No stone was truly unturned for the USA as they defeated France convincingly to win the mixed team gold medal at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.
That phrase might suggest that Aarya Arun and Ye-eun Whang’s victory against France was hard-fought, but the scoreline starkly contrasted with that, as the match ended 5-1, with a consistent 38 in all three sets, while Maël Lamouret – Sunday’s recurve men’s under-18 champion – and Aurane Lapouge managed 37, 36 and 38.
“My mom [in the crowd] was telling me to be confident, to push and make sure I don’t regret the shot, so she was boosting my confidence a lot,” revealed Whang, who leaves Dakar with two medals around her neck after taking silver in the women’s individual event on Monday.
It was the journey to that gold medal match, however, that really tells the story of mettle for the US duo.
To start the day, Arun and Whang edged Slovakia 5-3 in a close encounter before their resolve was fully tested against the great archery nation of Korea in the semifinal.
Neither side dropped an end lower than 37, and the USA even scored a perfect 40 in the second set, something Korea could not do.
Nevertheless, Lee Jiho and Kim Sumin tied with the Americans 38-38 in the last end to make the scoreline 4-4 and force a shoot-off.
Sumin had only recorded two nines in the regular match, but whether it was nerves or something else, she dropped one at the far left of the outer gold ring.
As both Jiho and Whang found the 10-ring, it was up to under-18 double 60-metre world record holder Arun to do the same to get the USA the top podium spot.
Even better, it was a 10X – the X-ring being the central zone within the 10-ring used to break ties in qualification – much to his and Whang’s delight, with their celebrations after that match almost as jubilant as those following their victory against France in the final.
