A Parent's Guide to WAYC (Winnipeg 2025)

WAYC: A Parent's Guide

Manisha: Hello Archery Family. I am Manisha of the Archery Parent Podcast, what Archery parents need to know to best support their Archers. Today we have Kelly Taylor and Aaron Bull. We are going to talk about the World Archery Youth Championships being held in Winnipeg, Manitoba in August of this year.

Welcome, Aaron. Welcome Kelly. How are you today? 

Kelly: I'm good, thanks. How are you?

Aaron: Hi Manisha. 

Manisha: Good. So Kelly, tell us what is the World Youth Championships that are happening and that you are hosting? What is the event? 

Kelly: Okay. So the World Archery Youth Championships is a biennial event happens every two years. And it brings together the world's top young Archers. Archers 20 years and younger.

 And the category 18 years and, and younger. 

Manisha: So that would be the U 21 and the U 19 or... u 18.

Kelly: U 18.

Manisha: Yes. Okay.

Kelly: U 18. In both Recurve and Compound. 

Manisha: Okay. And Aaron, you are representing Archery Canada, who is also partnering with Kelly and his team in the bid. Can you tell us what is Archery Canada?

Who are they and how are they playing a role in this bid and representing Canada for this event? 

Aaron: Okay. Thank you very much Manisha, and thanks for inviting me to be part of the podcast today. So Archery Canada, so we are, the national sport organization in Canada for Archery. We have the privilege of being the national body for Archery in Canada to put it simply. So if you want to shoot competitive Archery in Canada, you're likely going to find yourself an Archery Canada member at some point.

We've been involved with Kelly and his team in Winnipeg since this was an idea on a piece of napkin, I think, and supported him and his team right through their bid process. We represented and lobbied for the bid with World Archery and were very excited when we were awarded to host the Youth Championship in Canada.

The Youth Championship is World Archery's biggest event that they host on their calendar, as far as participation goes and, for us to be able to bring that, right to the centre heart of Canada and Winnipeg, Manitoba, it's really amazing. We're really proud of Kelly and Archery Manitoba, and everyone at Archery Canada who's bringing this to fruition.

Can't wait for August to be there and see it happen. 

Manisha: So how long has this been in the works? When was that idea on the napkin first conjured up. 

Kelly: So we were standing on a street in Madrid waiting for the Canadian Archers to come for the finals, which is where Austin, my son, won his silver medal.

And, and as we were standing there, I said to the other parents, I said, you know, we could host this thing in Canada. And everyone was like, no, you can't do that. It takes too much money. And, the organization would be too onerous. It's not going to happen. Right? Don't ever tell me I can't do something.

So I started looking into it. I knew that we had, in Winnipeg, we had the Sport Tourism funding available through Tourism Winnipeg for events like this. So I reached out to Tourism Winnipeg and they said, yeah, would absolutely, be a part of this. They're excited because we're bringing about almost 4,000 room nights to the Winnipeg Hotel industry.

Our economic impact is going to be about $5 million. So, they got on board really quickly, and then I approached Archery Manitoba, because that's the sort of the first step. And Archery Manitoba said, yeah, we can do this. I was vice president of Archery Manitoba at the time, and they said, yeah, we can start lobbying for this.

So from there, it went to the Archery Canada board because only the national federations can essentially be the ones that bid for things like this. And they picked it up and ran with it. So we started working on our bid proposal and filed that to the World Archery in about 2020 and received a word back that yes, they'll come and do a site visit and make their determination as to whether or not we would be successful.

So we hosted Thomas Aubert, who is the, basically director of events for World Archery. He came, he saw the city. Obviously liked what he saw, took it back to World Archery, and then we had to have a, a meeting with the full World Archery Board. Basically, it was a Zoom meeting, but that was a little stress raising. 

Manisha: I'm sure.

Kelly: Yeah. 

Manisha: So the Madrid Youth Championships were held in, was it 2000....

Kelly: 19.

Manisha: Okay. So this has been in the works for six years then?

Kelly: Yes.

Manisha: Essentially the idea through to the winning of the bid and to now just being held shortly in a few months. But why did you want to hold it? Like you've said, yeah, you, we can do this. Why not? But why was it important to bring such a huge international event to Manitoba, specifically Winnipeg? 

Kelly: Well, Winnipeg's got a lot to offer. We love the city and would like to show it off, but, but more importantly, we also wanted to provide an opportunity to showcase this event to the Canadian community more so than might be if it was in some somewhere else.

We've been to Argentina. We've been to Madrid. It's been in Limerick. We went to Limerick last time in 2023 to try to get our feet wet and what we'd need to to pull it off. And when it's in a far-flung location like that, it's one of those things where it, it gets the attention of Canadian Archers, the competitive Canadian Archers, but it doesn't really get a whole lot of attention outside of that community.

