CMCer Advances to
Olympic Archery Trials

Senior Tyler Benner is one of 16 finalists to make it through the first round of the Olympic Trials in the archery competition. Benner, along with the other finalists, is now part of the "Shadow Team" of top contenders vying to represent the United States in the event during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Benner, who's been shooting since he was 16, tasted international competition for the first time five years ago. "I can still remember a dinner with my parents where we actually sat down and started planning on what we were going to need to do to get me in the 2004 Games," Benner says. "That was a big stepping stone, beginning planning, because if you don't believe and prepare for it, it is never going to happen."
Although Benner missed qualifying for the 2004 Olympics when he broke his right shoulder after crashing during a bicycle race, his dream was undeterred.
"As there is something amazing about being able to hit a 90-mph slider, slam a 300-yard drive, or run a four-minute mile, there too is something special about being able to shoot arrows in a group the size of a grapefruit from 70 meters," Benner says. "I love the pursuit of the impossible. I love the feeling of conquering my fears. I love being truly in the moment."
In the summer of 2006, Benner reached a break point, making up his mind to try out for the Olympics. During his time at CMC, he maintained a national ranking as one of the top 20 archers in the country, making him eligible to live and train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.
"It has been a lot of very hard work, focus, and determination to adapt to the technique changes and still compete the entire time at a top, national level," Benner says.
Benner, who will remain at the Training Center through the 2008 Olympics ("and possibly until 2012," he says) shoots, lifts weights, does cardiovascular training, and practices yogaa regimen that averages between 80 and 90 hours a week. "I shoot for four hours in the morning, and four or five hours in the afternoon," he says. "All additional time is spent in the weight room or on my bicycle, averaging 120-plus miles a week. Three to four times a week I practice Bikram Yoga for 90-minute sessions to keep my body flexible and injury free."
While Benner has received some financial assistance from CMC for airfare, the lion's share of training expenses fall on himself and each of the other Olympic hopefuls, as athletes are not paid to live at the Olympic Training Center. "I struggle just to pay my cell phone bill each month, let alone attend any additional competitions not on our Olympic-based competition schedule," Benner says.
For Benner, the next round of trials will be held April 1-6 at the Training Center in Chula Vista. After several more intermediate rounds, the final competition will be held the first week of May, in Phoenix, when the top three athletes emerging from the intervening competition/eliminations will be selected for the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.
The CMCer says he is confident he'll be among them.
"My time at Claremont McKenna showed me how far I could push myself intellectually and emotionally," he says. "In my last semester at CMC I averaged less than four hours of sleep, pulled more than 30 all-nighters of intense work, and forced my brain to switch from role to role to role: physics, philosophy, entrepreneurialism, archery, and student activist. Now that I have the opportunity to focus on just one thing, I now know the breadth to which I can push myself, as well as the power of what I can accomplish if I focus all my energies in just one space.
"CMC also provided me an incredible group of friends that support my every action," he says. "I always get phone calls and e-mails from friends asking how archery is going, and wanting to know when I am going to the Olympics. From time to time a few of them have come down and visited me here at the Training Center.
"I think every one of them has told me they are going to be in Beijing to watch them hang the Gold Medal around my neck," Benner says. "To have that kind of support is incredible."