FIVE ARCHERS QUAL;IFY FOR 2008 U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM
PHOENIX, Ariz. � Five USA archers are Beijing bound following the conclusion of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials at the Ben Avery Shooting Center in Phoenix, Ariz. The eight month process to determine the country�s best archers ended today with a final round robin event between the final eight men and women respectively.
On the women�s side 2004 Olympian Jennifer Nichols (Cheyenne, Wyo.) qualified for her second consecutive Olympic Games. She will be joined by Khatuna Lorig (Baltimore, Md./Chula Vista, Calif.) who will be representing her third country in her fourth Olympic Games. Lorig competed for the Unified Team of the former Soviet Union in 1992, the Republic of Georgia in 1996 and 2000. She immigrated to the United States following the 2000 Olympic Games and missed out of the 2004 Olympic Games as she had not yet received her U.S. citizenship. Now a fully fledged citizen of the United States, Lorig will return to the Olympic Games under the U.S. flag.
The men�s team will be a blend of youthful exuberance and a plethora of Olympic experience as 19-year-old Brady Ellison (Glendale, Ariz./Chula Vista, Calif.) made his first Olympic Team. He will join Butch Johnson (Woodstock, Conn.) who qualified for his fifth straight U.S. Olympic Team. Johnson previously competed in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. Vic Wunderle (Mason City, Ill.) who qualified for his third consecutive Olympic Games this weekend. He previously competed in 2000 and 2004, winning the individual silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
The top eight men and the top eight women competed in the final round of what was been an eight month U.S. Olympic Team Selection process. Athlete ranking to start this event was determined by standings following the first two rounds of the process which began in September 2007 and continued the first week of April at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. The scores from those two events combined with scores from this weekend�s event will be tabulated in a formula to determine the top three men and top two women that will make up the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team which was finalized on Sunday, May 4.
The final 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Standings are as follows:
Women
Jennifer Nichols (Cheyenne, Wyo.)
Khatuna Lorig (Baltimore, Md./Chula Vista, Calif.)
Karen Scavotto (Chula Vista, Calif.)
Lindsay Pian (Scottsdale, Ariz.)
Stephanie Miller (Naperville, Ill.)
Lori Cieslinski (Howell, Mich.)
Kendra Harvey (Rio Rancho, N.M.)
Dawn Chudy (Springfield, Pa.)
Men
Brady Ellison (Glendale, Ariz./Chula Vista, Calif.)
Butch Johnson (Woodstock, Conn.)
Vic Wunderle (Mason City, Ill.)
Jacob Wukie (Oak Harbor, Ohio/Chula Vista, Calif.)
Guy Krueger (College Station, Texas)
Jason McKittrick (Holton, Ind.)
Shawn Rice (Los Lunas, N.M.)
Staten Holmes (San Antonio, Texas)
USA Archery would like to sent a special thank you to the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Arizona State Archery Association for putting on a fantastic event.
For more information, please contact Cecil Bleiker, USA Archery Media Services Director at