And we figured this is an opportunity to highlight to potentially young archers what possibilities are available on the World Archery scene. And also, hopefully, build a legacy for Archery in Winnipeg. 

Manisha: Well, bringing up legacy. So for Winnipeg, this is not the first time that it's held an international event.

In 1999, it held the PanAm Games.

Kelly: Right.

Manisha: So Archery, I'm assuming was part of that. So you're kind of just evolving. Aaron, do you have any connection to the '99 PanAm Games and thinking you could make the Winnipeg event bigger and better?

Do you have any connection at all to that PanAm Game? 

Aaron: I mean, I think my connection to that Games is just, you know, watching it on TV and being proud. I'm from Manitoba, like Kelly, so it's kind of unique that, you know, president from Archer Canada is also a Manitoban. So I'm proud Manitoba and I was proud to see Manitoba host those Games and Winnipeg host those Games in '99.

Now I've had the opportunity to travel to many different places around the world and meet people who are at those Games and they remember those Games. They're still involved in sport today, and I think that's an amazing part about sport is it brings people together as a community.

Right. And it's also an opportunity for people from all across the world to come and experience a place, a beautiful place in our country. And, us to be able to showcase that to them, right? The Canada is more than just Toronto or Vancouver or Niagara Falls or these pictures that we have of Canada when we travel outside and talk to people.

Right. There's a lot more to it and a lot of diversity. I think we are just going to build off of what '99 was. Manitoba has a, a great history of hosting events and, I think it speaks to the community mindedness of Manitobans in that, volunteerism is still strong.

 People are still able to roll up their sleeves and help out and to chip in and come together as a community and see the benefits to sports and arts and tourism and culture all have to a society. I really just can't wait to have hundreds of people from all over the world to come and have those same experiences so that the next Archery Canada president, in 20 years they'll be talking about someone who's at the Youth World Championships in Winnipeg, right?

And that was their first time in Canada, or their first time even traveling internationally, right? we're creating a memories here. We're creating legacy. And those stories and memories are going to live on for generations, 

Manisha: For many Canadians, Winnipeg is not always the first idea of city to go visit.

I have visited, it is actually one of my favourite cities on the smaller side. It has so much to offer and so many insights. For people coming into Winnipeg for the very first time, what attractions, what features, what uniqueness will they be able to experience when they're in Winnipeg? 

Kelly: Well, first off, we have probably some of the finest restaurants in Canada.

 We punch way above our weight class in terms of the number of high quality restaurants at all price levels for a city of our size. There is the Exchange District, which is probably Canada's best example of preserved, turn of the last century buildings. One of the things about Winnipeg is it hasn't had booms and busts, right?

A lot of cities will go through a a a boom period. They tear everything down that's old, build new, right? We haven't had that. So we've been able to preserve a lot of those old buildings. There's the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which is an amazing facility to visit. It really really highlights some of the struggles for Human Rights around the world in a very entertaining and moving fashion. You might think, well, human rights. How interesting can that be? It's amazing the amount of work that they put into one, designing the building; and two, designing and curating all of the exhibits that are in there.

 It's a fascinating place to visit. We have Journey to Churchill, Assiniboine Park in the zoo, which you get to walk through a glass tunnel and see polar bears and such in their a -recreation of their native environment, 

Manisha: Mm-hmm. 

Kelly: It's fascinating to walk through there and you look up and you see the polar bears swimming above you.

Manisha: Yes. Aaron, what else can you share? What would you be very proud to show off to the guests of the event? 

Aaron: Yeah, Winnipeg's just a beautiful city. Whenever I fly home and land, seeing the fields, I think is what reminds me of home. I've heard from many people coming to Manitoba seeing that vast openness.

We may not have the mountains, but we have oceans of wheat or canola. And so being that the event is in August, one of the beauties is just getting outside the city and seeing the great plains. That vastness that we have and that we love. You can see over the horizon.

That's something that a lot of people maybe have never had the chance to do in their life, depending on where you grew up and even Canadians may not have had that opportunity. Right. Depending on the topography. The Forks is another one that Kelly didn't mention. Great place right next to the Human Rights Museum.

That whole area right from you can walk from the Exchange District down to Human Rights Museum, to the Forks, and you can experience a good part of Winnipeg on foot. It's a wonderful, we'll call it a little city, being it's under a million people, but it's still a big city.

It's the biggest city in Manitoba. And, the food's second to none. Every time I go to Winnipeg, I try somewhere new and I'm never disappointed. So I think that people who are visiting for this event are going to be pleasantly surprised and probably a lot of them are going to be leaving saying: "Yeah, Winnipeg, you gotta go see that city".

Manisha: We will be bringing up the Forks because it will be playing a significant role in the Youth Championships. I've only been there once. My impression of the city, it was fascinating to me how involved the Indigenous communities were in the community and services that are provided.

