Introduction to The Sport
Lee Ford-Faherty is a well-known accomplished Paralympic archer. She started competing in archery at just 7 years old. During this time, she did not have any formal training and was simply learning the sport on her own. In 2005 she suffered an injury in which left her partially paralyzed. This injury did not keep her down but encouraged her to move forward and work hard. Archery was an outlet for her in which allowed her to get out of the house and be active. A friend encouraged her to go shoot arrows with her and from that day on she was hooked. Ford-Faherty was now determined to one day make Team USA and compete in Paralympics. Through hard work and determination, she made her dreams a reality and competed in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. This allowed her to travel all over the world and connect with people who she now considers some of her best friends.
Photo courtesy of Lee Ford-Faherty
Putting in The Work
Success does not come overnight; it is something in which takes years of practice and hard work. Ford-Faherty trains five days a week. Archery is a sport which focuses on muscle memory. By practicing most days, she can stay in shape and maintain her muscle memory. She even has a practice area in her living room and on weekdays after work she shoots about 150 arrows a night. On the weekends she will go outside and shoot for hours. Every hour she puts in allowed her to get one step closer to her goals and gives her the ability to succeed time and time again.
Motivation to Succeed
Photo courtesy of Lee Ford-Faherty
For any athlete motivation is the key to success. It differs from person to person but for Ford-Faherty it is her friends and the students that she teaches which motivates her. By traveling to events, she not only gets to see the world and compete, but she gets to see her friends. She also spends a lot of time teaching young kids how to shoot. Watching them fall in love with the sport and succeed brings joy to her but also motivates her to continue to get better. Through her hard work and dedication, she has accomplished a lot in the sport and will continue to be an inspiration to other archers.
Love for the Sport
Sports can have a major impact on a person’s life. Once an athlete finds the sport in which they connect with the possibilities are endless. It was Archery for Ford-Faherty and once she started playing there was no going back. She loves how people of any age can play as well as how elegant and timeless the sport is. Ford-Faherty stated, “Young or old, able or with a disability, archery is great for everyone.” This can be seen by the fact many people, including Ford-Faherty, compete on both the able body and the para team in the Olympics. Having a sport in which is equal for people of all ages and all disabilities is rare and that is one of the reason Ford-Faherty as well as so many others have fallen in love with archery.
Competing in USA Masters Games
Ford-Faherty will be competing in this year's USA Masters Games. She hopes to shoot well and make her friends and family proud during this year’s competition. She stated that, “Archery has made me a better person and I think if you stop learning and striving, you start dying, so I want to be a lifelong student.” There is a balance between working hard, continuing to learn, and overworking yourself. She is a big believer in taking your time to learn and get better. Those who try to work themselves too hard can suffer injuries that can be career ending. By always learning, practicing, being patient, she has been successful, and it has allowed her to continue to compete at a high level. Ford-Faherty is a multi-time National Champion in recurve archery and in clout archery. She is also a Pan America Games gold medalist, Paralympian, and Level 4 Coach. She has won many awards, but her true success has also come from the number of lives she has changed through coaching and sharing her story. She has become an inspiration for many archers as well as other athletes. We wish her good luck as she competes in this year's USA Masters Games.