Birthdate: 12/12/73
Birthplace: Salt Lake City, Utah
Hometown: Salt Lake City , Utah
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 125
Current Residence: Salt Lake City, Utah
Sport: Archery
Years in Olympics: 1992, 1988

She was a young American

Denise Parker was the youngest member (14 years, 9 months, 5 days) of the entire U.S. Olympic Team at the opening of the 1988 Seoul Games. There, she won a bronze medal with the U.S. women's archery team and finished 21st in the individual competition. She says she regrets having made several last-minute stylistic adjustments prior to the Games. Parker excelled in the years following Seoul, winning the national title in 1989, 1990 and 1991. She also had two top-10 individual finishes at the World Championships, including a bronze in 1989. When the National Archery Association (NAA) named Parker, at 15, its 1989 female athlete of the year, the male recipient was national champion Ed Eliason, 56. Parker’s first international victories came in 1987, when at age 13 she won individual and team gold medals at the Pan American Games.

Here's... Denise!

In February of 1988, Parker was one of 18 female athletes invited to Washington, D.C., for National Women in Sports Day; after a quick handshake from President Reagan, she had lunch in the White House. She also was featured in Sports Illustrated, Life and several other national publications, and appeared on "The CBS Morning News" and "The Tonight Show." When the latter program first contacted Parker after her 1987 Pan Ams victory, she turned down the invitation, explaining that she was committed to a hunting trip with her parents. At that evening's family dinner, she mentioned the incident to her parents, who were surprised that she'd declined the offer. They called the show themselves the following day. "It sounds like that little girl needs to go hunting fairly badly," they were told. "So why don't we schedule it for after she gets back." When she finally appeared on the show, Parker brought her bow and hit a number of targets, including a piece of Lifesaver candy from about 15 yards away.

Befuddled in Barcelona

After winning the 1992 Olympic Trials, Parker entered the Barcelona Games expecting to win a medal. Instead, she took eighth place in the individual and team competitions. “After Barcelona, I decided that 1996 would be my year,” she said. Parker moved from Salt Lake City to San Diego in 1995 to train full-time for the Atlanta Games. Upon hearing that her South Korean rivals were shooting 300 arrows per day, she decided to practice more. But her intensified training didn't help, as Parker placed ninth at the '96 trials and didn’t make the team for Atlanta. Returning home, she stashed her bow in the garage and quit the sport. “It was a horrible experience,” she said.

Archer visits fourth estate

A 1997 graduate of Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a marketing degree, Parker’s first job was working for an advertising agency. She then became the editor of Archery Focus, the bimonthly publication of the National Archery Association. She was simultaneously a photo editor, layout editor, assignment editor and advertising salesperson. Being on the journalistic side of her sport gave Parker a different perspective, she says, and in the summer of 1998 she started shooting again. In 1999, Parker won her fifth national title, a decade after she’d won her first. Parker went to the 1999 World Championships and finished the qualification round in 11th place, though she then lost in the first round of head-to-head matches. “I kept telling myself to keep in mind that the main goal was Sydney,” she said. She now shoots only half the volume of arrows in practice that she used to, down from 300 per day to about 150. Parker qualified for her third Olympic team by placing third at the 1999 trials, and she was part of the American team that took bronze at the Sydney test event in September 1999. When looking back 12 years to her early career, she says: “All that feels like another world now. Who was that girl?”

Moving on

When Denise was three, her biological father died of cancer. Her mother, Valerie, remarried Earl Parker when Denise was five, and Denise asked if she could change her last name to Parker. Her original last name is Knudson. Right-handed in all other activities, Parker shoots left-handed because her left eye is dominant. Currently, she is a marketing engineer at Hoyt USA, a company that makes archery equipment.

History

OLYMPIC:
2000 Olympic Trials (3rd)
1992 Olympic Games (5th) team (5th)
1988 Olympic Games (21st) team (3rd)
1996 Olympic Training Team Trials, finals (9th), semifinals (9th), West regionals (1st)
1992 Olympic Trials (1st)
1988 Olympic Trials (1st)

WORLD: World Ski-Archery Championships `98: (12th), team (3rd).... World Target `99: (41st) team (6th), '95 (20th), '93 (13th), '91 (6th) team (3rd), '89 (3rd).... World Target Trials: `99 (1st), '95 (3rd), '93 (1st), '91 (1st), '89 (1st).... Junior World Championships: '91 (1st)... World Indoor Championship: '95 (4th)

PAN AM: 1999 Pan American Games: (3rd) team (1st)....... 1995 Pan American Games: won six medals: individual bronze, team gold, 60-, 50- & 30-meter golds, 70-meter silver..... 1991 Pan American Games: (1st) team (1st).... 1987 Pan American Games: (1st) team (1st)... Pan American Trials: `99 (1st), '95 (1st), '91 (1st), '87 (1st)

NATIONAL: U.S. Target Championships: '00 (3rd), `99 (1st), `98 (2nd), `97 (5th), '95 (5th), '93 (1st), '91 (1st) team (2nd), '90 (1st), '89 (1st)..... U.S. Open: '00 (4th), `99 (2nd), `98 (7th), `97 (20th)...... U.S. Indoor Championships: '00 (5th), `99 (3rd), `98 (6th), '95 (1st), '94 (1st), '93 (2nd), '92 (1st), '91 (1st), '90 (1st), '89 (1st), '88 (1st)..... JOAD National Championships: '91 (1st).......

USOF: U.S. Olympic Festival: '91 (1st) team (1st), '89 (1st), '87 (5th)

USAT U.S. Archery Team member `89-`95, `98-`99

Records

Holds 5 Junior, 5 Intermediate and 9 Ladies National Outdoor Records
Holds 9 National Indoor Records
Pan American Games Records: 18 Arrows (157-'95), 12 Arrows (110-'95), Finals &
Semifinals (330-'91), Quarterfinals (340-'91), 50m (319-'91), 60m (325-'91), 70m (312-'91)

Denise Parker's Comeback Story