“I like shooting because I like to challenge myself. I like to have challenges and succeed in meeting them. I think I like archery for the sensations and also for the beautiful, positive encounters. I really like discovering new personalities. It allows me to question myself, often.”
So said Alicia Baumert, one half of the best known couple in barebow, arriving in South Dakota with her partner in life (and mixed team) David Jackson.
Both are shooting to the Yankton 2026 World Archery Field Championships with a certain amount of expectations; internal or external.
Baumert is the reigning champion of the ‘other’ major, the Chengdu 2025 World Games, winning the title a year ago in China on a finals day partly held in apocalyptic conditions, eventually taking the title from the Italian ‘Queen Of Barebow’ Cinzia Noziglia in the final.
It changed her life, but only a little. “For a lot of my family, the title in China is a very big thing. But, for me, it’s not, it’s just a medal because I just shot the bow the way I liked to do it.”
She was also keen to put the opportunities in Yankton into perspective. “I came to this championship a little, I would say not unprepared, but this year has been so complicated for me that I put things into perspective a lot, and I don’t want to set goals that are not realistic.”
“I’m not asking myself the question of what I need to do tomorrow, but rather today: what do I need to do to do beautiful archery, to have fun? And I will try to put in place, to really stay in the present moment to succeed in moving forward, little by little.”
“But I think that these championships will do me good and that I just need to compete in a competition, which takes me out of my daily life a little.”
