Penny Healey: How a Disney movie inspired rising GB star to get into archery
18-year-old Olympic prospect Penny Healey speaks to Olympics.com about her emu named Freddy and how TikTok videos have bonded together the GB archery team.
Archery
What do rising archery star Penny Healey and Princess Merida of the Disney movie Brave have in common?
They both have strong-willed characters, eye-catching hair colour, and the Disney Princess inspired the GB archer to start shooting with bow and arrow.
“When I was about eight or nine, I was doing horse riding, and thought it would be cool to do archery on the back of a horse (after seeing the Disney movie Brave). Then I had to stop horse riding, because it was too expensive. So, I got into archery instead,” recalls Healey in an interview with Olympics.com ahead of the European Games in Krakow.
“The moment I first stepped onto that line and shot my first shot, I remember turning around to my mom and being like, ‘this is so cool’. It kind of was love at first sight, and the passion just grew from there.”
Determined like Princess Merida from Brave, the pink-haired Healey steadily developed into a world-class archer. She joined the GB national archery squad last year as their youngest athlete.
Healey is also doing an elite athlete programme online with Loughborough College that allows her to have sport as her main focus.
“It has allowed me to train more now. But it's not just a hobby I like. It is my happy place. So, whenever I feel stressed or school has got too much for me, I know I can always just come and shoot. It lifts all the stress off my shoulders,” she says.
Penny Healey and her emu named Freddy
When the 18-year-old needs to relax, she enjoys spending time with the many animals owned by her family. It's a nice break from competition and school.
During the lockdown, the family added an emu to their animal collection.
“I think it was one of my stepdad’s impulse decisions. He was like, ‘oh my God, emus are cute! Let's go get an emu’. They are funny, they are lovable and have great personalities. We got one of our young emus and his name is Freddy. He is crazy. I have videos of him when he was younger, doing laps of our field constantly, and then coming back to us for some food and then doing more laps.
“We also have dogs, chickens, I have a chinchilla, and we have a tortoise. I like to hang around with the animals and see what they are up to,” Healey says.
Penny Healey on how mental training helped her focus
Healey needs to give her mind a regular break as archery is a sport that puts your focus and concentration to the test. It is crucial to keep a cool head and not let your nerves get the best of you.
Therefore, Healey is practising the shooting part of the sport and works on the mental aspect of it.
“A lot of sports psychology, learning about my mental process, and how I actually shoot has helped me to manage my anxiety. Some of the practice has helped me focus in competition and to switch on and off,” Healey says.
“It involved ‘butterfly tapping’ I call it. That helps a lot going down the nerves as well as learning this is what my shot is. By following that, I know I can shoot a good shot, which then helps with my confidence. Before I compete, I do about two or three minutes of breathing and thinking of my happy place, which helps me a lot coming into a competition.”
Penny Healey’s TikTok idea bonded the team
When Healey is not hanging out with the animals or her family at home, she is spending a lot of time with her colleagues from the GB national archery team.
Ahead of the team matches at the World Cup in Antalya in April, the young Brit suggested that doing TikTok dances would bring the team closer together.
It has worked beautifully, and Healey even secured her first individual World Cup title in Antalya defeating Germany’s Elina Idensen in the final.
“We did it like a team bonding thing, because as a team we barely knew each other. I was like 'come make some TikToks with me', and they were like 'why not?' It was hilarious, how bad of a dancer everybody was. Now it has kind of become a tradition that we have got to do every competition. We have to do at least one TikTok,” Healey says with a smile.
Penny Healey’s hopes for the Olympics
The victory in Türkiye showed that the title from the 2022 World Indoor Series in Las Vegas was no fluke. Earlier this year, Healey claimed European Grand Prix gold on home soil in Lilleshall.
Winning the event in Antalya also sent the 18-year-old briefly to the top of the recurve individual world ranking as just the second woman from Great Britain in the World Cup era after Bryony Pitman.
Together with Pitman and her teammate Jaspreet Kaur Sagoo, she won women's recurve team gold at the European Games 2023 on Saturday (24 June).
But she wants more. Her big goal is the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“I always had in mind I wanted to go to the Olympics one day, and now it has turned into that I can actually go to the Olympics,” says Healey.
“I hope I can achieve an Olympic medal. That would be huge for me, as well as becoming world champion this year. That would mean so much to me and obviously it is earlier in my career, so a lot more could happen.”
The 2023 World Archery Championships will take place in Berlin, Germany from 31 July to 6 August.