The 2024 Paralympics have just ended and one Northwestern students Carter Stutzman, has a parent who participated in archery.
His father Matt Stutzman was born without arms and began shooting archery in 2010 after seeing somebody hunting with a bow and wanted to give it a shot.
He taught himself how to shoot and started participating in tournaments shortly after.
About a year and a half later after getting sponsorship and practice, he qualified for the 2012 Paralympic games where he won silver.
This year, at the 2024 Paralympics, he took home the gold medal after setting a record of 149, just one point away from a perfect score.
This marks the first gold medal that he has won after competing in four Paralympic games, and it is at this point where he ends his career as a professional archer.
Stutzman has participated in many competitions throughout his professional career and has made his name as not only one of the best para-archers in the world but has become one of the best archers in the world.
The Olympic gold medal was the award that had eluded him for his whole career, so upon receiving gold in the 2024 Paralympics, it acted as a nice sendoff to his career.
Outside of archery, he plans to spend more time on his drag racing career where he builds his own cars.
His son Carter said, “the viewership on the Paralympics isn’t as big and I feel like they need to get more people to watch it because it is so interesting for all the events.”
The Paralympics occur well after the Olympics conclude, which affects viewers.
Fortunately, viewership for the Paralympics is up from the games in Tokyo from 2020, but it still has less eyes than the Olympics.
