USA recurve women team pick up from Tlaxcala success to reach final at Madrid

USA have followed up their impressive triumph at Tlaxcala to reach the recurve women team gold medal match at Madrid 2026 - stage four of the Hyundai Archery World Cup.

Casey Kaufhold and Jennifer Mucino were in the team a fortnight ago that swept past Mexico 5-1 in the 2026 Pan American Championships and, with Catalina Gnoriega replacing Olivia Martin this time, have guaranteed their first team medal of the World Cup season.

Last year, the three athletes conquered the competition at Antalya 2025 which included an incredible shoot-off victory over world leaders Korea, and they will face the Olympic gold medallists once again on Sunday, who are also looking for their maiden top podium finish of 2026.

“We had a really good season as a team last year, and honestly, this year we've been shooting well, just not winning the matches, and sometimes you just have to trust in the process and know that if we keep doing our job, it'll be there,” said Kaufhold after she dropped four 10s in the USA's 5-3 victory over Chinese Taipei in the semifinals. “I think today was a great example of that, where maybe we didn't qualify as high as we would have liked, but through the matches we shot so well and just really trust each other as a team.”

“It's definitely deceiving on this field because you don't feel a lot of wind, but it actually pushes your arrows a lot. So even with the flag only moving a little bit, we were sometimes aiming on the nine-eight line and even into the red, when on most fields you would probably just aim a little off in the yellow.”

“It was definitely tricky and we really just had to make good calls. We'd step off the line and say, ‘Hey, that was a good shot, I aimed here, it landed here, so trust your judgment and make a good shot,’ just really communicating as we went through each arrow, so each of us knew where to aim based on how the wind looked.”

Whilst wind has always been a hindrance to archers on any shooting line, it has been a thorn in every archer's side at all three World Cup venues before Madrid.

It has once again been the case in the Vallehermoso Stadium - conditions made even harder due to the ever-present heat that has blanketed the venue all week, bar Tuesday evening - but reaching Sunday's stage means more to The Vegas Shoot champion Kaufhold.

The 22-year-old stated in Puebla [stage 1] that this season she wanted to tweak her technique as she found herself “running into the same problems.”

Although it is a long-term strategy aimed at future gains, it has caused her some short-term pain outdoors, as before Tlaxcala - where she took the silver also in recurve women individuals - the furthest Kaufhold had reached in an international competition this season was the fourth round in Puebla.

She may not be getting one at the World Cup stages this year after being eliminated in the 1/24 round this morning by home athlete Leyre Fernandez Infante of Spain, but the American can now fully focus on claiming her first outdoor gold of 2026 on Sunday.

“When you're flinging projectiles 70 meters away from the target, like anything can happen really between here and 70 so I just felt like, today wasn't my day for individual, but I knew I had a great chance with team and then later on with mixed team.”

“And so I knew that my journey is not over, even though I might not be in the individual competition anymore and I know that these ladies, like we all shoot so well together. So I really wanted to all be together and do our best and I feel like that really paid off.”

Kaufhold could be making two appearances at the Complutense National Stadium on Sunday as she and Brady Ellison - the bronze medallists from Paris 2024 - will look to reach the mixed team medal matches.

Finals: Madrid 2026

• Recurve men team: Korea versus France
• Recurve women team: Korea versus USA

Watch coverage from Madrid live with a subscription to archery+.