Tooele archer clinches gold medal at World Games in Taiwan

July 26, 2009. The world has its eyes on Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The island’s tropical weather, as usual, has been volatile. Like the humidity, the pressure of raw competition is all-encompassing. But none of that bothers 30-year-old Tooele resident Kevin Wilkey as he steps to the line for one last shot.

It’s the final round of field archery in this year’s World Games. After an intense qualifying round, Wilkey stands next to Italy’s Alessandro Lodetti. The Italian had shot a perfect first end, but had faltered slightly on the next three. Wilkey analyzes his target. All that stands between him and a gold medal now are two outer rings and 60 meters of air.

Wilkey raises his bow, draws, and releases. His arrow sinks decisively into the 5 ring. The gold is his.

If you would have asked a 9-year-old Wilkey if he thought he’d ever be one of the world’s top archers, he might have laughed you off. Especially in the moments following an incident at his home in Benjamin, in southern Utah County, involving an arrow with only one fletching and his parents’ station wagon.

“I hit 20 yards to the left of where I was aiming,” Wilkey laughed during an interview last week. “It blew out the back window and stuck in the console.”

That fateful shot didn’t hamper his love for all things archery. Initially, his aim was to excel at bow hunting. But archery soon became an addiction — an art that he continued to refine through his youth.

He began tagging along to local tournaments with his older brother, Andy, who was president of the local archery club. Because there weren’t enough children to shoot against, Kevin would compete against adults. He knew he was onto something when he started posting better scores than his grown rivals. Wilkey won his first tournament at age 15. 

“People would ask [Andy] what it was like to get beat by his little brother,” Wilkey recalled. “He would simply say, ‘It’s better than getting beat by someone else’s little brother.’”

Wilkey later took a job at a local sporting goods shop, where he met his future wife, Allie. They were married in 2002 and moved to Payson. His exhaustive knowledge of bows landed him a technical engineering job with archery manufacturer Hoyt in 2006. They relocated to Tooele the following year.

The Wilkeys have three children: Aiden, 5, Isabel, 3, and Logan, who was born just last week. While he admits that family life and professional archery don’t always mix well, Wilkey says managing his busy life lends to his skill. He practices at the Easton archery park near the Hoyt factory. In the winter, he shoots with the Stansbury Oquirrh Bowman Archery League at the Desert Peak Complex.

Wilkey’s specialty is field archery, a form of competitive archery that features a mixture of angles, rugged terrain, and targets of varying distance. A field archery course is like a golf course in that each target presents a different challenge and no course is the same. Field archers must factor conditions like intervening terrain and slope into each shot.

Wilkey uses a compound bow, whose limbs are stiffer than a traditional longbow, and which utilizes a system of cables and pulleys to launch an arrow with greater velocity and accuracy.

According to Wilkey, the process of shooting a bow involves an intricate synchronization of mind and body. It’s a combination of on-the-fly calculation and precise timing, with a good dose of mental programming.

“I do more mental preparation than physical,” Wilkey said.

He uses a concept of positive affirmations — positive phrases that describe a desired outcome — to program his mind for a competition. The idea was developed by gold medalist Lanny Basham and is used by athletes worldwide.

“Basically what [positive affirmations] do is keep your conscious mind occupied so your subconscious can do the rest,” Wilkey said.

With that positive mindset, Wilkey can now begin calculating angle and adjusting his sight to the correct distance. He controls nervousness by playing the shot out in his mind.

“Visualizing the arrow hitting the target gives you a ‘been there, done that’ feeling,” he explained. “My anxiety level goes down and I have the confidence to make a good, strong shot.”

Resting his sight on the center of the target, he is now ready to release.

This process, complicated as it is, now comes natural for Wilkey, and takes him only a matter of seconds to complete. Competitors in field events are given three arrows for each end of the round. They’re allotted three minutes to shoot all three arrows. Wilkey usually shoots his in half that time.

Targets are divided by six concentric rings representing a decreasing number of points. These points are added up for a score for each end. At the World Games, competitors shoot at four targets at increasing distances. Wilkey clinched the gold by beating his Italian opponent 68-65.

Several weeks prior to the World Games, Wilkey placed second in the Federation International de Tir a L’Arc (FITA) national field championship. He saw the feat as just another preparation for the Games. Like the Olympic Games, the World Games take place every four years. The Games limit each nation to two participants, and are considered the premiere event for non-Olympic sports.

Despite his success, Wilkey considers himself a normal guy with a family and a full-time job. Whether his kids will pick up the sport is yet to be seen, though Wilkey says the kids like to play with his equipment.

Wilkey believes his best years in archery are yet to come, because unlike other sports, age isn’t a bad thing.

“The two current world champs are 45 and 50 years old,” Wilkey said. “That’s one thing that draws me to archery. Maturity and learning to deal with distractions makes you better.”

Wilkey attributes his success in archery not to luck or some innate skill, but raw desire. He believes it’s a skill that anybody with the physical ability to draw a bow can learn.

“It all comes down to desire,” he said.