Olympics + 'Hunger Games' = a big boost for archery

Olympic athlete Khatuna Lorig, who trained 'Hunger Games' star Jennifer Lawrence, said that she's seen a huge spike in the popularity of archery.

|
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Olympic archer Khatuna Lorig gave 'Hunger Games' star Jennifer Lawrence lessons in how to handle her bow and arrow.

The blockbuster young adult trilogy “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins is being credited as one of the factors behind the rise in popularity of archery at this year’s Olympic Games.

US Olympic archer Khatuna Lorig, who trained “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Collins to use her bow and arrow to play Katniss Everdeen in the film version of Collins’ first book, said she has seen a huge rise in public awareness of the sport.

“When I train in North Hollywood, you have to get there two hours early to get a chance to shoot,” she said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.

American archer Brady Ellison, who is competing in the Olympics, said that he had seen a rise in the sport’s popularity in the US after “Hunger Games” and the release of “Brave,” the new Pixar film about a Scottish princess who loves using her bow and arrow.

“I do feel like this year that with all the movies and stuff that has come out, especially in the States, we are getting a lot more recognition for the sport,” Ellison told the Tribune.

Archery USA, a national group, even wrote a letter to author Collins, thanking her for bringing the sport into the limelight.

“When Katniss Everdeen started brandishing her bow and arrows on movie screens across America, our phones began (literally, began) ringing nonstop,” the letter read.

Peter Jones of the Governing Body of the sport of archery in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, told the Guardian that in the United Kingdom, “Hunger Games” hasn’t had as much of an effect on the sport’s popularity, but that the breaking of two world records by South Korean athlete Im Dong-hyun was bringing archery to the public’s attention again.

“It's a great sport for the family to do together,” he said of the activity’s appeal. “Absolutely anyone can do it.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Olympics + 'Hunger Games' = a big boost for archery
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2012/0731/Olympics-Hunger-Games-a-big-boost-for-archery
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe