Remember When Geena Davis Almost Made the Summer Olympics?

The Summer Olympics are in full swing, which means it’s time to become an armchair expert on sports we don’t think about outside of these two weeks, every four years.

This is also the time to sit on our couches and think to ourselves “How hard could that be?” while we watch the best of the best make everything look so effortless that someone like me, who pulled her quad running in an adult rec league kickball game last week, thinks they could do it if they just trained hard enough.

Look, we all think it. I’m sitting here wondering if the women’s rugby team might need someone who’s afraid of falling, getting hit, and generally being chased, because if they do, I’m still probably not the woman for the job, but I can dream, can’t I? Only some don’t just dream, sitting on the couch, watching the Olympics, saying to themselves and their car “That could be me, next time.” They actually make it happen. Well, at least one of us has, and she starred in the best Christmas action movie out there. (Eat your heart out, Die Hard.)

I am, of course, talking about Geena Davis, who watched the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, became fascinated with archery, and by 2000 was an elite athlete in the sport at the age of 41, almost making it to the Olympics.

OK, first and foremost, as someone rapidly approaching 40, I appreciate the idea that anyone (except me, of course) can excel at a sport at any age. If you’re feeling like you’re now solidly in the “break not bend” stage of life, and are now envisioning a hypothetical younger version of yourself going to the Olympics over your present self, know that the Oldest Olympian to ever compete was 72, and he won a silver medal for target shooting. It can be done! Also, it seems there’s something about shooting-based sports that you don’t necessarily have to be 21 and a prodigy, mental note to self.

Back to Davis, she became so enamored of the sport that she got off her couch and got in on the action, becoming such an elite archer that she just barely missed making the Olympic team for the 2000 Sydney games. According to People:

“I found a coach and became utterly obsessed,” she says. “Yeah, I took it up at 41 and it became my life for a couple of years.” Indeed, she was soon practicing five hours a day, six days a week — and after just six months of training she became the surprise winner of a string of local, national and international tournaments.

After just two years she’d become so proficient that she vied with 300 other women vying for a spot on the U.S. Olympic archery team in hopes of competing at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Her 24th place finish fell just short of qualifying her for the Olympic team, but she did score a wild card berth at the Sydney International Golden Arrow competition in 1999.

Look, I’m not going to say if Geena Davis can do it you can too, because Geena Davis is in a league of her own. (See what I did there? If only making bad, obvious puns were an Olympic sport. Alas.) However, it can be done, and perhaps the sport that you could excel at is one you simply haven’t tried yet? Not me, of course, because despite my petition to the IOC, the governing body of the Olympics, bingeing Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns is still not considered a sport, so the struggle continues.

Also, it’s pretty cool that Davis reversed the athlete-to-actor pipeline, as one of the dozens of people who watched the ex-NFL star Howie Long’s only starring vehicle, the 1998 classic (to me) movie Firestorm, it’s nice to see it can go the other way.

As for Davis, as of 2020, she said she still practices her skills from time to time but joked that rowing had more of an appeal to her, and maybe she would try out for the Olympics for that. Now, while I don’t see her in Paris for 2024; there’s always 2028, although who knows if she’s still interested in rowing? Davis is talented at basically anything.

So, Geena Davis, if you’re listening, may I suggest you try your hand at the new Olympic sport of break dancing? We’ll see you in Los Angeles, for the next Olympics.