---

One of the greatest archery players in the world is Karen Scavotto. And she is only seventeen years old! When Scavotto was only ten, she first competed, but she was on the road to victory.

She asked for a new bow every year. "I wanted to shoot. And when I was 8, my father got me a little plastic bow and brought it home. He thought I would be happy shooting a few times. I got it and I was upset because it wasn't a real bow".

Her pleas were answered when her father took her down to the archery range near her home and let her shoot her first real bow. Her coach at the time told her she was a natural.

 
She has received training from her coach, Richard "Butch" Johnson. Butch Johnson's wife, Tricia, who also is an accomplished archer, started coaching Scavotto in a Junior Olympic division. A two year Olympic winner, Butch Johnson first made it to the Games in Barcelona in 1992, where a very impressive opening ceremony took place. The Olympic cauldron was lit with a flaming arrow shot from his bow. Scavotto was only 10 years old then, but she'd already started down the line to victory.

It is an an exciting time for Scavotto. Three weeks after making the Olympic team, she competed in her first international competition as a senior archer at the Sydney International Golden Arrow tournament. Scavotto won six consecutive head-to-head victories over some of the world's best archers to win the gold medal. Later, she joined Olympians Janet Dykman and Denise Parker -- her new teammates on the U.S. Olympic Archery Team -- to win the bronze medal.