The story of American Paralympic athlete Matt Stutzman

Brut America

“I wanted to be known as the best archer in the world, followed by, “Oh, by the way did you know, he does that with no arms?”  The story of American Paralympic athlete Matt Stutzman …

Transcript

00:00My story started when I was born.

00:03I was born without any arms.

00:06I'm not sure why.

00:08We never found out a medical reason for that.

00:11So I lived my whole life hands-free.

00:14I remember the first time I got into archery.

00:16I remember sitting at home on the couch

00:20trying to figure out how I was going to provide for my boys.

00:25I had just spent the day looking for a job.

00:29No one's given me that opportunity.

00:31And I was really kind of down.

00:33And I see a guy on TV.

00:35And he has a bow.

00:37And he's shooting it.

00:38And something just clicked.

00:40Like, Matt, you need to try that.

00:43And it's funny because I have no arms.

00:47So I googled how to teach an armless man how to shoot a bow.

00:53And there was nothing.

00:55My aha moment came.

00:57I had a buddy that said,

00:59you should go shoot archery tournaments.

01:01And I said, what happens there?

01:03And he said, you can win lots of money.

01:05So I went to my very first tournament ever.

01:08I got basically last place.

01:11On my way home, I get a call from a manufacturer

01:14that said they would like to sponsor me.

01:16And I was like, of course, right?

01:18Because who doesn't like free stuff?

01:21So I take this bow.

01:23And I show my friend at the time.

01:25I show my friend.

01:26And I say, check this out.

01:27This is awesome.

01:28And he says to me,

01:31Matt, the reason why they sponsor you

01:34is because you have no arms.

01:37And you draw attention to their product.

01:40It's not because you're good.

01:43And that's when it clicked.

01:45I wanted to be known as the best archer in the world.

01:49Followed by, oh, by the way, did you know

01:52he does that with no arms?

01:55And that was the day I sat in a chair from then on,

01:59almost eight hours a day,

02:01practicing and practicing and practicing

02:03so I could become the best archer in the world.

02:06In my mind, I guess I've never been frustrated

02:09by the fact of I'm just a Paralympic athlete.

02:12And that is because outside of the Paralympic Games,

02:16I compete against able-bodied archers

02:18all across the United States, even the world.

02:21And when I go there,

02:23and I've won places against able-bodied people

02:26and won able-bodied tournaments,

02:28and so they see me as an athlete.

02:30And of course, I'm just specifically talking about myself

02:33in the archery sport,

02:35but they look at me like I'm an archer,

02:38not a guy without any arms.

02:40And it's a humbling experience.

02:42My mindset of what I want to accomplish from now on

02:45has just changed a little bit.

02:47Of course, I want to come to Paris

02:49and would love to win a gold medal.

02:51But what I think is important,

02:53that for the first time ever, potentially,

02:56if everything goes like I think it's going to,

02:59you will see four,

03:02not three, not two, not one,

03:04four other armless people competing at this Games.

03:08And that is amazing.

03:10That is what I want to happen.

03:12That is the future of the sport, right?

03:15That's my gold medal,

03:17helping other people go after their dreams and their goals

03:20and let them experience success like I've experienced

03:23because it literally changes people's lives.

03:26There was a time in my life,

03:28literally right before archery happened,

03:31that I really felt down.

03:33I felt hopeless,

03:35like nobody was giving me that chance

03:37to prove to myself or to the world

03:39that I could do things.

03:41So now that I'm in the position that I'm in,

03:44I would have to say that you can't give up, ever.

03:49If I would have gave up then,

03:51I'm not sure what would have happened to me.

03:53And you can't give up.

03:56No matter if you feel like it is the end

03:58and that's how you're feeling,

04:01take a breath, smile,

04:03start over the next day.

04:05Because dreams can happen to anyone.

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