As well as silver success in Lac La Biche where she also narrowly lost in the women’s team bronze medal match, Sydney-born Feeney set a new national record for recurve women in Australia on 15 December with 668 points over 72 arrows, bettering the previous record by three.
She insisted she is not done yet though, and watching the past Olympic Games from the sidelines whilst back amongst the world’s best in the sport has whet Feeney’s appetite to qualify for LA28.
“There’s just something special about the Olympics, talking about it, I get goosebumps. One day I’m going to go back,” claimed the 2010 Australian Open Champion who was inspired by Simon Fairweather‘s home gold triumph in Sydney 2000.
“This time it was like my plan is in action and is the goal. As much as I really wanted to be in Paris, I think that having that extra time overall will set me up and put me in a better position leading into LA for a really good performance.”
“I just look back and go wow, I was still such a kid and having a lot more life experience now I feel like I can manage myself in terms of training, in terms of performance as well as on the line emotionally a lot better,” she added.
Therefore, Feeney’s time away from archery has not provided just a simple extended sabbatical but a period for her to grow as a human being.
Her love for the sport has now gone full circle.
From wanting to be like her idol Fairweather, Lexie Feeney now enjoys archery because it has become her “happy place” somewhere for her to enjoy the craft of archery, away from her already busy filled days and of course a motivation to be an Olympian once again, in what would be 20 years on from Beijing.
