Archer aims to make his mark

"Thunk," goes the arrow as it hits the target, nearly 55 yards away. It's almost impossible to see, but Kyle Olson can tell by sound how well he shot.

"A soft thunk means it's in the middle, because that's been hit the most," he said.

At the age of 65, Carlton archer Kyle Olson is taking aim at his biggest target yet: competing with the U.S. national team on the international stage as a barebow archer in the men's 50-plus category.

To achieve that, he has to compete at a minimum of five USA Archery team qualifiers and emerge as one of the top three by the end of the season. Right now, with five of six team qualifier meets over, he's one of five ranked men in his class still in the running. He needs to perform well at the final meet in Pennsylvania at the end of this month, he said, but he's definitely got a shot.

"I've been all over this country but I've never been to any international competitions," said Olson, who began his competitive career 50 years ago.

He's tried many different forms of archery over the years, but came back to barebow, he said. Barebow is defined by World Archery as a basic style of recurve bow, which uses the same modern materials but does not permit accessories to aid in aiming (no sight) or stabilization and only one string.

Although Robin Hood would recognize a barebow as a descendant of his own bow, he'd notice the upgrades. Olson's $3,000 model is made of carbon mixed with some other top-secret resin-impregnated material, and so are the best arrows, which cost as much as $700 a dozen for Olympic quality.

"This is about as high-tech as you can make a stick and a string," Olson said.

On a recent summer's eve, Olson demonstrated his award-winning form near his campsite at the Buffalo House RV Park, where he and his wife, Joan, spend the warmer months with their friendly Pomeranian, Yogi.

Olson shoots his red, white and blue bow from the other side of the flamingos that mark the edge of his campsite - cheerful pink plastic monuments to summer. Lines spray painted in the grass mark the distance from the target, 50 meters in this case. He pulls down his most recent straw hat to block the setting sun. The name "Arrowchucker" is emblazoned across the back of his Duluth Archery Club competition jersey.

There's a story to go with that unusual name.

It was 1978, and the college nationals were being held "at some big college" in Virginia, Olson said. All the kids were staying in the dorms. They had a contest after the day's shoot. Each person was given an arrow, and had to run up to a line and "chuck" it as hard as they could.

"I won," he said, "and it stuck. They can forget 'Kyle,' but they don't ever forget 'Arrowchucker.'"

Early days

Olson grew up on a farm near Little Falls, Minnesota, and got into archery because a neighbor kid had a bow. Then the owner of the local bow shop took him under his wing. He would travel to different archery competitions in a converted school bus with his wife and kids, and Olson would pile in as well.

"I listened, and got pretty good," he said.

Good enough to eventually earn a college scholarship to Colorado Northwestern Community College. The four men and four women on the team went undefeated for two years.

"Vegas was our first national event. We were shooting against teams with a lot of money," he said. "We were a community college with 300-some students. We didn't have the best equipment but we had good coaches and good shooters. Pretty soon [equipment] started showing up on the doorstep."

A person doesn't need to be strong to be good at barebow, he said.

"If you can get your bones in alignment, so the bones hold the weight instead of the muscles," he said. "The rest of it is between your ears. It's all mental, being able to focus on that little dot and keep your alignment in whatever conditions."

Olson said he shoots better outside at 50 meters than inside at 20.

"I guess that's how I grew up," he said, "with the rain, wind and sun in my eyes. I learned to shoot through it."

Going for it

Olson has won a national title five times and holds 16 to 18 active state records. "I'm not sure how many state championships I have in different divisions, at least 50," he said.

Just this season, he estimated he's competed in about a dozen Minnesota events, plus he traveled to Yankton, South Dakota; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Gainesville, Florida and Columbus, Ohio for different team qualifiers.

Carlton is a big archery town, he said. The Minnesota State Indoor Championship was held at the Four Seasons Sports Center there in April, he said, a three-day tournament with close to 500 participants from around the state. They used the entire arena for the tournament, not the smaller indoor range upstairs that Olson would like to use more often.

"I won, of course," he said with a chuckle. "Very few people in the state that are shooting the same equipment can give me a go."

The national tournaments are a different story, he said. "There are some really good shooters there."

If he makes the men's 50 and older national team, it won't be a fully funded endeavor like the Olympics, he said. Although he's been competing for 50 years, Olson said he didn't always go hard. In 2016, he buckled down again and won a national title.

"This year I'm going for the full meal deal," he said. "I want it all."