In Saltillo, Wolfgang couldn’t make it, so Bettina stepped in to be Nico’s coach and the first person to join his memorable celebrations, which included plenty of shouting and fist pumping at Plaza de Armas after he defeated current world number one Mathias Fullerton 148-147 in the gold medal match.
“You need to celebrate it because it’s so tough to get to the World Cup Final and I was trying to enjoy every moment because I have some Mexican friends and family are here, especially my mum in the coach’s box.”
“She’s never done coaching before but she was amazing. It’s more emotional because when someone really close to you, like a family member, is in the box, it feels so much more amazing.”
There is more to what parents of athletes have to do to get them to places like Nico’s in archery, however, and it usually involves a lot of financial dedication.
When they first start, there are club and national federation fees, competition costs and, of course, their first pieces of equipment.
“They’ve sacrificed a lot for me to be here and I’m so thankful for my family,” added Nico in the post-match interview at Saltillo, which you can watch back on archery+. “Like when I didn’t have a driving licence, they’d drive me to competitions, buying me more equipment.”
“There’s three of us [children] and we all do sports.”
