If you ever wandered about whether it’s too late to start something, look no further than archer Simon Fairweather (AUS).
After The World Games 2025 he is the shiniest example of what can be done when one puts their mind to something especially at 55.
In Chengdu, he represented Australia for the umpteenth time, carrying in with him a resume of a World Championship and Olympic gold medal, making him the only individual Olympic champion from the country in archery.
His triumph in Sydney 2000 however was holding the recurve not barebow and despite his swathe of experience at the sport’s highest level, the transition over to the bow – which has the same frame but no sight or stabilisers – proved to be harder than expected.
“It's such an unforgiving bow type,” said Fairweather. “I always thought when I retire from shooting, I will try it. It was a mixture of due diligence and curiosity, I guess but it is a really difficult thing to do.”
“Compared to recurve, it seems like it should be the same, but certain parts don’t translate from recurve to barebow. It took a long time to work through those.”
“As a recurver, you would not expect that. You think, ‘I'm good at that, I'll be good at this.’ It's not the case.”
Fairweather was speaking after his gold medal match loss to Italy’s Simone Barbieri at the Qinglong Lake Park which did not mirror the Australian nor his wife Nicky’s surname – who was also shooting barebow in Chengdu - as thunderous conditions affected proceedings often in the 10 days of competition, most notably when the recurve matches were delayed due to nearby lightning strikes.
Thankfully on the last day of archery action it cleared up partially for the afternoon, no doubt aiding the 1991 World champion’s 49-48 victory over the former reigning champion of The World Games Erik Jonsson (SWE).
An upset win that guaranteed his first international medal since his career defining moment this day in Sydney 25 years ago. The gold was in touching distance too as he fell short by a just shoot off to Barbieri and considering Fairweather’s only been getting to grips with the discipline in the last five years, a TWG gold would’ve only inscribed his name into Australian archery legend even further.
This is without mentioning the juggling both the Fairweathers have had to do whilst Simon begins a new chapter in his life as Australia’s national recurve head coach.
“It's been chaos, so I've not managed to do much training in the last three months. We had our selection for this event in April, and the very next day I did the interview for the head coach's job.”
“Once I was notified I was successful, it was a mad panic for my wife and me to prepare our house to be closed up and to shift everything to Canberra.”
“We also had to decide where to live, buy a house, and sell a house. My expectations for this event were very low in fact, I was dreading it, feeling I had a responsibility to shoot well but saw little possibility of that happening.”
“I'm elated it turned out the way it has.”
It’s hardly believable considering Fairweather had to do all of this whilst moving 1000 kilometres to the Australian capital for the new Centre of Excellence which he will be an invaluable part of.
As well as himself, the move also involved relocating the infrastructure of their archery equipment business.
The mental fortitude required in archery is the last thing to leave you and the five-time Olympian has shown he has bags of it still, pushing him over the line when it all seemed unlikely.
Whether it be at The World Games or the Olympics, it’s an attitude all athletes are aiming for.
The skill to concentrate and be present in the moment suggests Fairweather was made for archery and doing so well in Chengdu under such little preparation may mean we see more of him in Barebow at future editions of The World Games. After all, the Barebow Men bronze medallist from Chengdu Cesar Vera Bringas (ESP) is 62.
Fairweather will be 59 by the time Karlsruhe 2029 comes around, it would need a major life change for him not to be there again in Germany for his second edition.
“Like everybody, I had dreams, but the reality was I did not expect to be able to shoot it well enough. I didn't expect it at all,” he concluded.