Focus and Fire: Casey Kaufhold Sets Her Sights on Another Vegas Win

Defending champ in recurve female is looking for a third senior title

As the archery world descends upon Las Vegas for the latest edition of The Vegas Shoot, a lot of eyes are on Casey Kaufhold, Olympic medallist and the defending champ here in the recurve female category, busy with media obligations on Wednesday morning. It’s her 10th Vegas – she first shot here when she was just 12 years old – but the 22-year-old isn’t looking backwards. “Honestly, I feel like every tournament is a new slate for me. I don't really think about the past as much.” said Casey. “I’m always looking forward to the future. And so I'm just here to do what I've been doing in practice and just show my full potential when we get out there and start scoring rounds.” 

Kaufhold is no stranger to the winner's circle here, taking her first title in 2022. But her stage victory last year, where a tied score saw her forced into an arena shootdown with France’s Victoria Sebastian, was a tougher ask – even if the 2025 women’s recurve championship shootdown featured a practice end.  "Getting to walk on the stage and shoot a practice end was quite lovely," Kaufhold said. "It was a moment to get familiar with the stage, get the lighting down, and get the nerves out. I just wanted to feel the shot."

Kaufhold had praise for the new finals venue at the Planet Hollywood. “The targets were so bright, which is awesome because I could see my string alignment so clear and everything was really good for shooting. But I couldn't see the crowd behind me because the crowd was black. So it honestly wasn't that nerve-wracking because it didn't feel like I had 5,000 pairs of eyes watching me. It just felt like I was on this blank stage shooting against my opponent.”

She was careful, after that, to ‘put the blinders on’ and focus on her own performance. “I told myself I’m not going to look at her target. It is none of my business what her target is; my business is what my target and my shot is," she explained. "I had the opportunity to just focus on myself. I don’t feel nerves when I’m just practicing; I feel them when it’s something super fun like shooting on the stage in a final."

"I remember I shot that last shot and I didn’t even look at her target, but I heard coach Chris (Webster) say, ‘Yep,’ and I just knew," Kaufhold smiled.

The victory was the culmination of a gruelling week that saw Kaufhold competing in the USA Archery finals, three days of Vegas championship rounds, and the World Archery Indoor Finals - the last of which she also won, beating another Frenchwoman, Lisa Barbelin, on the big stage. "I was so excited. I was like, ‘Boom! Okay, we got one, let’s go get another one!’”

Kaufhold’s first Vegas title in 2022 was a very different experience where she won outright with the highest score without the need for a shoot-off in the women's division. While she values the pressure-cooker environment of the stage, she admits there is a certain satisfaction in a straight-out victory.

"Honestly, I think it was fun to do it once. I’m glad that I have that in my career; I think it’s a cool thing to say you’ve shot in a Vegas shootdown," she said. "But as far as the nerves and just having it done, I did prefer winning it outright! But maybe a shootdown shows how two people thrive when you put them under the most pressure possible. It’s a catch-22."

“But I also think it would be awesome to have two female recurve 900s that had to do a shoot-off. Someday."

With Kaufhold’s current form and relentless focus, that someday might be closer than anyone thinks. The blinders are on, and the targets are set. Vegas, get ready.