Greene County archer headed to Paralympics

CARMICHAELS, Pa. (AP) — Tucked away on old Route 21 across from the former Hatfield's Ferry Power Plant on the edge of the Monongahela River, KJ's Kustom Archery doesn't much look like an Olympic training center.

For owner K.J. Polish, however, it's not only where he spends his free time when not hunting or fishing, it is the training center for a world-record archer.

Many athletes who will compete in the Rio Games have spent years chasing that dream. For Polish, it has been a matter of only months.

In a journey that began late last year, Polish recently qualified to represent the United States on the Paralympic Archery Team in Rio de Janeiro in September, less than one year after he wondered if he would ever compete again in any event.

"I'm excited. But I'm not going to show my full emotions until it's over. I'm here to (win) it," Polish said. "A lot of people, once they make the team, they're happy with that.

"I've got bigger goals. My job is not done. I didn't go there just to make the team. I went there to try to win a gold medal for the U.S. That's my goal."

Big things are expected from this year's U.S. team, with Polish at the head of the pack.

"We have a really strong and awesome team together for Rio," said U.S. coach Randi Smith. "We're going to bring home some medals."

For the 33-year-old Polish, a graduate of Mapletown High School, the Paralympic Games, which run Sept. 7-18, will be the fulfillment of a lifetime spent archery shooting. In 1999, at age 16, he was the youngest professional archer in the history of the sport, winning multiple championships and setting world records.

In recent years, he had put competitive shooting on the back burner because of health issues and the desire to do other things.

"I had some different things happen to me, medical stuff, and I wasn't able to compete," said Polish. "I just got healthy again this year. I was getting tested for bladder cancer. So I had a long process with that. I had a terrible summer (last year), couldn't sleep. couldn't eat, couldn't think about too much.

"It was Oct. 19 or 20 when they told me everything was good. I didn't have anything. I hadn't shot archery for like five years. I missed it, but I wasn't doing it, so I didn't miss it like I thought I would."

Polish, who is paralyzed from the waist down, the result of an automobile accident suffered just days after he signed his first professional contract in 1999, grabbed a bow off the wall of his shop and started shooting again.

And shooting.

And shooting.

"I was like, 'Man, I really missed it.' It all started from there," Polish said.

Polish is good. Scratch that. He's better than good.

In 2005, he became the first handicapped archer to earn a spot on an able-bodied Olympic-style team when he competed for the U.S. at the World Archery Championships in Madrid, Spain. The team won the gold medal, but Polish decided to back away from the sport he had grown up with until his health scare last year.

"It opened up a demon that I had missed," he admitted. "I just started doing it more and more and I felt like I was getting back in the groove. I didn't think I was going to be able to get to the level that I am at again. I didn't do it for that. I did it for exercise but I was starting to like it more and more again."

Polish shoots 3 to 5 hours per day. He can count on one hand the days he's taken off since he started shooting again last November.

After starting to practice again at the indoor range at his archery shop as a way to get some exercise, he decided to enter a large tournament in Lancaster, finishing sixth in the men's compound open division and shooting against able-bodied competitors.

Next was the World Archery Festival in Las Vegas in January. He did well there and entered another tournament, in Louisville, Ky.

"I hadn't even thought about the Olympics yet," Polish said. "I was just getting back into the competitive part of professional archery.

"I was at a tournament in Louisville, Ky. Somebody asked me, "Are you going to try out for the Olympics?' I was like, 'I haven't given it a thought.' They said the trials were in a month in Arizona, the first leg of the trials. That's how it all started."

Actually, if not for his car wreck, Polish might have already competed in an Olympics.

It was a wet, rainy day in October of 1999 when Polish and a friend decided to go deer hunting.

Polish, who had signed deals with several sponsors after becoming the youngest professional archer in U.S. history just days earlier, set out from his the home of his parents, Kevin Sr. and Christina Polish, with a friend.

"My dad and mom didn't want me to go. They wanted me to go around here because the roads were slippery," Polish said.

As they drove down a back road just outside Waynesburg, Polish fiddled with his radio. When he looked up, a flock of turkeys had landed in the road in front of him.

He swerved left, then right, his brakes locking up. The Geo Tracker went over a 100-foot embankment, hitting a stump that caused it to topple over.

Despite wearing his seatbelt, Polish was ejected from the vehicle. He flew 35 feet through the air, striking a small tree with his back. Both the tree and his back were broken.

He hasn't walked since.

"At that time, I was one of the top five-ranked archers in the world. I was the youngest professional," Polish said. "I had a lot of big contracts. I had the contracts for nine days and I had the accident. It took them all the way."

Doctors told him he not only wouldn't shoot again, he'd likely have a tough time just sitting up.

Less than a year later, he was in Las Vegas, competing in international tournaments and doing well, culminating with making the U.S. team for Madrid in 2005.