And the Forks, for example, you can get a fascinating history and you can be connected to the Indigenous community, their history in the area. Winnipeg is really at the forefront of showcasing those relationships. And I'm excited about tourists and Archers being able to discover that and how significant Winnipeg is historically to the world when it comes to community building and togetherness. 

But, but still today, how it still is maintaining that importance. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Manisha: Let's talk about the, oh, sorry. Go ahead. 

Aaron: I was going to say, the city is built off the fur trade. Right. You know, the Forks and the Indigenous culture goes right back to the reason why we have a province in a city, where it is, is because of that.

Manisha: And how is the city coming on board? I did see in your package, Wab Kinew, who is, the premier of Manitoba, did share a welcome to the world and World Archery.

 How else is the city and the province coming on to support the event? 

Kelly: So one of the things that Winnipeg is known for is a, an amazing volunteer component. We've hosted the World Junior Hockey Championships. We've hosted the World Curling Championships. We've hosted National Curling Championships.

 We hosted the PanAm Games. Last year, we hosted the World Police Fire Games, which had an Archery component, which is kind of cool. And there is never a problem getting volunteers. Right now, our list of volunteers is over 200. 

Manisha: Wow. 

Kelly: Once we settle it down to people that are actually going to help out, we're probably going to be at about 150 volunteers which, considering the number of people in that list who are not in the Archery community, I think that's just absolutely amazing. 

Manisha: Definitely. 

Kelly: Yeah.

Aaron: And, that's one thing that I highlighted earlier, right? Just mentioning that volunteerism. And as you know, Archery Canada, we host events from coast to coast and it's our biggest challenge is finding volunteers.

 But it, it never seems to be an issue when we host events in Manitoba. We are confident and know that that base is there and that they're going to come out and it is going to get done. The work's going to get done. The people are going to be there.I think it just speaks to the culture of community that we have here in Manitoba. I'm so excited to hear that they already have 200 people on that list, so thanks, Kelly. 

Manisha: How can families, clubs, or even individuals get involved, if they are still interested in volunteering? Do you have a website? Can you just share all of that information? 

Kelly: Yeah, so our website is wayc2025.com.

 There is a link to a volunteer signup document there. We're getting close to the event now that at some point we're going to have to probably cut off the list, but there's still the opportunity to get involved. You can buy tickets to attend the event. We've priced them very reasonably.

Manisha: It's $10 a day. $30 for the finals, or a $100 dollars for everything. And... can they, can they buy tickets right on the website now? 

Kelly: They can buy tickets on the website as well. Yes. 

Manisha: And will there be a parking component that people need to also pay for? 

Kelly: Yeah. So the Forks parking, that is paid parking. Has a parkade. It has a number of grade level parking spots.

 The easiest way to pay for that is to have the app PayByPhone.

Manisha: Okay.

Kelly: On your smartphone. And then it's just, it's simple. It's not very expensive. I think it's like a $1.25 an hour. 

Manisha: Parking for the actual event, we will have free parking for the qualifications venue, which is courtesy of the Winnipeg South End United Soccer Club. They've agreed to let us use their fields... Very nice.

Kelly: ...for qualifications. So, yeah, it's an easy event to come and see.

 The city has Uber. 

 If you're flying in, I highly recommend using Uber to get around. It's going to be a fun event. We have a Try Archery booth that we're going to set up at both venues, so people can get their feet wet trying Archery.

 We'll have Indigenous artisans rotating through the event during the week selling their wares. We'll have a pro shop for the athletes, if they need repairs done to their equipment. And we have our own merchandise too, which is also available on our website.

 We're marketing it on the website on the basis that you pick it up at the event. 

Manisha: Okay. Now tell me, how many athletes are you anticipating. 

Kelly: Right now? We have 575 athletes signed up. 

Manisha: How many countries? 

Kelly: 64 countries. 

How many people overall do you think you're going to be hosting? 

Yeah, so it, it depends. I know that when we were in Madrid, the bleachers there weren't entirely full of spectators. A lot of times, teams will request parents not come along.

Manisha: Okay.

Kelly: Right. Because they want to try and build that team spirit. They want to build the idea of self-sufficiency among the Archers. So, the biggest component in the stands for the finals in Madrid were other Archers cheering on their country mates. 

Manisha: Mm-hmm. 

Kelly: In the Finals.

Manisha: So, sorry, let's talk about the Finals that are happening at the Forks. 

Kelly: Right. 

Manisha: Why did you choose the Forks? 

Kelly: It's Winnipeg's preeminent meeting spot, right? I mean, they, people look at Canada and they go, your Confederation was in 1867. You're a young country. Right? Well, they've uncovered archeological evidence at the Forks that it's been a meeting place going back to 1200 AD.

Manisha: Yes. 

