Baptiste Addis reminded the archery world of his talent on Wednesday as the young recurve men star topped the qualification bill at Central Florida 2025.
The 18 year old became one of the youngest archers to medal at an Olympics when he got silver in the men’s team at Paris 2024 but needed no help from teammates at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex as he dropped a score of 671 with 12 Xs to be the number one seed out of 66 athletes on the shooting line.
“I was expecting nothing,” said the 2023 World Youth bronze medallist. “It’s the first World Cup of the year, the first competition and I’m proud because I’m shooting better but I’m not really at 100 per cent when the wind is like that.”
“For the first international competition, I tried to just put some confidence in me. I’m trying to stay focused on my skills, don’t be so angry for a mistake or something like that, just forget that and try to go in front and focus also on the teamwork because I’m really proud of my team.”
It is no wonder France drafted Addis into the seniors from the youth categories so early with his inexperience not proving to be an issue on the shooting line. His ranking score surpassed the likes of Paris mixed team silver medallist Florian Unruh (670), Berlin 2023 World champion Mete Gazoz (668) and world number three Marcus D’Almeida (659) despite the continuous swirling winds in Auburndale.
On top of that, his mental composure is beyond his years with his take on practicing on the field the day before competition, a shining example of why there is so much hype behind him.
“In practise we can do a big score, but sometimes it changes with the day and then I keep changing my skills to try to be more efficient.”
“It’s not always on the score and I don’t have a score in my head. I just was like, ‘I want to enjoy my qualification, to trust myself and that’s all.’”
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