With the Rio 2016 archery test event taking place at the city’s iconic Sambódromo this week, the Olympic and Paralympic Games organising committee took the chance to introduce the sport to children in a neighbouring ‘favela’ community. In partnership with the French consulate, Rio 2016 took four professional archers into Complexo São Carlos to give 50 youngsters a go at top-level bows and arrows on Wednesday (16 September).

The informal class was run by three Brazilian archers – Rio 2016 hopeful Fábio Emílio and his father, the four-time Olympian Renato Emílio, and Suzui ‘Archer’ Mattei – along with French-Brazilian para-archer Patricia Layolle, in the community that is opposite the Rio 2016 headquarters. After three hours of fun, a friendly competition was held to define the five best archers among the youngsters, with the winners receiving cuddly dolls of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games mascot, Tom.

Mattei showed the kids how to handle the high-powered equipment (Photo: Rio 2016/André Redlich)

Lucas Castro, 12, was one of the winners. “I’d never done archery before, but I liked it a lot and it was a great feeling to hit the bull’s eye,” he said.

“I’ve never given a lesson to so many kids at the same time,” said Fábio Emílio. “It’s been a lot of fun, they even chanted my name. Archery helps children to develop, in terms of education and finding their direction in life. It’s only good for them.”

The youngsters were fascinated to learn about (Photo: Rio2016/André Redlich)