Kelly: And before, in the BC era. There was evidence of a major treaty meeting at the Forks involving Indigenous tribes from Wisconsin, Michigan, Saskatchewan, Ontario, North Dakota, South Dakota, or at least what became those states. Right. 

Manisha: Aaron, if you want to jump in here? But when I was visiting the Forks, there's a specific wall where they've uncovered different stones and shells that are definitely nowhere in North America and earlier, that's why I was referring to the world.

Can you tell us a little bit, do you know of the history of the Forks that you can share? 

Aaron: Well, I'd need to brush up on my geology, to meet you where you're at there, but I, I know the wall that you're talking about. Right. And, and it does, it predates, even probably civilization in some of those cases, right?

Where we talk about shifting plate tectonics and we look at Lake Agassiz that once covered the Great Lake from the last Ice Age that covered this part of the country and the receding of that, that created these rivers, the Red River and the Assiniboine River that now meet at what is called the Forks.

And it is culturally significant to North America and Indigenous culture that it was this great meeting place where you could get to by the highways in those times, which were the waterways, right? And these two great waterways that met there. And from there you can get right down to Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.

 It is pretty incredible when you think about that. 

Manisha: There is a little ferry tour ride that you can take. I do encourage everyone to take that. It shares so much history, in addition to what we've talked about so far. But it takes you down a little bit of the Red and the Assiniboine and you can see the influxes of water that occur throughout the year.

 One definitely a must do, if I may refer to that.

So you're talking about the connection and the togetherness and the meeting place. Can you share about the logo that you've chosen for the Youth Championships? Why is it formed this way? Please talk about the artist as well. 

Kelly: Yeah. So we hired Joshua Hunt, who is an Indigenous graphic artist to create the logo for us.

And, we wanted to bring in the Indigenous element given our large Indigenous population in Winnipeg, and the fact that we'll be presenting this competition on Treaty 1 lands. The circle is four bows. And the direction of the arrow represents the four corners of the earth.

 The circle itself is a modernization of the traditional medicine wheel in Indigenous culture. And the very centre icon in the middle of the circle is a quilt representing the quilting traditions of Indigenous society. 

Manisha: It's beautiful. Did you mention the four colours?

Kelly: Yeah. So it's gold and teal and, a royal blue and red. 

Manisha: Mm-hmm. 

Kelly: Yeah. 

Manisha: Which did it attribute to, those colours? 

Kelly: Basically we were just trying to bring in various colours from traditional quilts. We had a number of ideas that we were going with before we settled on this one.

 And this just seemed to bring everything together, the colours, the quilting, the medicine wheel, in a very clean and simple design. 

Manisha: It's beautiful. I think it's one of my favourite logos of any event. No offense to anyone else, but it is so unique and so beautiful and it shares so much. And it speaks to what you want to be doing and Winnipeg in itself, historically. But this weaving of people's stories, Archer stories, Archery as a whole on a province, and what you want to do for Archery for Canada.

 So let's give some information to parents whose Archers might be traveling. Let's talk about accommodation, transportation. What questions could you anticipate that parents would be asking about the event itself?

Kelly: So first off, we're hosting the the Canadian Archers at the Fort Garry Hotel, which is downtown, steps from the Forks. It's a beautiful hotel in the old railway hotel tradition. The athletes from other countries, we've had to involve seven hotels... 

Manisha: Wow. 

Kelly: ...in order to house everyone. The majority of Archers are staying in the Polo Park area at a number of hotels there, including the Victoria and Canad Inns, the Sandman Signature, Hampton Inn and Suites, as well as one, towards the west part of town called the Birchwood Inn.

 We'll be feeding the athletes at the hotels, their breakfast and dinner. Lunch will be at the qualifications venue or at the Forks. And what I'm really excited about at the Forks, and no slight intended to our caterer, at all, but instead of a catered lunch at the Forks, we're giving them gift cards, go and actually,eat at the restaurants in the Forks.

Manisha: Amazing. 

Kelly: They'll get a choice. There's vegetarian. Sri Lankan dishes. There's pizza. There's steak. There's Mexican or Tex-Mex, fish and chips, all day breakfast. All sorts of options for them to choose from. With that we're giving them a taste of Winnipeg.

Manisha: Nice. So what you're referring to is basically a food hall with various different food vendors throughout and you're offering the opportunity to try someone new every day. 

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. The food court is the primary business of the Forks. 

Manisha: Right. And so talk about transportation to and from hotels.

Kelly: Yeah. We'll have inner city coaches picking up the athletes and shuttling them to their respective shooting times. 

Manisha: You'll have a schedule so that they know what time they need to be on the bus in the morning?

Kelly: Exactly.

Manisha: And right to get to there. And what about the transportation from the airport to their respective hotels and the venue?

