How Olympic archer Khatuna Lorig taught Jennifer Lawrence to hit the bull’s eye in ‘The Hunger Games’
Five-time Olympian reveals what it was like to work with megastar actress and talks about her latest target: to compete at Rio 2016
Khatuna Lorig poses with the Rio 2016 mascots during the test event at the Sambódromo (Rio 2016/Gabriel Nascimento)
Ever wondered how Jennifer Lawrence managed to shoot down a stealth fighter plane with a bow and arrow in The Hunger Games? Thanks to an Olympic archer, that’s how. And not just any Olympic archer: Khatuna Lorig has competed at five Olympic Games for three different nations. With the final part of the blockbuster series currently in cinemas around the world, Lorig told rio2016.com what it was like to train Hollywood’s highest paid actress (see video below).
“I wanted her to look like a real archer,” said the Georgian-born Lorig, who now competes for the USA. The 41-year-old, who won team bronze at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games with the Unified Team that represented the former Soviet Union, said the Oscar-winning Lawrence got so good that she had to move the target further away so she wouldn’t break the arrows.
More than just bows and arrows… find out about archery with our interactive infographic
Khatuna Lorig with Jennifer Lawrence during archery training (Photo: personal archive)
"She got better and better so I had
to move her away from the target
so she didn't break the arrows"
Khatuna Lorig
Lorig was in Rio for September’s archery test event at the iconic Sambódromo, when she did this video interview with rio2016.com’s Thiago Minete:
After the break-up of the Soviet Union, Lorig represented Georgia at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Games. Then, after moving to the USA, she joined her adopted nation’s team at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games, finishing fourth in the women’s individual event in the British capital. “It wasn’t planned, none of it,” she said, of her varying nationality. “It just happened, it’s life.”
Lorig carried the USA flag at the Beijing 2008 Games (Photo: Getty Images/Michael Steele)
Lorig, who won the individual gold at this year’s Pan-American Games in Toronto, also made a splash in 2015 by posing nude in ESPN magazine’s ‘body issue’, which celebrates the athletic form. Currently the second-highest placed American in the world rankings at no.9, Lorig is confident she will she compete in her sixth Olympic Games in Rio, saying: “I have no doubt I’ll come back to Rio next year.”
