Senior Avery Harriman has many interests: technical theater, specifically carpentry, making jewelry, and playing video games. After their family moved to North Carolina from South Carolina a few months prior to the early 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Harriman reluctantly picked up another pastime—one that has taken them across the country and led to Harriman being nationally ranked in their competitive endeavor.
Four years ago, Harriman’s mom encouraged them to look into archery, a sport that Harriman initially despised.
“I’ll be honest, I hated [my mother] for dragging me out. I was like, no, I don’t want to do this,” Harriman said.
But after spending some time at an archery range, Harriman came around to the sport, enjoying challenges such as shooting apples and 3D targets.
“I started shooting, and I really enjoyed it,” they said.
Archery also offered another benefit: after experiencing chronic pain and mobility issues around the time they began shooting, Harriman said the sport even proved therapeutic.
“I had a hard time moving around a lot of the time, but archery was a way to get out of the house, talk to people and just kind of try and use my body even though it was hard at times,” they said.
Harriman’s involvement in the sport also boosted their confidence.
“It was interesting to finally feel that click, have a passion for sport to end up building up my own confidence and feeling like I can feel good about myself, as well as me all that support,” they said.
These days, Harriman practices the sport at First Flight Archery in Raleigh and enters competitions regularly—sometime representing First Flight Archery and sometimes competing individually.
Archery offers several different disciplines; Harriman competes in field archery events, shooting at stationary targets of various sizes, using a barebow bow. Harriman’s bow is made of fiberglass and customized to their height.
At Harriman’s “peak,” they were ranked seventh nationally and were the Southeastern Sectional champion.
Harriman recently traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, to compete in the National Field Archery Association indoor national championship, an archery competition that hosted “over 1,500 archers across 48 states and five countries,” Harriman said.
But it’s not just the competitive aspect of archery that Harriman enjoys.
“It’s a very supportive sport; people will offer you help no matter what,” Harriman said, noting that archers often help each other repair equipment or are willing to loan equipment to their competitors. “Even if you’re not disabled, archery is a fantastic sport to meet a lot of great people.”
Ultimately, though, Harriman has ambitions to compete in the Paralympic Games, which is similar to the Olympics, but for people with disabilities. Harriman said that competitors usually have aids, like something to lean on, a guide, accessible equipment or anything else that allows them to compete to their fullest potential.
While Harriman won’t compete in the Paralympic Games in Lima, Peru, later this year, 2028 may be a different story.
“I have some very big archery ambitions,” Harriman said.