Kelly: Yeah, so that's all going to depend on when the team actually arrives. Some teams are smaller and they arrive really late at night. So the hotels have airport transport shuttles. When we have a larger team coming in, maybe at a more reasonable hour, we will have a coach available for them to jump on and get to the hotel.

Manisha: And can you just share the dates of the event, including the arrival dates of athletes? 

Kelly: Yeah. So a lot of the athletes are arriving on August 15th. Some are arriving on August 16th. We're going to have practice on the 17th of August, and then the qualification and early elimination rounds will be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

And then the Bronze and Gold medal matches will be on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 

Manisha: And World Archery, how will they be involved? 

Kelly: This is their game. This is their rodeo. They basically run the event. Our primary function is feeding and housing the athletes.

And preparing the fields of play. Once we hand it over to them, their role is to distribute the iPads for scoring, run the event, plan the schedule, give us instructions as to which targets need to be moved for which day, all that sort of thing.

Their role will be significant in the actual competition itself. 

Manisha: And broadcasting? Where does World Archery fall in that? How much of this competition will be broadcast either on YouTube or Archery+, do you know? 

Kelly: The Finals will be broadcast on Archery+. There'll be periodic updates through the week and qualifications.

The primary focus of broadcasting will be for the Finals because that's really where the excitement is. 

Manisha: And where can families, friends, supporters, follow along on the live scoring? 

 For qualification as well? 

Kelly: Yeah. So live scoring, we'll put a link up on our website, but it'll be hosted on IANSEO.net.

So that is the typical World Archery scoring platform. 

Manisha: Great. 

Kelly: Wherever they are in the world, they'll be able to figure out how their kid did. 

Manisha: So now we're going to shift into tips for parents. 

So Aaron, I'll start with you.

Aaron: Sure.

Manisha: You've been to many world events, many international events, and in this case, some parents are letting their Archer go to a different country alone for the first time.

Can you offer a few tips for parents and Archers? What do they need to know? What are some tips, either travel tips; things about being at an international event. For both of you, just share anything that you think that it would be helpful for parents. 

Aaron: I can share lots of travel tips. Some of the things that I've learned over time is travel light, but bring everything you need.

 Kind of an oxymoron there, right? Make sure you bring sunscreen. That's one thing to have. Cash. I always recommend carrying cash. You don't necessarily always need to have the currency of the country you're in, but USD generally you can exchange that wherever you are in the world.

 Obviously, our currency here in Canada is Canadian. Having a $100 cash sometimes is nice to have. Look at what you can get for an eSim for your cell phone. So you can communicate. You can get really affordable eSim. Now I use AirAlo. Obviously not a sponsor, but, shout out there. That's a great eSim to have. I've used it all over the world.

It works great and allows me to use my phone as if I'm at home. So that's one tip. Another thing is just have no expectations, right? You're going to a different country. Maybe there's different customs, different cultures. The washroom might look a little bit different, right?

The hotel rooms might not be what you're used to. Just kind of expect the unexpected and roll with it. Don't let little things upset you or become overwhelming. There's going to be enough of that on the field to play right where the nerves will come out. What other tips?

If you're from somewhere, Europe, some South American countries, obviously Asia, right? You're going to need power adapter. So bring lots of them, bring enough. They're pretty affordable items. But you might need something to adapt from our North American outlet to whatever you're bringing for charging your phone or charging your laptop. Things like that, right?

 And be prepared for all weather. Make sure you have something for the rain. It can rain in Manitoba. We don't get big heavy rains that come through. You'll get thunderstorms once in a while, but we could have a rain where it's a light rain all day. Fingers crossed. Knock on wood we have beautiful, sunny blue skies, but rain's a possibility. So, you know, be prepared for that. Kelly. 

Manisha: Yes. 

Kelly: Yeah, so from an Archery perspective, a thing to keep in mind is that this is a World Ranking event. Which means that there's "no equipment failure" rule and there's "no medical" rule. 

Manisha: Is there a time limit for the number of arrows per end?

Kelly: Yes. There's three minutes for six arrows. They've shrunk that from four minutes previously, so it's now three minutes. A lot of Archers, they'd be standing around for a minute at the end, so it's not really a big problem, but getting back to the "no equipment failure" rule and the medical rule, we're going to have washroom facilities nearby.

 An athlete could zip out between ends to answer the call of nature. In terms of the "no equipment failure" rule, previously you had 15 minutes to fix your equipment. And then you could make up arrows at the end of the competition. That doesn't exist anymore. So a lot of Archers are going to be bringing backup bows because depending on the equipment failure you have, your only option might be to put your broken bow down and pick up the backup and continue shooting. If Archers are bringing backup bows, I recommend they make friends with other team members and say, okay, I will give you my backup bow, I'll take your backup bow.

And you know, that way, if something happens in transit, it's not likely to happen to both Archers, so they'll at least have one bow available. 

Manisha: Great tip. 

Kelly: Yeah. 

