CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- Fifteen-year old Caroline McCracken is an avid reader, so much so that she breezed through all three books in the Hunger Games series in just three days. Three years ago, her grandfather had her try out a bow and arrow, and the inner "Katness" in her came right out.
"I turned out to be kinda good at it" McCracken said. "I went to my first tournament and I won and I kinda got addicted to winning. It was never really planned."
When you watch Caroline shoot, it's as though the sport picked her instead of the other way around. She has won five Virginia state titles already and has been ranked as high as third in the nation in compound bow shooting. She holds one national record to go along with several national titles as well. Despite all this success, McCracken knows there is always room for improvement.
"Almost no one is perfect in this sport" McCracken explained. Her best scores are close: 297 points out of a possible 300 in indoor shooting and 352 points out of a possible 360 in outdoor shooting. "It's very hard to get a perfect score which is what makes it really challenging."
McCracken spends several hours per week practicing at the indoor archery room at Green Top sporting goods in Virginia Center. Her success has allowed her, at a relatively young age, to see many different parts of the country and travel the world as well. She is home schooled because of her hectic schedule which has seen her visit Arizona, Michigan, Las Vegas, Pennsylvania, as well as upcoming trips to France and Turkey.
"I love the travel. Everyone wonders if it's not much fun not being home all the time but I get to go to Vegas and France and I'm going here and winning this and it's really great!!"
Currently compound bow shooting is not an Olympic event, but McCracken says her sport is lobbying for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. Just another stop to add to her list.
