Simon and Nicky Fairweather: Flying the flag for barebow in Chengdu

The Chengdu 2025 World Games archery competition enters its final three days on 14-16 August, with the barebow field event in Qinglong Lake Park. 

Representing Australia are husband and wife Simon Fairweather and Nicky Fairweather. Simon, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Champion, competed in five Olympic Games and was also World Archery Champion in 1991. The Fairweathers are part of an Aussie team that has placed at least one archer in every event in Chengdu.

Both shot recurve at the Dublin 2016 World Field Championships but began focusing on barebow seriously after a trip to Lancaster in 2019 related to their archery tabs business.

“We had dabbled in barebow just to get an idea of what was needed for a tab, and then I guess got bitten by the bug, so to speak, and persisted from there,” said Simon.

They had hoped to compete in barebow at the 2022 edition of the World Games in Birmingham, but the pandemic restrictions meant they couldn’t make the qualifier.

“We weren’t allowed out of the country at that stage. And that was that,” Simon said. 

Undeterred, they set their sights on Chengdu 2025. Both finished ninth at the Lac La Biche 2024 World Archery Field Championships – the primary qualifying tournament.

“When we got back from the world field last year, we left straight back into training because we knew there would be a selection event within Australia to decide who would get the spots for the World Games.”

While archery is healthy in Australia, barebow remains a niche discipline.

“Perhaps some of the other barebow archers took their foot off the gas, but we didn’t. We did a lot of quality training. It’s hard to find a decent field course, but in terms of our regular day-in, day-out practice, we did a lot. In the end, we were a long way ahead of everyone,” said Simon. 

“However, the day after that selection event was when I was interviewed for the head coach’s role. And that changed everything.”

Simon interviewed for – and was later appointed to – the head coach role of the Australian Olympic archery team in May 2025. The couple moved over 1000 kilometres from Adelaide to Canberra, where the Australian Institute of Sport is based.

On top of the chaos of moving house, there was still plenty of archery.

“We had a selection event for our target team, our recurve team had a national camp, we’ve had two World Cups, I’ve been overseas a number of times, we’ve been back and forwards and we’ve hardly seen our bows,” Simon said.

The past two weeks have been “an exercise in cramming,” but the World Games remains a huge goal for both.

“It’s a big deal for me because this is our only opportunity to shoot barebow in a multisport event,” said Nicky. “I’ve never actually shot a full 12-and-12 mixed round of unmarked and marked before.”

“What a cool thing that we’re going to be able to compete at an event with literally the best of the best. It’s the premier event for compound target, barebow field and recurve field. Obviously compound has changed slightly because it’s now going to be in LA [at the Olympics].”

The Fairweathers arrived in Chengdu last week, with Simon also coaching Australia’s recurve field archers Ryan Tyack and Jessica Lloyd. Lloyd will then travel straight from China to Canada for the Winnipeg 2025 World Archery Youth Championships.

Australia’s opposite seasons to the northern hemisphere can make scheduling tricky.

“We’re trying to have a bit of period where the athletes have got time to either have a rest or do a bit of reworking of their technique or whatever,” Simon explained. “So we’re trying to engineer a three month window of nothing. That’s the plan, but obviously things often don’t work out quite as simply as that.”

After Chengdu, both are eyeing the Yankton 2026 World Archery Field and 3D Championships – the first combined tournament of its kind, nearly 10,000 miles from Canberra.

“It’s somewhat on my radar,” said Nicky. “Our selection for next year’s world field will be in April 2026.”

Both were naturally unperturbed by the recent news that the course would be changed because of snakes.

“We’re used to snakes here [in Australia] – and there’s dangerous snakes – but they’re not aggressive. But also, it’s China. They build a city in a week. I can’t imagine a field course would be too much of a challenge,” Simon laughed. 

The barebow competition at the Chengdu 2025 World Games runs 14-16 August. You can watch the competition with a subscription to archery+.