Manisha: And many Archers also choose to put their scope in their personal item opposed to their carry-on, just so it doesn't get banged around.

Many Archers, especially Recurve, will carry their tabs on their person or in their personal item, and if they have a question at security, they just tell them what it is. The reason for that is because it's probably the most difficult piece of equipment to replace because it's been worked in so much. I wanted to mention that there's a tendency for people, like Aaron was saying, to assume things are going to be the same as where they are visiting from, so be open to new experiences and new food. 

 I also wanted to talk about pins, as in trading pins. Is this typically an event that athletes will trade pins, so it's encouraged for them to bring some from their respective country? 

Kelly: Yes. And we have some exciting pin options that are available.

We're giving each Archer one pin. And it's a polar bear, given northern Manitoba's favourite animal. So it's a polar bear in a variety of Archery poses. We have Recurve polar bear, Compound polar bear, Recurve polar bear with binos, and a Compound polar bear working at a bow press.

Manisha: Very cute. 

 And those are for sale or they're only being given in the bags? 

Kelly: They'll be both. 

Manisha: Okay. And how much would they be retailing for? 

Kelly: $6. 

Manisha: That's great. 

Aaron: I've never seen Archers trade anything, whether it be pins, jerseys, you name it, then youth events. Some of the senior events, right, you might be a little bit of trading here and there, but youth events, it's a yard sale on the last day. It's pretty cool to watch and special. A lot of these Archers their first time being at an international event and to see them try and just get jerseys or pins or whatever kind of memorabilia they're after, it's really special.

Kelly: Yeah. It's amazing to see an Australian Archer slipping on a Canada jersey and Canadian Archer slipping on a Sri Lankan jersey. It's a real sense of community amongst the Archers. They really come together and that's the other thing that we want to mention. 

 We were told by one of the hotels that they may have double booked the room that we were going to feed them in on the Wednesday night. Turns out that wasn't the case. But with that warning, I went to our events manager, Riel Dion, and said, you know, maybe there's an opportunity here to do something on the Wednesday night for everybody.

So we're hosting the World of Archery Gala at the Fort Garry Hotel on the seventh floor. We're going to have DJs. We're going to have a quiet space. We're going to have tables, food stations, all that set up. For that one day. They don't just go back to their hotels and hunker down.

They can actually come out and meet everyone else. 

Manisha: And is there a cost for that? 

Kelly: That's included in their registration. 

Manisha: Great. That sounds amazing. 

Kelly: Yeah. And it's for the athletes only. 

Manisha: And I wanted to mention that change in time for each end. World Archery implemented that in 2022 at the World Cup and International levels. 

So, I don't want anyone thinking that this is brand new to be shocked about that.

Kelly: No.

Manisha: Hopefully they've all been practicing with a three-minute opposed to what typically was a four-minute. That rule has not trickled down to the club level yet, or national levels for many countries. So that three-minute rule is a World Archery rule.

It has been in place for, I mean it had been discussed prior, but it has been implemented since 2022. And athletes just need to be prepared for that when they're doing World Archery events. 

Was there anything else that you wanted to share, either about the event, what to expect, anything about Winnipeg, anything at all that you'd like to share for final thoughts?

Kelly: It's going to be a fascinating event. I hope the the athletes really enjoy everything that we're putting on for them. It's getting nerve wracking now because we're less than 60 days away, but everything seems to be falling into place. 

Manisha: Great. And Aaron? 

Aaron: I'm just excited to show everyone my home province. Can't call it my home city. It was my home province, my home country. I'm just so, so proud to be able to do that. Folks that are going to be traveling in that I've seen internationally, other places in the world.

Right. And now to be able to bring them back to my home on the prairies and to say, "Hey! Look! Welcome!" This is Winnipeg, this is where I come from. This is my roots. I'm just really excited and thrilled to be able to do that, and I'm just excited for the youth to participate. I know that this means a lot for every single one of those young people that are be participating.

And the Youth event is just something different. It's just a different energy. It's so much more, I don't know, vibrant, I guess you could say. The World Championships are exciting, but for a lot of people there, it's business, right?

 This sport is a business. And I mean that in the nicest, kindest way possible, right? But for the Youth event there's just still so much energy there. To see these young Archers get their first opportunity, a lot of them, on the international stage and to see some of them, they're going to hang medals around their necks and, memories are going to be made for a lifetime.

 I'm just so excited to see that and proud of everything Kelly and his team's done. And, the staff at Archery Canada, staff at Archery Manitoba, I can't give enough thanks to to all of them. I'm really proud of every single one of the athletes, parents, coaches from around the world that have put years in already to get to this point.

 It's a couple months away and they're going to be here at the World Youth Championships in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And I want to be the first one to welcome you after our Premier, Wab Kinew. 

