as well just help everyone. What might work for me isn’t going to work for someone else,” he added.

Therefore, archery has provided French two elements his past life couldn’t: ambition and athleticism.

He has taken this relatively newfound passion by the scruff of the neck to the point where he can now call himself a Paralympian.

But after practicing the sport for not even 36 months, this is only the beginning for Patrick French.

The archery world awaits with much anticipation to see where his lightning speed course to the top can go.