INTERVIEW: JAKE KAMINSKI

Jake Kaminski was a linchpin of the USA men’s recurve team in the last decade, and took team silver medals at both London 2012 and Rio 2016. He retired as an international recurve archer in 2018 and has moved into coaching and developing a high-profile YouTube presence. A key part of this channel is his journey into barebow, probably the highest profile elite athlete to have made the switch. He talked exclusively to Bow.

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT THE CHANGES THAT TOOK PLACE IN YOUR CAREER IN 2018

Essentially, the entire industry was on a huge downturn unexpectedly in 2017, after the Olympic Games – every company out there was cutting shooters left and right. This never happens, it’s always an explosion afterwards. All of my sponsorships had lapsed and I was without any contracts. In negotiations, I was forced to sign some accept-decline forms for USA Archery. They had a