Manisha: Thank you. One last question that just came up. Why is a Youth Championship important in the development of an Archer who is also wanting to go further into international events such as World Cups, Olympics, PanAm Games?

 What importance does a Youth Championship play in that whole scope? 

Kelly: The most important thing is that you only learn how to do something by doing it. So you only learn how to deal with pressure by dealing with pressure. As the preeminent event on the World Archery calendar there really isn't much more pressure than this. 

So, if you can come to a World Archery Youth Championships and perform under pressure and do well, even if you don't make it to the podium, if you're happy with your score, if you're happy with your results, you're happy with how you progressed in the elimination matches, that's a victory and that's something you can build on for the rest of your career.

Manisha: Aaron, did you have anything else to share? 

Aaron: I mean, my background is in psychology, and I think, Kelly's hitting a lot of the points there, right? It's about experiences and about repetition and about getting out there and doing it. And I like what Kelly said, not everyone's going to make the podium.

Not everyone's going to win a medal, but set a realistic goal for yourself, right? Doesn't mean your goal has to be a personal best even. Your goals need to be maybe it's just to show up and make it through qualifications. That's your goal, right? For others, the goal is going to be on the podium, but just show up.

Have something in mind that you want to achieve and have this, the experience, and take it in. Enjoy that. And every one of these experiences you get are just going to make you more resilient as an Archer, so that the pressure you feel on that qualification line at this, it might be less pressure than you feel on the Finals field in your home country or your home club, right?

So, take it in as an experience and grow from it. 

Manisha: This is not an event where, like a national event or a club event, where someone can just register their Archer. There are several ways that someone can qualify for participation at the Youth Championship. Can you just offer a few of those options?

 Each country has a different qualification process, but can you just share what Canada's process is for qualifying for the World Championship? 

Kelly: Yeah, so Archery Canada sets a Minimum Qualifying Score, and then Archers shoot against that. And the top Archers are offered a spot. It goes down, as, as an Archer declines a spot, it would go to the next person.

 One of the things that Archery Canada doesn't want to do is put someone into a situation that they're not ready for. So, they will decline to fill a spot if an Archer couldn't meet, the minimum to, to be competitive.

 I forget exactly what the numbers are, but it's a certain percentile of the field that they need to meet. Other countries do things differently, but the important thing to remember is that only countries can enter athletes. There's no individual registrations involved.

Manisha: Yes. 

Aaron: Member countries are World Archery too. so everything funnels through that network. 

Manisha: Yes. One thing is that a number of parents think, well, this will be a great experience just to get under their belt. But what people don't realize, the idea of being a big fish in a small pond does not translate well to a world event.

And what you were just sharing is Canada's perspective on this is that they don't want to send an Archer to an event and them not perform well because that has a rippling effect for their performance in the future potentially.

Kelly: Correct.

Manisha: An MQS, which is Minimum Qualifying Score, it is important and it's there for a reason. And so parents who feel like, "Oh, you know what, this will be great. It's just a new experience". This is not a nonchalant kind of thing. These are the best athletes in the world for Archery that are attending.

 On the compound side, Mattias Fullerton has been there. Those are some of the big names. Most of the big names that you see on the World Cup level, so Shanghai and Korea and Florida, Spain, those athletes, many, many of them have qualified and done the World Youth Championships because it was part of their development.

So it's not a willy-nilly thing, and it is important to even prepare for years. So I don't know if you're able to share, but in two years, the Youth Championships will go on again, and there are Archers that are starting now to prepare for that event. Are you able to tell us where the next one is, or is that a handoff, kind of big reveal at the end of Winnipeg?

Kelly: No, it's already been announced. It's going to be Antalya, Turkey. 

Manisha: Which is exciting. Which has been a host for the World Cup Series, I think 15 times already. 

Kelly: It's hosted the World Cup. It's host hosted the World Championships. It's an epicentre of Archery. One of the things that I would recommend for parents to keep in mind is when their children are starting off, they should start small, but not too small, right? So once, once they get to a certain level of proficiency, then I really recommend they go and shoot at major events such as the Iowa ProAm, the Gator Cup, the Archery Canada Nationals, other events like that because it becomes a real eye-opener.

 You mentioned the big fish in a small pond, right? It becomes a real eye-opener when you go to the Iowa ProAm, for example, and see all the people that you're competing against and realize, yeah, I got a lot of work to do. Right. So it's an important step in the development. Plus it also starts to introduce that element of pressure and learning how to deal with that.

Manisha: Exactly. Aaron, can you share a little bit to that too? 

Aaron: Yeah, I mean, if you want to be the best, you got to shoot with the best. It doesn't mean not just in Archery, right? That's just in sport in general. You're going to pick up little things. You're going to learn. You're going to understand the commitment that it's going to take if you want to get to that next step.

