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SALT LAKE CITY — Archery is a sport of extreme precision. The women's gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics was decided by the difference of a few millimeters.
Competitors shoot at a 2.4-inch bull's-eye while standing nearly 230 feet away, officially 70 meters.
Athletes from all over the world regularly visit the Easton Foundations Salt Lake Archery Center to get world-renowned technical assistance in a one-of-a-kind practice environment, said to Bob Romero, Easton's director of archery centers.
This week, Brazil's Olympic archery team was in Salt Lake City to get help with equipment from Easton Archery and Hoyt Archery in preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Juan Carlos Holgado, event director for the World Archery Federation and a gold medal archer, said the team visited the archery center for three reasons: to make the most of a sponsorship by Hoyt; to test and fine tune equipment before purchase; and to get invaluable practice in conditions only available at the archery center.
Holgado also provided coaching and technical assistance to the team.
"This is the only place in the world where you can do this," he said.
Holgado said the team will return to the archery center, located at 575 John Glenn Rd., before Olympic competition.
"Through Easton, (the trip) has helped raise the skills of the archers," Brazil's head coach Evandro De Azevedo said. "The most outstanding elements would be the ability to practice indoors at 70 meters without the effects of wind and then having all the technical assistance."
Romero said it's not unusual for athletes such as those on the Brazil national team to shoot more than 400 arrows per day during their training.
"It's really a very simple sport," Romero said. "You just have to do it perfectly over and over."
The archery center has been open for just over a year, according to Greg Easton, president of Jas. D. Easton Inc. and Easton Foundations. The facility has fielded teams from at least 12 countries including Canada, India and Japan, Easton said.
The team also toured the Easton and Hoyt production facilities, which are less than a mile away from archery center, according to Easton.
De Azevedo said some athletes will use other brands of bows and arrows, but the vast majority in the extended national archery program use Hoyt bows and Easton arrows. Even if they use a different bow, they will use Hoyt and Easton accessories, according to De Azevedo.
Easton Foundations Salt Lake Archery Center is part of a larger network of archery centers run by Easton Foundations, a nonprofit organization founded by Jim Easton dedicated to promoting the sport of archery, according to Salt Lake Archery Center manager Trevor Thornton.
"It's especially increasing because of 'The Hunger Games,'" Thornton said. "Especially young girls are getting into it. They want to be Katniss."
Contributing: Keith McCord
Chris Larson is a BYU news media major interning with Deseret News. Contact him at chlarson@deseretnews.com
