Since it was founded in 1962, The Vegas Shoot has been dubbed many names, been staged at many locations, undergone format and division changes, and crowned many, many champions.
There’s one thing that has remained the same: it’s a world-leading celebration of archery.
And a celebration of archery as a sport for all, with no preference for gender, race, color, religion or physical impairment. At the Vegas Shoot, no-one is excluded.
Break the Barriers is the largest inclusive archery program in the United States and has brought a squad of 20 to 30 veterans to The Vegas Shoot to compete with the world’s best archers since 2013.
At the 2019 edition, to give Break the Barriers’ veterans and adults of varying abilities the opportunity to compete with top professionals from around the world, the organizers will introduce the first inclusive ProAm Exhibition.
The event will take place on February 8 at 5:00PM in the Championship Arena of the South Point Hotel and Casino, and it will consist of shooting a 15-arrow Vegas round, with the X counting as 11 points.
One professional archer will be teamed up with two archers from Break the Barriers and prize money of $1100 will be distributed among the top four finishers.
Jesse Broadwater, Mike Schloesser, Linda Ochoa-Anderson, Alexis Ruiz, Steve Anderson and Martin Damsbo are among the professionals that will take part in the event.
The ProAm Exhibition is free and open to all public, with different prizes for spectators.
Break the Barriers will also host a booth at the Trade Show, where they will educate attendees on inclusive archery.
A tournament for all
At The Vegas Shoot in 2018, four young people with autism travelled all the way from Japan to compete and proved how archery, and the opportunity to travel to the US, had changed their lives.
Yuki, Wada, Kirari Funakoshi, Aito and Towah Nakazawa shot in a bespoke shooting area, but still surrounded by top shooters from across the globe. They said competing in Vegas helped them feel more included in the archery community.
In 2019, seven young Japanese archers from the group will travel to Las Vegas.
Paralympians Matt Stutzman, also known as the ‘Armless Archer’, and Jeff Fabry are some of the most-recognizable para archers that shoot at The Vegas Shoot each year.