Fairfield’s Stutzman becomes world champ in archery

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield’s Matt Stutzman is a world champion.

Stutzman captured the gold crown at the World Para Archery Championship last week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Stutzman described the games as the “next biggest thing” after the Paralympics, which he has competed in three times.

Stutzman was born with no arms and has adopted the moniker “The Armless Archer.” At these archery contests, he normally competes against people who have full use of their arms. But in the finals of this competition, he faced a fellow archer who also had no arms, a man named Aleksandr Gombozhapov of Russia.

This match was the first final in history where two archers without arms competed against each other. Earlier in these same games, Stutzman had fulfilled a dream of competing against another armless archer, Belgium’s Piotr Van Montagu.

The match between Stutzman and Gombozhapov was a classic case of a challenger meeting their idol. Stutzman has been competing in archery for more than a decade, and has made a name for himself with his inspirational life story of overcoming obstacles, not to mention his incredible accuracy as an archer, which earned him a silver medal at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Gombozhapov had no interest in archery until a horrific accident befell him in 2016 when he was hit by a train. He lost both of his arms and one leg. With a wife and child at home, Gombozhapov struggled to figure out how he would provide for his family.

In 2019, Stutzman won a bronze medal at the World Championships. Gombozhapov saw video of Stutzman’s accomplishment and was inspired.

“He watched hours of video on me,” Stutzman said. “He purchased the same equipment as mine, and taught himself how to shoot. He has the same form as me, even how he activates the bow is exactly the same.”

Stutzman wears a special harness that allows him to draw the arrow back with his shoulder and release it with his mouth. He steadies the bow with his leg. The only difference with Gombozhapov is that Stutzman uses his right leg and Gombozhapov uses his left leg.

In the finals, Stutzman was flawless. He needed to shoot a perfect score — all bull's-eyes — to grab the gold, and that’s exactly what he did. After the final shots that solidified Stutzman as the champion, his first act was to congratulate Gombozhapov and to give him a hat, which Stutzman signed.

Stutzman said his road to the championship was anything but smooth. During one of the qualification rounds, he had an uncharacteristic eight misses, which put him in 54th place when he’s normally in the top 5.

“I was almost in last place,” Stutzman said. “I had to go through seven elimination matches, the most by anyone to make it to the finals.”

Stutzman was hampered by an equipment malfunction, where sand got stuck in the part of the bow that helps with his release.

“We were in Dubai, the home of sand,” he laughed. “I had to take the whole thing apart and put it back together, and was able to work myself back into the competition.”

Stutzman said that not only was he thrilled to win the competition, but he was heartened to learn he has been an inspiration to other disabled archers. When Stutzman broke into archery, he did an online search for how to shoot an arrow with no arms, and got no results. No one had done what he sought to do, becoming the first “Armless Archer.” For 10 years, Stutzman was the only armless archer, but thanks to his example, there are now four armless archers in the world.

Stutzman has worked with these other armless archers by giving them tips on how to hold the bow and to improve their accuracy. He has shared equipment with them, such as a holder for arrows so they can load them fast with their feet.

“We have to make our own stuff because if a company made archery equipment for armless people, they’d go out of business because only four people would buy it,” Stutzman joked.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com