No compromise: Alexis Ruiz balances elite archery with full-time nursing

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT is presented by WIAWIS.

Despite the many annual competitions and archery’s inclusion in the Olympics, not everyone in the sport has it as their sole profession.

Whilst many are able to receive sponsorships, prize money and funding, the sport is not always financially sustainable right from the beginning of a career, and working a day job is one way athletes are able to help pursue their dreams.

In compound archery – which won’t debut in the Olympics until LA28, as confirmed only yesterday – trying to create a sustainable revenue stream from the sport is even harder than recurve. But some athletes manage to enjoy both their sporting pursuits and a traditional nine-to-five.

USA compounder Alexis Ruiz is one of them. She has found the perfect balance between sporting duties and working as a paediatric nurse at Phoenix Children’s hospital in Arizona.

“I’m still working on it,” said the 2024 Pan American Champion. “Some days, nursing is very busy, but I moved to day shifts recently, so I’m no longer working overnight, and I feel like my balance is getting even better than it was.”

“There are some days it’ll be like eight hours into the shift, and I haven’t taken a drink of water or gone to the bathroom because it’s so busy.”

For Ruiz, balance means making the most of her days off. The 25-year-old works three 12-hour shifts per week, giving her four full days free – including weekends – to train.

Although saying her new routine of day shifts are easier, she still has to wake up at quarter to five in the morning, arrives to the hospital at six thirty, and then doesn’t return home until eight in the evening. A typical workday lasts more than 15 hours, leaving little time – or energy – for practice.

“I try to shoot just a couple of arrows if I can, but I’m also learning to be very gracious with myself,” she said.

“If I’m really tired, I’ll know my body just needs the rest right now. So I’ve really dedicated myself to the four days a week where I’m not working to really taking those days seriously, training long hours and getting my arrow count in.”

A monumental effort is required for Ruiz on and off the shooting line, but so far, the intensity of nursing hasn’t affected her results.

In 2024, she claimed bronze at the The Vegas Shoot and a hat-trick of golds in the individual, mixed team and women’s team events at the Pan American Championships.

This past indoor season, Ruiz won the Rushmore Rumble, one of the most prestigious tournaments on the USA circuit.

The only hindrance her work schedule has had, however, is on her winter calendar. Aside from the Rumble and annual Vegas Shoot this year, where she came 20th, she had to skip the rest of the indoor season due to work commitments, a crowded summer calendar and a bout of illness that also kept her out of a USA national event.

Still, she believes her absence hasn’t been a bad thing.

“Just a mental break sometimes is what I need, because archery and nursing are just so mentally draining. Sometimes having a break from one or the other and just focusing on one of them, I feel like is a really good break that I need.”

As packed as her days may be, Ruiz is still finding the time to keep up to date with the preparation required for the outdoor season.

At the first stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Central Florida last week, she was the oldest of a young USA compound women’s team along with 18-year-old Olivia Dean and 20-year-olds Carson Krahe and Abigail Winterton.

Ruiz, Dean and Winterton claimed the compound women team bronze for USA after beating Chinese Taipei on Wednesday but the former could not follow up that success individually, getting eliminated by Mexico's World Cup final four debutant Mariana Bernal 147-143 in the quarterfinals.

After years of being the youngest on the team, competing alongside names like Paige Pearce, Linda Ochoa-Anderson and Cassidy Cox, Ruiz admits the role reversal feels “really weird”.

Over the winter, she updated her sponsored GAS Bowstrings setup and added a new stabiliser component to help take some of the “extra movement” away when aiming.

To make archery and nursing to complement each other, the 2017 World Archery Youth Championships gold medallist credits her dedication for making it a little easier for them to coincide.

“Nursing school is not easy,” she explained. “You have to dedicate a lot of your time to learning the material, studying, learning how to do all the skills, and then in the actual job, you have to dedicate yourself to the patients and what’s best for them.” 

“Time management is probably the biggest thing for both of them, because there are so many tasks you have to do in nursing in just a single 12-hour shift.” 

“It really goes into your outside life of time management, saying to yourself, ‘Okay, I’ve got this many hours to practise, this is when I’m going to do it.’”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic ignited her passion to get back into nursing studies, Ruiz now finds herself in the best of both worlds.

She admits the long slog of nursing days can be tough. But with a more favourable routine now in place, her focus on the archery side of things can now be maximised, just in time for the season opener.

When working full-time and competing as an elite athlete simultaneously might seem a daunting prospect for some, world number seven Alexis Ruiz is at the top of her game and showing it can work.