USA recurve women build on Pan Am success to reach Madrid final

USA built on its impressive victory at the recent Pan American Championships to reach the recurve women’s team gold medal match at the fourth and final stage of the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Madrid.

Casey Kaufhold and Jennifer Mucino were both part of the team that swept past Mexico 5-1 in Tlaxcala a fortnight ago and, with Catalina Gnoriega replacing Olivia Martin, have now secured the USA’s first recurve women’s team medal of the Hyundai Archery World Cup season.

Last year, the trio won gold in Antalya, including a dramatic shoot-off victory over world number one Korea. They will meet the Olympic gold medallists once again on Sunday, with both teams chasing their first Hyundai Archery World Cup title 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 dropping four 10s in the USA’s 5-3 semifinal victory over Chinese Taipei.

“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.”

Kaufhold said the deceptively light wind had made conditions difficult throughout the afternoon, forcing the team to make constant adjustments despite the flags showing little movement. Clear communication after every arrow, she explained, had been key to making the right 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.”

Wind has tested athletes throughout the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup season, and Madrid has proved no different. Combined with soaring temperatures throughout the week, it has made conditions at Vallehermoso Stadium particularly demanding.

Reaching Sunday’s final means even more to Kaufhold, who revealed in Puebla that she had changed her shooting technique this season after finding herself “running into the same problems”.

Although those long-term adjustments have yet to fully pay off outdoors, there were encouraging signs in Tlaxcala, where she won recurve women’s individual silver. Madrid, however, ended early after defeat to Spain’s Leyre Fernandez Infante Infante in the 1/24 eliminations.

Kaufhold said her early individual exit allowed her to focus fully on the team events, where she still had every chance of leaving Madrid with gold.

“When you’re flinging projectiles 70 metres 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.”

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

Kaufhold could yet make two appearances at Complutense National Stadium on Sunday, as she and Brady Ellison – Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallists – also remain in contention for the recurve mixed team medal matches.

Finals: Madrid 2026

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

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