6 August 2009 - Simon FAIRWEATHER (AUS): “A rise in the standard”

Simon FAIRWEATHER (AUS): “A rise in the standard” Shanghai (CHN) – 5 August 2009  The world and Olympic champion Simon FAIRWEATHER (AUS) is back on the field as a coach! We had the chance to meet with him during the World Cup in Shanghai.   What are you doing now and what is your involvement in archery?  Well, yes, I am very involved. I am the Head Coach for Australia and it’s a full-time job.   What do you think about the evolution of the level of the archers? In the last fifteen years, I think there has been a rise in standard of the top level archers. In fact it’s not the very top that is getting better, it’s more in the middle of the table that we see a difference. That part is definitely getting tighter and is moving up. On the other hand, at a few recent tournaments some scores weren’t as high as expected. I suppose the higher the level gets, the slower it progresses.   Another big change I’ve seen is that different countries are now at the top level. This is probably depending on what funding these countries get and what coaching they choose.   Now could you tell me about the competition format evolution and especially the match play? Well, it took me a long time to get comfortable with matches and it was a hard work. I think when you are a junior you get into a system. It’s quite easy; you have nothing to lose, so you are relaxed but when you are already competing at a high level and the system changes, it’s very difficult to adapt. What match play introduced is a competition type with far more stress and tension than before. So, hard work, especially mental preparation, was necessary to adapt to this format.   Another mental aspect that made adaptation even harder is the fact that a lot of archers resented the format. So you always had thoughts in your mind about why did they change or that this format isn’t really fair, etc.   In fact I think I’m the only one to have won in both systems, and I’m quite proud of it (smile). Note: Simon won the 1991 World Championships with a Grand FITA Round and the 2000 Olympic Games with the match play system.   So what’s the best system according to you? I think that if you’re looking for pure archery skill then the best format is the Grand FITA or the FITA round. However, if you’re looking for the archers that manage themselves and the tension the best, obviously you want to do match play.   All in all I think a good system would be to have a full FITA Round and then have only the first four competing in matches. The reason that people gave, when introducing match play, was that it was for TV. However, TV doesn’t show all the matches, so the first rounds are not so important.   And how do you see the World Cup? Actually I see it as a continuity of the European Grand Prix. In competition terms, it’s more or less the same. Of course, there is more media coverage and more involvement in show production and that can only benefit archery. The positive thing of the World Cup compared to the GPs is that they are all over the world. Countries that don’t have high level continental competitions really need these competitions to prepare for the world championships. However, I would like the destinations not to be so far to travel and close to airports.   What about the concept of the World Cup final matches in special locations? Well, it’s a good idea! The problem is always the same to get good exposure you need money and to get money you need good exposure, it’s a vicious circle. So any way of getting more exposure to archery is good, although in my opinion some World Cups could have done even better. The basic idea we must follow is to put archery where people can see it!   Today in archery there is more prize money involved, does that make you a little jealous? Just a little, in fact each time there was a raise in prize money in competitions when I was competing, it seemed to occur just after I had won that competition. Anyhow the real money in archery is in coaching or manufacturing not in shooting (smile). As an archer I really think that compounds can make more money than recurves. In fact it’s due to the American hunting market. For the manufacturers it’s clear that that is the place to make money. There are many side products in compound archery; releases, scopes, sights, etc., so compound archers can have more sponsorship agreements. In America there are also big tournaments for compound archers with high prize money.   In 2010 the first Youth Olympic Games will take place. What does an Olympic champion like you think about this? I am not sure I like it. Nowadays there seems to be an Olympic competition for everybody. And this confuses the crowd: Olympic champion, Olympic youth champion will be totally different titles although they share very close names.   I also have mixed feelings on the mixed competition at the Youth Olympic Games. Mixing countries together and good and less good archers together is very nice for showing off and being ambassadors of peace. On the other hand, Olympic Games are about performance and about a lot of preparation to get to the highest possible level for the competition. This concept does not encourage that at all. Why would young archers train really hard if they know their result will depend on another archer that might have not trained that hard? (Note: the Youth Olympic Games will host individual archery competitions as well). Another thing is that the youth society of today wants everything right away, they can’t wait! If they win everything when the archers are junior, will they be motivated to train even harder at the elite level?   A last thing I would like to say about the Olympics in general is that I find it really hard to see new sports going in the programme that have already bigger rewards in their competitions than the Olympic title. For us in the archery world, it is the biggest reward one can get. The preparation of any top recurve archer is focused on that goal. So it disappoints me a lot to see sportsmen going to the Olympics when it is not their biggest goal of the season, or even their career.   Finally, what would be your ideas to raise the awareness of archery worldwide? FITA is working on the general sport presentation (uniforms, events, etc.) but I think the main problem archery faces is to convince people that it is an athletic sport. If we look at the top archers today, there are too many of them who don’t care enough about their physical condition. When people watch TV and see people who aren’t that fit and are shooting very complicated bows, they just think it can’t be that hard. So I think maybe archers should think more about the image they want to give to people and work on it!   Thank you for your time, Simon!   Thomas RENSCH FITA Communication