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Iowa’s ‘Armless Archer’ wins gold at Paralympics in Paris
These are the fourth and final Paralympic Games for Fairfield’s Matt Stutzman
Matt Stutzman, an Iowa archer born without arms who has become one of the Paralympic Games’ best-known athletes, claimed a gold medal on Sunday evening in his fourth and final Paralympics.
The 41-year-old Stutzman, of Fairfield, made his big shots count to win the men’s individual compound open event and break a Paralympic record.
Stutzman scored 149 out of a maximum 150 points against China’s Ai Xinliang, the bronze medalist from Tokyo 2020, in the 5-end final.
Stutzman had already come through two shoot-offs, against Finland’s Jere Forsberg in the round of 16, then defending champion He Zihao of China in the semifinals.
“I knew going into this it was going to be my last Games, so there’s a lot of emotion, and I didn’t expect this medal, to be honest,” said Stutzman, who hadn’t won a medal since silver on his debut in London in 2012.
He began his archery career in 2010, after a friend suggested they go bow hunting. Stutzman borrowed a bow and took down a deer, which prompted his friend to suggest they compete in a tournament.
“I was like, ‘What's an archery tournament?'?” Stutzman told The Gazette in 2012. “I got hooked after that.”
Part of what attracted Stutzman to the sport was its accessibility.
“I realized that no matter what disability you had, you could compete,” Stutzman said in 2012. “Most other sports you have to be tall and fast and dunk, and there are all these stipulations to being good. But with archery, you don't have to be any of those. Anyone could do archery and be good at it.”
Stutzman, at this year’s Games, told the Washington Post he has been dealing with hip issues from the way he has to hold his leg to shoot during competitions.
“The more I shoot, the more sore my hips and legs get,” he told the Post. “If you look at how I shoot, legs weren’t designed to do all that for 13 straight years.”
Stutzman plans to stay involved in sport competitions — his newest pursuit is drag racing.
Stutzman told the Southeast Iowa Union he got good practice driving a tractor when he was only 7 years old, and later obtained a license to drive regular, unmodified vehicles. He’s been interested in tinkering with cars his whole life, and performs all the maintenance on his own car.
His current racecar, which he got two years ago, has been modified to meet his needs. Those modifications include making the steering wheel shorter.
Stutzman has already begun competing, in Iowa and other Midwestern states.
The Associated Press and the Washington Post contributed to this report.
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