“IT WAS DELUSIONAL,” Kerrie Leonard begins, “or faith, hope and pixie dust that I was going to be at the Games.”
The Meath archer is in Paris for her second Paralympics, but she won’t sugarcoat this cycle.
It has been particularly difficult; a hard slog while working full-time in advertising sales until recently. She left her role earlier this summer to focus solely on Paris 2024.
After Tokyo, where she finished ninth overall, Leonard was at a crossroads.
“I came away with a lot of decisions to make,” the 33-year-old says.
“I was trying to justify whether I could stay in the sport or not. In Tokyo, there was a shift from the Olympics and Paralympics are amateur, but those athletes are making it their full-time careers. It is in everything but name a professional sport.
“I really was concerned whether I, as an amateur athlete, would be able to stay with the pack. The standard has shot up immensely.”
Leonard acquired a spinal cord injury in a farm accident at the age of six.
She first got into archery after her uncle put her in touch with another wheelchair user, and she attended a beginner’s course. “I could see somebody else who was in a wheelchair participating in sport, and it gave me the confidence that I could too.”
After a few year’s hiatus, she was roped back in by a friend running the archery club in college. As it transpired, she dropped out of college, but kept going to training.
“Somebody saw I was a lot more involved and asked me if I’d like to go to a competition internationally, everything paid for,” Leonard, who later completed a degree in Equine Business and a Masters in Marketing, recalls.
“This was a month or two before the London Games. When I went to that competition, I saw what other people’s impairments were, the gap between me and everyone else. It gave me confidence that I could do the sport.
“I didn’t have any ambitions of going to a Games at all. It was only trial and error and me feeling quite embarrassed by some of my earlier results, continuing to go back and try and improve on them because I didn’t want that to be a mark on my CV, or life.”
She kept at it and knew she was getting closer as Rio 2016 entered the frame.
She narrowly missed out, but would qualify for Tokyo by training just at weekends as she juggled a full-time Masters and work. In the lead-up to the Covid-impacted Games, she worked from home full time and trained between calls.
Living on a farm, Leonard has no shortage of space to train.
“I have a tarmacked driveway and it has the particular length I need for competition conditions. I’m able to practice, and go up with ease to collect my arrows. The postman does look at me twice when I do shoot, as I shoot up the driveway, it’s a little jarring, but he will understand the routine now!”
She generally trains alone, leaning on psychology, while her training regime is mostly archery-specific but also involves strength training, physiotherapy and other injury-prevention methods.
“The majority of my training is archery. Archery isn’t something that suddenly you can go to the highest weight category of. You have to slowly build up. Over time you gain strength, and have the capacity to get into the bigger weighted bows. You need a higher poundage bow for wind, as the arrow needs to work quicker through the wind, so it needs to be heavier to do that.
“It’s all about consistency and routines. The more you do it, the more consistent you are.
“Archery is a monotonous sport, anything that changes up the routine and pattern to keep you on track is really important.
“What a lot of people don’t understand is that a cycle is four years. The initial two years, it’s really on you to be motivated and committed to the sport. The pressure and adrenaline side of things kicks in when you go to qualifying competitions, but that is in the latter half for the cycle. If you are not fit in the first two years of that cycle, in the best position you can be in, you are doing yourself a disservice.”
Leonard is among a 35-strong Team Ireland set to compete at the Paralympics.
She is one of the first athletes in action, shooting her shot across Thursday and Friday at the spectacular Esplanade des Invalides.
Performance aside, the Culmullen native is hoping for a transformational Games and upsurge in Para sport.
“What I think needs to now shift is public perception,” Leonard concludes.
“People are very comfortable calling me an Olympian. I’m okay – just about – with them referring to me as that. I wouldn’t say it’s ignorance, it’s not being educated. We need the public to understand what a Paralympian is doing is the exact same standard as an Olympian. That amateur aspect isn’t a reality across the board, across the sports.
“I thought there would be a much sharper increase after London. That did definitely happen, but I think it plateaued after London. Given it is 12 years since London, I’m surprised the public hasn’t caught on that it’s on the same par [as the Olympics].
“In Ireland I think it is getting better with Jason Smyth and Ellen Keane participating in things like Dancing with the Stars, but it’s a bit disappointing for me to know that the only reason the public know the names of those two athletes is because they competed on a mainstream show, rather than represented their country at the highest level and are extremely talented.
“That’s where I think to needs to go. The sport has shifted, the standard has shot up, so we need to recognise that.”
