Rod White's passion for hunting leads to gold and bronze Olympic medals

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

All Rod White ever wanted to do was hunt.

Walking into his home southeast of Mt. Pleasant, it is obvious that White has been successful at his passion as mounted trophies from some of the 65-70 deer and elk he has slain provide the décor for the living room.

What White probably won?t tell you, unless you ask, is that he is a two-time Olympic archery medalist. Calling him a reluctant Olympic champion may be too harsh, but saying that the medals were a byproduct of his desire to hunt hits the nail on the head.

?The Olympics definitely were not a goal of mine, I just wanted to hunt,? he said. ?It?s not something I dreamed of doing, it is just something I did.?

Competing in team archery, White won gold in Atlanta in 1996 and returned from Sydney, Australia, four years later with a bronze medal.

His hometown of Hermitage, Pa., reveled in White striking gold in Atlanta, hosting a ticker-tape parade for him on his return and naming a park that was being built in town ?Rodney White Olympic Park.?

Twenty years have passed since White?s golden performance in Atlanta as he became the youngest male ever to win the gold medal in the sport, a distinction he still owns.

With millions of Americans tuned into the Olympics daily since the Rio games began Aug. 5, don?t count White among the masses. ?I?m trying to follow some of the Olympics on the Internet, but I don?t follow them nearly as closely as I did when I competed.?

Although he has moved halfway across the country since winning his medals, his memories of the Olympic experience remain largely the same as they did two decades ago. When asked by a Pennsylvania newspaper reporter upon returning home from Atlanta whether competing in the Olympics was the thrill of a lifetime, White said, ?Not really?it?s more of a relief now that the trials are over.?

The hardest work and the most stress, White remembers, was during preparation for the Olympics. ?We had prepared so much as a team. You invest so much time into making the team, that the qualifying process is more stressful than the Olympics.

But make no mistake, in the deep subconscious regions of his mind, White is smiling. ?I don?t really mean to downplay it (the Olympics). The Olympic setting was cool and something I will never forget.?

He stayed in the Olympic village in both 1996 and 2000, describing the village as ?a typical college setting. We shared dorm rooms and went there to sleep and that?s about it.?

What he does remember is the security was very strict, particularly at Atlanta.

Competitive archery was never that important, White said, even though at one time he was ranked second in the world and owned a couple of world records. ?It was always my goal to beat whom I was competing against. Scores really weren?t that important.?

He became involved in archery as a 13-year-old with the goal of being able to hunt. ?I just wanted to go hunt, so I had to go through lessons at the club. Part of it was target shooting and I did well.?

Doing well again might be understating his prowess as he won a pair of silver medals at the Junior World Championships when he was 17.

White?s teammates on the gold medal team were Justin Huish and Butch Johnson. Vic Wunderle replaced Huish on the 2000 squad. White said he knew his teammates well from competitions throughout the United States and world.

?We competed against each other a lot,? he recalls. ?Butch and I traveled a lot together. We went to all the tournaments together. We competed so much together that we knew each other inside and out.?

White?s team bested South Korea for the 1996 title with South Korea winning in 2000. Italy joins the U.S. and South Korea, White remarked, as the archery powers of the world.

The gold medal was worth a $25,000 bonus collectively to the team members, with the prize money coming from the U.S. Olympic Committee, while the bronze medal brought $5,000.

He also competed as an individual at both Olympicis, finishing 19th at Atlanta. He doesn?t remember his individual placing in Sydney.

Although there was a mini pot of gold at the end of the Olympic rainbow for White, he said participating in archery, unlike other sports, such as swimming and track and field, is not a financially lucrative experience. Archery is not a United States Olympic committee-funded sport (except for medal winners), making the U.S. the only country which does not fund its archery competitors.

?I bet my parents spent $40,000 to $50,000 sending me to archery competitions,? he said. ?Financially, it was really a struggle.?

White says his hunting carried him financially during the Olympic years as he had ?a lot of endorsements from companies? when he became a professional hunter. In return, White endorsed the sponsor?s products and represented the company at seminars and in speaking engagements.

Just making the Olympic team is a grueling experience, he said. In 1996, there were six qualifying tournaments for the team, but the number of tournaments was pared in half in 2000.

The team?s goal at the 1996 Olympics was to medal and White said the trio was fairly optimistic the goal would be attained. Anywhere from nine to 16 teams compete in Olympic archery. His 1996 team was seeded second going into the Olympics.

Marriage to a Mt. Pleasant native (the couple is now divorced) brought him to Iowa. He had a land management business for several years and also was a partner in a Mt. Pleasant real estate firm.

Part of the reason his view on his Olympic experience may differ greatly from other athletes is that White had plenty of experience in top-notch and world competition.

?Because I had competed overseas quite a bit, the Olympics to me was like some of those overseas tournaments. There were just more people at the Olympics,? he explained.

Following the 2000 Olympics, he never again tried out for the team. He said that marriage and raising a family became his priorities.

In fact, he took a hiatus from all archery competition until resuming his career last year. ?I have a three-year plan to be in the top 10 of tournaments.?

He admits his approach to competition may differ greatly from that of other participants. ?I don?t practice, I just show up.?

White also is in the process of launching his website and conducts bow schools and clinics. He said his ultimate goal is opening an archery center somewhere in eastern Iowa.

In archery, White said cardio exercise is as important and probably more so than practice. He admits to exercising more now than he did during his Olympic years.

The primary reason White began competing again is the sensation he gets from the sport. ?Archery provides such a major rush of adrenaline that it is difficult to control it. I live for that rush.?