Paris, France — Both Tracy Otto and Jason Tabansky had strong performances at the 2023 Parapan Games in Santiago in the W1 event. Otto claimed a gold medal in the women’s competition, while Tabansky won silver in the men’s.

Nine months later, both Otto and Tabansky find themselves competing in their first Paralympic Games in Paris.

“It’s unreal,” Otto remarked. “I never thought that my life would rise from the ashes as it has, to be on the world stage is such an amazing experience. I’m honored to be considered a Paralympian.”

“It’s really exciting,” Tabansky said. “It was good coming in here, competing against people that I’ve competed against all year.”

Otto, 28, survived a life-threatening domestic violence attack that left her paralyzed from the chest down and also resulted in the loss of her left eye. She picked up para archery three years ago and has been very successful en route to her first Paralympic Games.

“Tracy is a wonderful person,” her mixed teammate Tabansky remarked. “I’m super thrilled to shoot with her.”

Tabansky, 41, served in the Army for 16 years before suffering a spinal cord injury. He started participating in para archery events nine years ago and had competed in all the major competitions around the world except for one. As of Thursday, Tabansky can check the last one- the Paralympic Games- off the list.

Otto and Tabansky competed in their respective individual W1 ranking rounds on Thursday morning. The two of them, along with every other archer in the field, shot 72 arrows in total, divided into 12 rounds of six shots. Based on their scores, the athletes were sorted and placed in a bracket-style tournament that will take place on Saturday for the women’s competition, and Sunday for the men’s.

Otto’s first round of the day wound up being her best. She shot a 53 in round one, and even though she didn’t reach that mark in a single round again, her overall score of 547 was her best of the season. Despite having never competed in the Paralympic Games, Otto isn’t changing her routine before, nor during, nor after the competition.

“I do my best to keep the playing field level in my mind,” Otto said when describing the Paralympic environment. “Just shoot my best shot and work through the rest.”

Tabansky was in the mix for the top three until the end, posting seven rounds with scores of 55 or higher. But none of those rounds came at the end with three straight 53s to slot Tabansky in sixth. He still had very positive takeaways from his first taste of Paralympic competition.

“I think I finished pretty strong,” Tabansky recalled. “Finishing in sixth place at my first Paralympics qualification, I don’t think that’s a bad start.”

Both Otto and Tabansky went up against athletes who had performances we’ve never seen at the Paralympic (or any) level. On the men’s side, China’s Tianxin Zhang set a new men’s Paralympic record with a score of 674 (max 720). In the women’s competition, Czechia’s Sarka Pultar Musilova set a new women’s world para archery record with her tally of 659.

Otto will be back in action Saturday at 9:17 AM Paris time needing four individual match wins to claim gold. The first of them comes against China’s Liu Jing, who outshot Otto 608-547 today.

“I just want to execute my shots,” Otto explained. “Make sure that everything is clean and goes well.”

Tabansky will line up his arrows again at 10:08 AM Paris time on Sunday also needing four individual match wins to take home gold. He’ll battle Brazil’s Eugenio Santana Franco, 64. Tabansky held a 654-627 edge over Santana Franco.

“Just shooting the best arrow I possibly can one at a time,” Tabansky said. “Not worrying about what the other person is shooting, not worrying about the results, just doing what I know I can do.”