Khatuna Lorig

Khatuna Lorig (/kəˈtuːnɑː ˈlɔːrɪɡ/; born January 1, 1974, as Khatuna Kvrivishvili, Georgian: ხათუნა ქვრივიშვილი) is a Georgian archer who immigrated to the United States.

Khatuna Lorig
Personal information
Nationality Georgia
 United States
Born (1974-01-01) January 1, 1974
Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight141 lb (64 kg)
Sport
Country United States
SportArchery
Medal record
Representing  Unified Team
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1992 Barcelona Team
Representing  United States
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2013 BelekMixed team
World Cup Final
Gold medal – first place 2010 Edinburgh Mixed Team
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2015 Toronto Individual
Gold medal – first place 2019 Lima Team
Silver medal – second place 2019 Lima Individual
Silver medal – second place 2011 Guadalajara Team
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Toronto Team

She has used at least 3 different last names while competing in and representing various different countries.[1]

  • Khatuna Kvrivichvili, Soviet Union (part of the Unified Team) at Barcelona 1992. At the age of 18, she won the bronze medal[2]
  • Khatuna Lorigi, while competing for Georgia in the Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000) Olympic games.
  • Khatuna Lorig, from 2004 when she was unable to participate in the Olympic Games in Athens because of citizenship issues. She competed for the United States at the 2008 Olympics. Then, at the age of 38 she competed again for Team USA at the 2012 London Olympics.[1]

Career

Lorig's hometown is Tbilisi, Georgia, where she started her archery training in 6th grade at a state-sponsored school. Her training involved learning how to hold a bow for eight months while looking in the mirror before being able to actually load an arrow.[3]

Lorig earned individual bronze and team gold medals at the 1990 European Championships in Barcelona competing for the Soviet Union.[4] She also earned individual and team gold medals at the 1992 European Championships in Malta.[5]

When she was 18 and while four months pregnant, Lorig earned a bronze medal in women's team competing for the Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics.[3] Lorig went on to compete for Georgia at the 1996 Olympics. After competing in the 1996 Olympics in the United States, she decided to remain in the US and settled in Brooklyn and later New Jersey. She competed again for Georgia at the 2000 Olympics as Khatuna Lorigi.

Lorig became a naturalized U.S. citizen and qualified to compete in the women's individual archery event at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There Lorig finished her ranking round with a total of 635 points. This gave her the 26th seed for the final competition bracket in which she faced Virginie Arnold in the first round, beating the archer from France with 107-105. In the second round she was too strong for Alison Williamson with 112-109 and via Ana Rendón (107-95) she achieved her place in the quarter-final. There she was unable to beat eventual bronze medalist Yun Ok-Hee who won the match with 111-105.[6] Lorig was afterwards chosen to be the U.S. flagbearer in the closing ceremony.[7]

She taught actress Jennifer Lawrence how to shoot with a recurve bow for the 2012 film The Hunger Games.[8] During that year's Olympics, Lorig finished fourth.[9]

In April 2016, she received her first sponsorship deal with a non-archery brand, appearing in a commercial for Bridgestone tires.[3] She was also selected to be part of "Team Bridgestone," a group of 6 Olympic and Paralympic athletes attempting to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.[10]

References
  1. "Coverage of 2018 Winter Games". sports.yahoo.com.
  2. "Khatuna Kvrivichvili Olympic medals and stats". databaseolympics.com. Archived from the original on March 23, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  3. Wiedeman, Reeves. "Arrow Heads". Harper's. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  4. Nayyar, Namita (April 6, 2017). "Khatuna Lorig: No.1 Women Archer in US Reveals her Success Mantra". Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  5. "Women's European Outdoor Champions". www.archeryeurope.org. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  6. "Athlete biography: Khatuna Lorig". Beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
  7. Khatuna Lorig chosen to carry U.S. flag in closing ceremony
  8. "'Hunger Games' star Jennifer Lawrence learned archery from expert Khatuna Lorig". KABC. March 26, 2012. Archived from the original on November 21, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
  9. From ‘Hunger Games’ to London Games: Khatuna Lorig just misses bronze in archery
  10. "Six U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Athletes and Hopefuls Join "Team Bridgestone" for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games". Bridgestone Americas. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
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