Williamson looking to improve on bronze

Alison Williamson is more motivated than ever as she approaches her fifth Olympic Games looking to add to the bronze medal she picked up four years ago.

The 36-year-old became the first British woman to win an Olympic archery medal since 1908 after finishing third in Athens and heads to Beijing full of confidence having secured a second consecutive World Cup team gold this year with fellow Olympians Naomi Folkard and Charlotte Burgess.

Despite admitting she has seriously considered hanging up her bow after three of the four previous Games, Williamson insisted the desire for Olympic glory burned as fiercely as ever.
"I'm hungrier, I think," she said. "I'm greedy. I want a team medal.

"There's temptation to retire every time. I didn't consider retirement after Barcelona but after the rest, yes.

"I sit down and review at the end of the year and go through my goals, what I've achieved, what I want to still achieve and if it doesn't balance, then that's it. It's similar to a plus and minus sheet."
However, she would not confirm whether she would still be competing in four years' time at her home Olympics.

"I don't know, I'll have to reassess," she added. "I haven't ruled it out. I'll have to do what I'll always do.

"After Athens I just wanted a compete break so I went back to teaching but I was still training as best I could.

"I'm not sure if I could do a full-time four-year training cycle, I need to do something else as a little bit of a break before I start on a long journey."

One medallist who has returned to the Olympic scene after an absence of 16 years is Simon Terry.

The 34-year-old won bronze in both the individual and team events in Barcelona in 1992 before giving up the sport for almost a decade.

"It started about 18 months after Barcelona, my performance dipped a fair bit and I was generally just not enjoying it anymore," Terry said.

"I'd been in the sport 11, 12 years, and just fancied a bit of a change. I started going out with mates, stopped practising, performance dipped and that was it really.

"I saw Alison shoot in Athens on television, heard about Larry (Godfrey, who finished fourth in Athens), and about a year after that I fancied having another go. I went down to Grantham Archery Club, got the bow out of the bag after 10 years and it went from there.

"It didn't take me long to get back into it but it was the finer points I was missing. It probably took me the best part of six months to get it back."

However, Terry never imagined he would find himself once again competing in an Olympics.
"Not at all," he added. "I never thought about that level. I was bike racing two years before starting archery again, I just wanted something to do at weekends really.

"I didn't really think about getting in the British team and it just escalated from there really."
However, both the men's and women's teams were reluctant to talk up their medal chances in Beijing.

"There's a dozen or so archers capable of winning a medal on the day and it's just the ones that can keep the mental strength, concentration and focus," Williamson said.

"We work regularly with a sports psychologist to have a game plan in place ready for the competition."

"Everyone wants to win a medal," Terry added.

"I think we stand more of a chance in the team round than individually but it'd be good for the country and sport in general.

"Individually, it's such a small margin you're working with. You only need one bad arrow and that's it but with a team event, you've got twice as many arrows and three people in your team so it's a lot more give and take.

"Individually, as long as you shoot well and you're pleased with what you do, you're half way there."

Team-mate Alan Wills, who has an individual World Championship bronze to his name, agreed performance rather than goals were the focus.

"If, at the end of next month, I'm happy with how I shot and happy with my performance, I'm sure other things will be good around it like medals.

"I've got that ability and confidence deep inside that if I shoot well, I can beat anybody in the world." the 26-year-old said.

"Looking at medals takes away the focus of what we're there to do."