To shoot as well as he does, Polish is an incredible athlete, though he admits that he might not necessarily look the part.

As the son of the owner of an archery shop - his father opened the shop 35 years ago, two years before K.J. was born - it's not much different than being the son of a coach in another sport.

"I was born into it. I've been shooting a bow for 30 years," Polish said. "I've been shooting a bow since I was three years old. The first tournament I went to was when I was 11 years old - I won the world championship. It was pretty neat."

Polish could have tried out for the Paralympic team for previous Games. And given his talent, he likely would have made it. But he chose to for a very good reason.

"For me, this is bittersweet," Polish admitted. "For years, I didn't want to shoot the Paralympics. For me, archery brought my life back, instantly. That's one thing my accident, being a parapalegic, didn't affect. I came from being a pro shooter, being one of the top five in the world and went back to it. The disability didn't affect me.

"Some of these guys, they never shot a bow before in their life. They went to archery to change their life to make them better. For years, I could have shot in two other Olympics. In my heart, though, it didn't feel right. I didn't feel like I wanted to go because I didn't want to take something away from a person for whom archery had changed their life, helped them recover."

His own health scare and advancing age, changed Polish's mind about participating in the Paralympics.

After the tournament in Louisville, he decided to give it a try.

Polish had about a month to train for the first Paralympic qualifier in Phoenix but it didn't go as smoothly as planned.

"I wasn't as prepared for the first one as I thought I was," Polish said. "I was prepared, but there was some different stuff for my wheelchair that I had to adjust. It wasn't legal for the tournament, which I didn't know. My back rest was a little too high."

Without a backup wheelchair or tools to fix his own chair, Polish had to improvise.

Off to a local store he went.

"I actually had to go to Walmart and get a hacksaw and take it to my chair," he said. "I didn't have anything to fix the parts there. I just took the hacksaw, bought a drill and made new screw holes and made a new back rest.

"I didn't do as well as I should have. I was still second in the tournament, but I should have done better. That was changing the whole chair and the way I shoot."

From there, Polish went to the second nomination shoot in Chula Vista, Calif., in April.

"I won that tournament," he said. "Then I went to the Gator Cup in Florida. I took second in that in the pro class. I won the para division. That's all I've been doing, putting my time in."

The competition format for the Paralympic Games is identical to that of the Olympic Games. Archers shoot 72 arrows from a distance of 70 meters at a target of 122 centimeters, trying to achieve a perfect score of 720.

Polish had a winning score of 699 two weeks ago at the SoCal Showdown, again in Chula Vista, the final nomination shoot in the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials.

He not only is headed to Rio, he is going as the top compound open para shooter in the world. His final score broke the previous world record of 644 set in 2014.

"It's amazing. I don't think it's all really set in yet," said Polish, who will take his mother along with his fiance, Shana Krajnak, with him. "I know it's a really big deal. I know that. But it's hard for me to show emotions. I'm so mentally prepared for this tournament. The Olympics aren't here, but I'm already prepared for it. I won't show emotions until it happens. When they're putting one of those medals around my neck, I might show my emotions. Until then, I won't have them."

Not that he didn't crack just a little smile on the flight back from California.

"I have a couple of songs that amp me up, get me ready for a tournament, help me focus," Polish said. "I was daydreaming, on the plane and one of those songs came on. My eyes started to water, just a little bit. I was like, 'Man, not yet.' They instantly stopped. I'm that mentally prepared. My focus is on the bow and shooting in one of the most prestigious events in the world."

Qualifying for the Paralympics does have some drawbacks.

First, there are concerns about the conditions in Rio.

Recently, a Paralympian who had arrived early in Rio was robbed at gunpoint. Poor water conditions around the city have been an issue for years and recently body parts washed ashore near the beach volleyball venue.

And then there are concerns about the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

"It's one of those things I've got to accept," Polish said. "I don't like it. I don't think we should be shooting there because of it. Not only that, but Rio is one of the worst places in the world for murders."

Precautions are being taken.

Polish already has to check in with the U.S. team organizers if he wants to go anywhere. They even cautioned him not to take a trip to Illinois to bowfish for Asian carp.

He'll even be getting a phone with a GPS monitor that tracks his every movement.

"I understand it. This is a big deal," he said. "It doesn't happen all the time."

Polish also will have a curfew in Rio - the team isn't allowed out after sunset - and they'll have bodyguards to move them about.

That's fine with Polish. He wants to see some of the events but he's more focused on winning his own.

"I'm not there for all of that," he said. "I'm there to represent (the U.S.) and win a gold medal.

"I've never been arrogant or cocky. I know how good I am. I'm blessed. I shoot well. But that doesn't mean anything. I cherish everything I've got. At the same time, I'd give everything I have just to walk again. There are people out there who don't do that. They get good at something and then they get cocky. I don't like that."

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Information from: Observer-Reporter, http://www.observer-reporter.com

Associated Press