Gossip behind the Tent Line: Greg Easton Prez!

Meet the new boss .. Not the same as the old boss

Why is this important? The transition in leadership comes at a time when archery is not exactly on an up. The Paris Olympics did bring a nice shot in the arm but archer numbers have been mainly static in terms of participation for a while. There haven't been many new initiatives recently and things were increasingly stale. World Archery is now looking ahead to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, where its hoped, recurve will generate new interest in target archery in a country (the USA) more focused on hunting and compound. They will also be looking to capitalise in the rest of the world of the historic debut of compound archery in a mixed team event. Greg has the tools to exploit this, but...

What platform did he run on? Easton's vision for World Archery emphasizes collaboration, transparency, a focus on strengthening national federations and empowering athletes. All lovely buzzwords but what do they mean in reality? He reiterated these specifically during his pre election podcast with Bowjunkie Media but was a tad closed mouth with detailed plans pre election. We hope he'll be more forthcoming re specifics in the coming weeks. His campaign highlighted strategic priorities centered on enhancing athlete development pathways, strengthening their representation and tailoring development programs. All good for the elites but what about the peasants? Well he did promise to build a dynamic online resource hub for member associations. And the sadly lackluster visual media from WA? Plans to reimagine archery events, making them more engaging for athletes and especially audiences, while exploring flexible hosting models to reduce the burden on host nations. He's certainly a man with a plan and is hitting the ground running but can he deliver the change we need in the 2020's?

But to sum up, a good thing?: Greg pledged to redirect the remuneration associated with the presidential role to support enhanced staffing and services for member associations. In other words he's doing the job for nothing! He has business acumen, something sorely missing from the running of all levels of archery worldwide. He has high level business contacts and the respect of those contacts giving him a large network to tap into. At the very least Greg is going to deliver a cultural shot in the arm to WA. The previous incumbent Dr. Uğur Erdener who, while very active in sport at every level including administration, was originally an eye doctor. He served as an academic at Hacettepe University hospital in Ankara Department of Ophthalmology for 40 years and is now in his 70's! Erdener has been in charge as WA president for two decades and had reached the constitutional term limit (20 years!!!). We're not going to say he was bad, but in the last few years, especially post COVID, there have been missteps and a lack of capitalising on serendipitous circumstances. The WA wagon had become stuck in a rut, and its now Greg's job to unstick the wagon. The pressure is on because the Easton legacy and the archery world expects a lot from an Easton!