Australian archer Alice Ingley readies for potential Olympic spot
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Image: LauraHale.
Tuggeranong, Canberra — Nineteen year old Australian Shadow Olympic team member Alice Ingley was attending the second day of the National Archery Championships, a few days before the start of the target recurve event that she hopes to represent Australia at the Olympics in. Injuries may impact her chances, but in an interview with her, she did not think it would be a big problem.
The archer found out about her inclusion on the shadow team the night after returning from a concert by her favorite band, Celtic Thunder, in Wollongong.
The National Championships have possible Olympic qualification implications for Ingley as there are more girls on the shadow squad than eligible to compete on the full team at the Olympics, so cuts will be made based on performance at the event. From here, the three Australian women chosen to represent Australia will compete at the archery team event qualifier in the United States six weeks before the 2012 London Games. The possibility of individual qualification at the Games is another important part of the event, as Australia has only secured one spot for a female archer.
The only Olympic archery event is the target recurve competition, and it is the only event Ingley will be participating in at Nationals. She has competed in field recurve but is not competing to maximize her training for Olympic inclusion. She is hyper focused on the sport at the moment, with archery being her life.
Ingley, who might be related to the historical Robin Hood, is not a stranger to high level international competition, having competed at the 2010 Youth Olympics. This event was the only time she enjoyed substantial media interest, as otherwise archery is largely ignored by the Australian press. She has also competed at the first Youth Olympics, the Junior World Cup and two senior World Cups. She has also participated at the 2011 University Games in China and the 2011 Olympic Test Event in London.
She has an American doppelganger, Miranda Leek, and the two are sometimes mistaken for each other at international competitions.
She is a member of the Yokine Archery Club in Western Australia. Previously, for two and a half years, she had been affiliated with the archery program at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), but poor performances by the national team and other considerations led to the AIS dropping their high performance archery sport.
Ingley cannot drive, as she has not had the time to learn because of her archery focus. When not competing in archery, she works for Western Australian Newspapers. She deferred university for a year to try to realize her Olympic dream, taking time off from Edith Cowan University where she was working on a Bachelors of Arts in History.
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