Archery is about confidence and the right mind-set

She might have been a mathematician or a lawyer, but in the end Klára Grapová decided to study journalism. She is in her third year at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University and has her sights set on a career as a sports journalist. Sports are close to her heart and she herself is an archer on the national squad.

As a little girl, she often went on trips to castles around the Czech Republic with her parents, but Klára was more interested in what was happening in the courtyards than in the interiors of noble estates. “In many places, they organised archery events to entertain the children, and I enjoyed that very much. I tried it in every castle where I could,” the now 21-year-old recalls.

A bow can cost 100,000 crowns

At the age of ten, Klára joined the Ostrava archery club, for which she competes even today. “Ten years old is the optimum age to start archery. By then kids are not as flighty and can concentrate better, which is important because after all you are getting your hands on a gun,” she explains. Children learning archery are first given ordinary wooden bows and gradually get more sophisticated equipment.

Archery clubs provide all the equipment for the kids when they start, you don't get your own until you're about 15. By then, you buy bows that you expect to last for a few years,” says Klára, who currently owns two high-end bows, each worth around CZK 100,000 (the equivalent of around 4,000 euros). “Every year a new model comes out and something will probably need to be replaced eventually. Of course, you end up going through a lot of arrows; they are carbon and wear out quickly.”

Klára fell in love with archery and showed a talent for the sport which soon translated to success. At 16, she became the Czech Republic's indoor champion among cadets, then she won gold three times in a row in the juniors, and she was victorious at the Academy Games. She has also participated in the world's biggest events, including the World Championships and the World Universiade. She also qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Czech archery in Japan in the end was represented only by fellow national team member Marie Horáčková. And Klára was one of the first to congratulate her when she was asked to conduct a TV interview with her colleague. “I always found it funny when journalists asked athletes about their feelings after a competition. And when I interviewed by Marie, the first thing that came out of my mouth was: 'You made it to the Olympics - how do you feel?'" the journalism student laughs.

“Earlier, when I saw interviews, I’d think, 'How can they ask that?' But then when I had to interview someone myself, I realised that I didn't really know what to ask. Especially when the topic was about a sport I already know everything about. So since then I prefer not to judge journalists’ questions,” Klára Grapová. Her short interview was nevertheless a success and was even invited her to the studio to be a co-play-by-play announcer during the archery competition at the Olympic Games.

Covering politics? Not her thing

Broadcasting from the studio was a great experience for the budding journalist, as was her internship at the Ostrava office of the Czech News Agency (ČTK). Before the regional elections, she interviewed local politicians as part of a survey. At the time I realised that there was no way I wanted to cover politics in the future. At the same time, it confirmed to me that journalism is an interesting job, where you are not just in one place and often go out into the field and meet different people. Logically, sports reporting is more my forté."

Yet as a child, she wasn't exactly the ideal sports type. “Both of my parents did sports - my dad in baseball, and my mom was on the softball team. But I was all thumbs when I was a kid when it came to throwing and catching, and that's the most important thing in these sports, so they didn't even try to get me to follow in that direction,”s laughs Klára.

“But I always enjoyed PE at school because it was mainly fun with my friends. But otherwise, I preferred after-school hobby clubs like painting or ceramics, and at home I would rather take a book than run out. It wasn't until archery that I really got into it."

The road to the world's top archery ranges

Of course, archery wasn’t always a sure thing, either. “Until I was about 14, I was actually wondering if I enjoyed archery at all - I couldn't concentrate properly and I was fooling around with my friends at training sessions more than concentrating on shooting. But when someone would come up to me and tell me that I could have racked up just ten more points and I would have been on the national team, I suddenly started to wonder," says the Charles University student.

Getting to major competitions became a motivation, so she started to work more on technique and concentration, and the results soon followed. For example, she is now also working with a sports psychologist: “Because in our sport it's also a lot about what’s going on upstairs. Besides having the right technique, I need to have confidence that I have everything set up correctly in my preparation and that it works. Not to look for mistakes where there are none.”

Archery can be said to be one of the sports where the body is often subjected to a one-sided burden. “Most archers have some kind of muscular imbalances and we try to focus on that during conditioning. Everyone's health is different; it depends on their shooting technique. Often the shoulders are injured, and the cervical spine also gets a lot of work,” she says, listing the pitfalls of her sport.

Not giving up archery

“Thanks to the sport, I have friends all over the country, and I meet people I wouldn't normally meet. Likewise, without archery, I probably wouldn't get to see a lot of places. It keeps me motivated to keep going. That's why I train even six times a week, to see how far I can push myself,” Klára adds.