When Hannah Wang started taking archery lessons, she never thought she would reach the national stage.
Wang, a freshman at Los Altos High School, now competes in the U15 barebow division and this year completed a crowning achievement of winning the largest international indoor competition in the barebow youth category in Las Vegas.
Barebow archery is a subgroup within archery, as it differs from Olympic Recurve in that barebow archers cannot use sights or stabilizers as aids. Wang was selected to the first-ever Barebow U15 United States Archery team for 2026.
Wang first got into archery after shooting a basic beginner barebow, which is a wooden bow without any weight, at a birthday party. After shooting a barebow over the course of a few summer camps, Wang asked her dad if she could start competing in formal archery.
“I started with a Genesis bow, a beginner compound bow, and I started lessons at Palomo,” Wang said. “I switched to barebow using a bow they lent me.”
After shooting with a barebow for some time, Wang decided to get her own bow after encouragement from her coaches. Wang initially thought of archery as a fun hobby, but after starting competitions, she found a drive to compete.
Wang said that even though she does not use sights or stabilizers, her practice in barebow has helped her adjust to the difficulties and made her more accurate. Wang placed first overall in the 2025 combined state competition, placing first in both indoor and outdoor competition.
Wang said the environment and mentality are different when competing in the two. Competing outdoors can bring different temperatures and conditions.
“Wind can be a large factor outdoors, which affects where the arrow lands,” Wang said. “I prefer (competing) outdoors, since there’s a variety of distances, giving me a range of accuracy and consistency.”
Wang’s father, Charles, was unfamiliar with the sport when Hannah first showed interest. Charles said they were shocked when coaches suggested starting competitions, as he thought extensive training and talent were needed to compete.
“You can show up and compete no matter what your skill level is, and Hannah won her first competition, which is how this whole thing progressed,” Charles said.
Wang first began taking lessons with Peter Palomo in 2020. After Palomo passed away in 2023, Wang continued training at Palomo Archery and Silicon Valley Archery Development. She continues to participate in pin shoots and indoor events under the coaching of Elliot Lee, Raymond Lenh and Sheri Bryne Haber.
For the future, since Wang is aging out of the U15 division, she is focused on making the U18 national archery team while improving her scores.
