Retiree takes aim at Games

By Jill Lieber
USA Today

"I'm going to make myself good enough for a medal," says Phyllis Shipman, 59, a retired principal from Mililani Uka Elementary, who is shooting for a spot on the 2004 Olympic team. Advertiser library photo • July 23, 2002

At 59, and four years after saying aloha to her career at Mililani Uka Elementary, Shipman refuses to just bask in the sun, stroll on the beach or study the stock ticker.

Instead she's racing into the so-called twilight of her life, determined to make the transition from a semi-sedentary elementary school principal into one of the nation's top female athletes and a candidate for the 2004 U.S. Olympic archery team.

"When people retire, the question they always get asked is, 'What are you going to do next?' " Shipman said. "My message is, 'What would you like to do?' Because you can do it. Retirement is your moment of freedom to follow your dream."

Return to the sport

Before 1996 Shipman hadn't touched a bow since a physical education class three decades earlier at the Pennsylvania College for Women. Today, the left-hander ranks eighth in the United States among senior women (19 and above), the oldest archer, male or female, ranked so high.

In January her dream transported Shipman from the picturesque home she shares with her husband, Chuck, at Sunset Beach, to a spartan, two-bedroom suite at the Arco/U.S. Olympic Training Center, minutes from downtown San Diego and the U.S.-Mexico border.

She trains around the clock, shooting at least 300 arrows a day under the watchful eye of Lloyd Brown, the 1996 and 2000 U.S. Olympic archery coach.

All-around training

Shipman also works with archery gurus, strength coaches, trainers, nutritionists, sports psychologists and sports medicine experts. She's sweating alongside Olympic hopefuls in rowing, soccer, softball, field hockey, tennis, track and field, and cycling.

And doing it as the oldest resident athlete: The sum of her three roommates' ages equals hers.

Shipman is new to following an exercise regimen and lifting weights. She already has dropped a dress size or two. She sleeps in a twin bed, eats cafeteria food, doesn't have a car and carries a lot of credit-card debt.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," said her husband, a real estate appraiser. They have been married 35 years. "When the opportunity came up, and she was invited to live at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, I encouraged it wholeheartedly. If she didn't do it, she'd regret it the rest of her life."

Olympics attainable

Representing the United States at the 2004 Athens Games is attainable for Shipman, who, at 61, would be the oldest U.S. female to compete in the Olympics.

The team will have three men and three women, chosen after a qualifying event in June 2004. Shipman, Brown says, is right in the mix.

"Phyllis has made good, steady progress," said Brown, the resident archery coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. "On paper, she's Olympic-bound. Her life experiences are a great asset. When you're more settled down, it's a lot easier to be competitive."

The U.S. women last won an Olympic archery team medal in 1988, a bronze; their last individual medal was a gold in 1976 by Luann Ryon. South Korea won the team title in 2000 and swept gold, silver and bronze individually. The U.S. team was fifth. Karen Scavotto, now 20, was 14th; Denise Parker, now 29, was 44th; and Janet Dykman, now 49, was 53rd.

But should she qualify for the U.S. team, Shipman says, "I'm going to make myself good enough to medal."

Off to camp

Serendipity drew Shipman to Chula Vista in the summer of 1998, after she spotted an ad for an adult development camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center's Easton Sports Archery Complex, considered one of the sport's best facilities.

She called first to see if her husband could come along — "I'd never gone anywhere by myself" — and off they went.

Now her days start at dawn, when she meets head trainer Vinny Comiskey to work on improving the range of motion in her left shoulder, which has tightened with age.

Shipman has three, two-hour sessions on the range daily, plus two hours three times a week in the weight room with strength coach Zack Weatherford.

Six days a week she does an hour of aerobic exercise.

Shipman embraces the experience.

"I've never thought of myself as an athlete," she says. "Now I'm beginning to come to terms with that."