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ERIC PETERS
Sport: Archery
Event: Men’s Individual, Mixed Team
Age: 27
Hometown: Ottawa
Residence: Kitchener-Waterloo
Local Club: RA Centre/South Nation
First Olympics
Instagram: @eric_peters.97
VIEW ERIC’S COMPETITION SCHEDULE HERE.
By Adam Beauchemin
Ottawa’s Eric Peters will be competing in his first Olympic Games in Paris, where he’ll have a chance to keep a recent hot streak aflame on the grandest stage in sport.
The 27-year-old has rocketed up the archery world rankings to the #5 position in just over a year as he prepares to compete in the men’s individual recurve event, which begins on July 25 – one day before the Games officially open.
“It hasn’t felt quite as real as it does now, as everything starts to really ramp up and really get close,” says Peters, who will also compete in the mixed team competition on Aug. 2.
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The World Archery Rankings tell the story of Peters’ recent rapid rise.
In January 2023, Peters was sitting at 64th overall. By August, he had moved up over 50 spots to 13th. Now, in July 2024, as he heads to his first Olympics, Peters is ranked as the fifth best recurve archer on the planet.
“It’s been really cool,” underlines Peters, who only moved inside the world’s top-300 in 2019. “I’ve been doing a lot of work over the last several years, but it would come together and then disappear on me. The last year and a half or so, everything has just been coming together a little bit more consistently — everything sort of falling into place.”
Peters climbed the rankings by earning top placements in multiple international competitions. He achieved and then matched his career best placement of fifth in 2023 and 2024 Archery World Cup events.
In July 2023, Peters traveled to Berlin and broke through to earn Canada’s highest finish of all-time at the World Archery Championships when he placed in second. His world silver medal also secured Team Canada an Olympic qualification position for Paris.
Peters later went on to earn a bronze medal in the mixed team competition in the 2024 Pan American Championships alongside his fellow Canadian Olympic teammate Virginie Chénier. The same pair will be competing together in the mixed team event in Paris.
There is no secret formula to Peters’ recent success. He says his routine and approach to the sport hasn’t changed greatly over the past two years — it’s simply been a matter of an athlete hitting his stride.
“Nothing else has changed significantly. I may be training a small amount more, but not in any real significant way,” he notes. “Everything’s just kind of started to really come together.”
Peters competed in the 2014 Youth Olympics in China — where he won a mixed team bronze medal — and he served as an alternate for Team Canada at the most recent Olympics in Tokyo behind Crispin Duenas.
“Just missing out on Tokyo was really difficult,” recounts the double-medallist at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games. “So, making it here, as I’ve said before to some other people, it just felt like this reward – this culmination of all this work that I put in – finally paying off and really coming together.”
Peters first picked up a bow when he was 11 years old and he’s been competing competitively since age 13. He says his love for the fantasy genre was his gateway into the sport.
“I always was — and I still am — that nerdy kid who loved fantasy books and video games and films,” Peters smiles. “I begged and pleaded to get into archery because that’s what all my favourite characters were doing.”
Eventually, Peters’ parents gave in to his relentless requests and signed him up for the sport. He plied his craft over many years indoors at the RA Centre, and outdoors at South Nation Archery near Winchester or in Gatineau close to the Branchaud-Brière complex.
Skip ahead a decade and a half, and the University of Waterloo science grad has turned into one of the world’s elite in his sport, and he’s set to compete on its biggest platform.
“As the bags start getting packed and everything starts getting ready, it really starts to make it feel real,” adds Peters, who remains based in Kitchener-Waterloo.
Peters got the official word in May that he’d been given Canada’s berth in the men’s event for Paris, and he notes that his routine has remained mostly the same since then. While he leaves for a training camp in the Netherlands on July 14, he’s looking to maintain his norms in the lead-up to Paris.
“It’s just a matter of keeping it going and keeping it steady,” he signals. “It’s a difficult sport to peak in, so it’s more of just a matter of trying to keep it all the same.”
He says his plan for his Olympic debut is to arrive in Paris with a totally open mind.
“These are my first Games, and I don’t want to go in expecting anything or trying to look for anything,” he says. “I just want to go in there and see what it’s all about, see what’s happening, and just be free and be open and let it all come to me.”
COMPETITION SCHEDULE:
In the weeks leading up to the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Ottawa Sports Pages will be profiling participating local athletes. From July 24-Aug. 11, we’ll be providing daily Ottawa at the Olympics coverage via our free email newsletter. Sign up below to follow along!
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