Darrell Owen Pace (born October 23, 1956) is a former

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern ...

from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, who won two individual

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

and

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

titles each during his career. In 2011, as part of the

World Archery Federation World Archery (WA, formerly ''Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc'' (FITA)) is the governing body of the sport of archery. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is composed of 156 national federations and other archery associations, a ...

's 80th anniversary celebration, he was declared as by the WAF as "Archer of the Century"

Career

Three years after taking up the sport, Pace, at the age of 16, became the youngest member of the U. S. team at the archery world championships, where he finished twenty-third. Pace went on to win four consecutive national archery championships, from 1973 through 1976. He also won the title in 1978 and 1980. He won the world title in 1975 and 1979 and finished second to long-time rival Richard McKinney in 1983. After winning an Olympic gold medal in 1976, Pace was selected for the 1980 Olympic team but did not compete due to the U.S. Olympic Committee's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union. He was one of 461 athletes to receive a

Congressional Gold Medal The Congressional Gold Medal is the oldest and highest civilian award in the United States, alongside the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is bestowed by vote of the United States Congress, signed into law by the president. The Gold Medal exp ...

instead. In 1984, he took a 13-point lead after the first day of the four-day competition and won an easy victory.Darrell Pace
sports-reference.com Pace also competed in the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

, finishing ninth in the individual competition and winning a silver medal in the team event along with McKinney and Jay Barrs. Darrell O. Pace Park, located in

Hamilton, Ohio Hamilton is a city in Butler County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located north of Cincinnati along the Great Miami River, Hamilton is the second-most populous city in the Cincinnati metropolitan area and the List of municipaliti ...

, is a park named in his honor. In 1974, at the US Nationals in

Oxford, Ohio Oxford is a city in northwestern Butler County, Ohio, United States. The population was 23,035 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A college town, Oxford was founded as a home for Miami University and lies in the southwestern portion ...

, Pace set his first FITA record of 1291 beating John Williams' record of 1268 shot at the 1972 Olympics. He broke that in 1975 at the Nationals with the first 1300 in history; he got 1316. In 1978, Ferrari from Italy broke that with a 1318. Darrell then shattered that the next year in 1979 with a 1341 in Japan; that record stood for 10 years. All in all Pace held the Total FITA world record for 14 years, raising the record a total of 71 points in 5 years.

References

External links