Olympic Esports Series 2023: Finalist Tore Bjarnarson trains for esports and archery at the same time

Tore Bjarnarson is so good at multitasking that he designed his entire training routine for Tic Tac Bow around it. The 19-year-old archer knew he could use the time it took to walk and collect his arrows for something special. Instead of enjoying the view of a nearby football field or the beautiful trees swaying in the wind he had his eyes on his phone for the entire walk.

"I actually combined my archery [training] with Tic Tac Bow," Bjarnarson said. "So when I'm shooting, I play the game as I'm walking down to collect my arrows. It was the perfect match, I could just play and then come back and shoot again. That way I can get double practice."

That was Tore Bjarnarson's primary training routine in the leadup to the finals at the Olympic Esports Series in Singapore. It helped him come out on top in the qualifiers that took place at the Archery World Cup in Shanghai last month.

"It's also a good toilet game," he said with a smile. "I feel like many phone games are."

Compound archer Bjarnarson gets a taste of an Olympics event

The accomplished archer, who's loved the sport since he watched the 1973 Disney version of Robin Hood, has been competing at major international tournaments such has the European Youth Championship since he was 14.

He's no stranger to the world of gaming either. He's played a number of archery games, including a combat VR archery game called Battle Bows. Nothing quite scratched the itch quite like Tic Tac Bow, which he started playing it earlier this year.

"I've actually feel that they've nailed [archery] pretty good," Bjarnarson said. "Maybe not the movement of the targets, but the wind. There's almost always wind. You have to read it as much as you can, because it really affects the arrows."

Archery has always been a huge part of Bjarnarson's life. It led him to meet his current girlfriend, introduced him to all sorts of friends and has helped him travel around the world. He's always dreamed of competing in the Olympics, but he never imagined he'd compete at an Olympic event through esports instead of traditional archery.

"I'm very honoured," Bjarnarson. "My bow type, compound, is not at the Olympics. I'm especially honoured to be here because I can still be at the Olympics somehow. It might not be real archery, but it's related."

Watch Bjarnarson compete against other finalists in Tic Tac Bow at the finals at the Olympic Esports Series in Singapore on June 23. All the thrilling finals action will be streamed globally on Olympics.com and Olympics social channels.

The Olympic Esports Series 2023 is a global virtual and simulated sports competition, created by the IOC, and in collaboration with game publishers and International Federations (IFs) such as Project 99 and World Archery.