And also, I mean, we're going to see the stars of tomorrow at this event here in Winnipeg. And you alluded to that, already, right? But, we've seen the greats of today, right? That we're watching right now, who have competed you know, the World Youth Championships, right.

 You know, we can go right through compound or Recurve. I bet you if you we look at the top 10 in both disciplines for male and female, that every single one of them was more than likely at a Youth World Championship.

Manisha: And you were sharing about going to the bigger events. We have traveled into the US. We travel in many, many times a year, but it is incredible to attend for the outdoor season, a USAT event, so you mentioned Gator Cup, there's SoCal that just happened this past weekend, Buckeye, but in the Canadian realm for the youth, the Rocky Mountain event that happened in Calgary. Oh, sorry. Not in Calgary.

Kelly: Black Falls.

Manisha: Just outside. Yes. So that is a growing concern as well for youth competition. So I really encourage Canadian parents and Canadian Archers who are in the youth divisions to even go out to Alberta, because I believe they're going to be hosting it every year and get that youth experience.

And then when you're ready, go into a world event as long as you're able to achieve the MQS. There are events around Canada that are building in momentum that can play a really important part of discovering where you want to be. Do you want to only just do this recreationally?

Aaron: Yeah.

Manisha: Or is competition more your style? So go to different places. Go to different regions. Go to different ranges even.

Kelly: Yeah.

Manisha: Because even that can play a difference of parts of Alberta being very, very windy. Parts of, say Quebec, their ranges are surrounded by trees. So the wind isn't as strong.

Being able to grow your community as an Archer with other Archers from where you are, so that when you leave your country and go to another country, you have a built in community. Because even though you're spread out across Canada, you're still representing Canada. So that for a country as large as Canada is, I think that can be very comforting to people and Archers who are traveling to different countries. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm.

Kelly: You mentioned the Rocky Mountain Classic in Black Falls, Alberta. I gotta give a shout out to the organizers of that event because it's an amazing event. Really well run.

And it, it is a really good introduction to competitive Archery on the indoor side. On the outdoor side, a shout out to Archery Canada and the Canada Cup, East and West. That's an event that's growingand is also a really good opportunity to shoot against the Jordan Adachis, the Cameron Palichuks.Archers of that caliber and figure out really what you need to progress in your own Archery career.

Manisha: Yeah, and I think, maybe Aaron, you can share, so most national events, including in Canada, you can just register. And depending on your category, you could be sharing your target with a World Cup Champion, an Olympian. You could be with a World Youth Champion. 

 So you never know who you're going to meet. So even that pressure, Aaron, can you share about you don't have to go far from home to share those targets and get a little bit of pressure, but it just means so much as a building block. 

Can you allude, can you share on that?

Aaron: For sure. For sure.

 Especially we think about our youth, right? They're going to look up to those Archers, right? Whether it be Austin Taylor or Eric Peters, when you look at the Recurve side. We have that opportunity here in Canada where you can go to Canada Cup East or Canada Cup West, and you can be right on the shooting line with someone who was just in the Olympics in Paris. 

Maybe you're shooting next to Virginie, who represented Canada, as a female recurve Archer. And that's just an experience that you can't get in a lot of other sports, right, where you can stand next to an Olympian or someone who's been competing at World Cups. In the compound side we have, World Cup Champions, who are Canadians that still shoot events in Canada.

 It's really, really special. A lot of times what I see is those athletes, they enjoy helping the youth out, right? So whether it's just a tip or "hey, good job" or,any of those little things, right? it's really just about the next generation in the sport and bringing up that grassroots level to the more competitive side.

And, we just see that they're going to be the next ones that are trying out for that national team. 

Manisha: Thank you so much. I know we just added a whole conversation, but anything else that you wanted to add before we sign off? 

Kelly: Visit our website wayc2025.com. 

Manisha: Yes.

And Aaron, can you share Archery Canada's contact information? 

Aaron: Yeah, you can find us on any socials. Just search Archery Canada. You'll see us on there and, as well you can find at www.archerycanada.ca. 

Manisha: So Aaron, you are the president of Archery Canada. 

Aaron: Correct. 

Manisha: And Kelly, you are the chair of the World Archery Youth Championships that are taking place in August 17th to 24th.

Yes, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. You're going to be welcoming, was it 60? How many countries? 

Kelly: 575 athletes from 64 countries.

Manisha: 64 countries. 

Kelly: Yeah. 

Manisha: I, I will actually be there as well. So that'll be exciting to be able to tell stories from there. I'm looking forward to that, to share with other parents.

Thank you so much. I won't subject you to a bad joke. Usually I do for all of my other guests, but I'll save it for next time. Take care. And this has been the Archery Parent Podcast. My name is Manisha. That's Aaron. That is Kelly. And we will see you again next time. 

Kelly: Thank you, Manisha.

Manisha: Thank you.

Aaron: Thank you.

See you in Winnipeg.