Miranda (Leek) Huerta (born May 18, 1993) is an American

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 ...

Career

Born in

Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, Leek learned to shoot from her father, Scott Leek, who is a recreational archer. When she was 5, Scott Leek took her with him to a shooting range and taught her how to use a basic

recurve bow In archery, a recurve bow is one of the main Bow shape, shapes a bow (weapon), bow can take, with limbs that curve away from the archer when unstrung. A recurve bow stores more energy and delivers energy more efficiently than the equivalent strai ...

. Over time, she began to participate in local competitions, switching to a

compound bow In modern archery, a compound bow is a bow that uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs. The compound bow was first developed in 1966 by Holless Wilbur Allen in North Kansas City, Missouri, and a US patent w ...

, which she would use until switching back to an Olympic-style recurve bow at the age of 12. During this transition, Leek continued to be coached by her father, with additional support and advice from archery coach Terry Wunderle and his son, former Olympian Vic Wunderle. By age 14 she was selected as a member of USA Archery's Junior Dream Team, and began to be coached by Kisik Lee, her current team coach. Her father remains her personal coach. In 2010, Leek was selected as the sole representative of the United States in women's archery at the

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, ) officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Singapore 2010, were the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an Olympic Games-based event for young athletes. Held ...

. The following year, she graduated from

Dowling Catholic High School Dowling Catholic High School is a Catholic secondary school in West Des Moines, Iowa, within the Diocese of Des Moines. As of the 2013–14 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,431 students and 94.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basi ...

in West Des Moines, and has been accepted to attend

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

starting in fall, 2012. Also in 2011, Leek participated as a member of the United States women's team at the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games () and commonly known as Guadalajara 2011, were an international multi-sport event held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby c ...

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. There, she won silver medals in both the individual and team competitions. She qualified to compete in both the

individual An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...

and

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to in ...

competitions at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, beating out two more experienced archers for the right to compete in the individual competition on behalf of the United States. She did not medal in either competition.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leek, Miranda 1993 births American female archers Archers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Living people Sportspeople from Iowa Sportspeople from Des Moines, Iowa Olympic archers for the United States Archers at the 2011 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in archery 21st-century American sportswomen