Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Eric Christopher Bennett | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | American | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | [1] Phoenix, Arizona, United States [2] | November 4, 1973 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home town | Surprise, Arizona | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Northern Arizona University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Archery | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Recurve | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coached by | MJ Rogers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Eric Christopher Bennett (born November 4, 1973) is an American paralympic archer who competes in recurve archery. He is a five-time Paralympian, having represented the United States at the 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 Paralympic Games. Additionally he is a two-time World Para Archery Champion and a four-time U.S. national champion.
Bennett began learning archery at the age of 7. He lost his right arm above the elbow in a car accident caused by a drunk driver when he was 15 years old. Bennett learned to shoot with only one arm. He joined the U.S. national team in 2007, qualifying for his first Paralympics in Beijing the following year. [3]
Bennett is the former physics teacher of Olympic archer Brady Ellison. [4]
Bennett made his Paralympic debut at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. He lost to John Stubbs, who would go on to win the gold medal, in the round of 16. [5] At the 2012 Paralympic Games Bennett made it all the way to the bronze medal match, ultimately losing to Mikhail Oyun. [6]
In the summer of 2015, Bennett was selected to the U.S. archery team for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, making this his third Paralympics. [3] He made it to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual silver-medalist Hanreuchai Netsiri. At the 2020 Paralympic Games Bennett lost in the round of 16 to Zhao Lixue who would go on to win the silver medal. [7]
Jason ("Jay") Lyon OLY BKin is an archer from Canada. He was a member of the Canadian National archery team who has competed in the 2004 World Junior Archery Championships, 2005 World Senior Archery Championships, the 2007 World Senior Archery Championships, the 2007 Pan-American Games and many other events.
Mauro Nespoli is an Italian archer. He won individual silver at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and was a member of the Italian teams that won gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics and silver at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Great Britain competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Great Britain sent a delegation of around 400, of which 212 were athletes, to compete in eighteen sports at the Games. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom; athletes from Northern Ireland, who may elect to hold Irish citizenship under the pre-1999 article 2 of the Irish constitution, are able to be selected to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Paralympics. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Paralympic competition.
The United States sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. A total of 213 U.S. competitors took part in 18 sports; the only 2 sports Americans did not compete in were soccer 5-a-side and 7-a-side. The American delegation included 16 former members of the U.S. military, including 3 veterans of the Iraq War. Among them were shot putter Scott Winkler, who was paralyzed in an accident in Iraq, and swimmer Melissa Stockwell, a former United States Army officer who lost her left leg to a roadside bomb in the war.
Brady Ellison is an American archer who competes in recurve archery. He holds the record for the longest continuous period as the world number-one-ranked men's recurve archer, from August 2011 to April 2013. He earned his nickname "The Prospector" during the 2015 world championships due to his proclivity for 'finding gold'.
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Danielle Brown MBE is a British competitive archer and award winning children's author. She has competed in the Paralympic Games, winning gold medals in Beijing and London, and has also won medals shooting in the able-bodied category, including at the Commonwealth Games.
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Patrick Huston is a British two-time Olympian archer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He captured three world championship titles under the youth level, and eventually competed as a member of the two person archery squad of Team GB at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio, losing the first round match to the eventual champion Ku Bon-chan of South Korea. In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics his best result was a men's team 5th. Huston currently lives near Lilleshall National Sporting Centre and trained full-time under senior national coach Richard Priestman for Archery UK, while remaining a loyal founding member of East Belfast Archery Club. World ranking 14 at 16 January 2023
Mete Gazoz is a Turkish recurve archer. He won the gold medal in the men's individual event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. He also represented Turkey at the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the 2023 World Archery Championships held in Berlin, Mete Gazoz emerged victorious, claiming the prestigious Individual title. In an intense final, he triumphed over the skilled Canadian archer Eric Peters, securing his place as the first Turkish archer to achieve the esteemed recurve gold medal in a World Championship.
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Jodie Grinham is a British archer who represents Great Britain in the Summer Paralympics. She won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and at the 2024 Summer Paralympics she won team gold and individual bronze, while seven months pregnant with her second child.
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Andre C. Shelby is a U.S. Paralympic archer and Paralympic and Parapan champion.
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Taymon Kenton-Smith is an Australian Paralympic Recurve Archer. He represented Australia at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, in Men's individual recurve, and Mixed team recurve and has been selected to compete at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.