Archery, salad keep Olympian in Tucson

Her father owns a company that installs security fences for celebrities, and Nichols met Kevin Costner, star of the film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."

Nichols gave him pointers in archery; he taught her fly-fishing.

"He was pretty quick in picking it up," she said.

The nation's best female archer is headed to her second Olympic Games. Yet despite living in Cheyenne, Wyo., the 24-year-old said she feels like she's been spending "half her life" in Tucson lately.

She even found a church and a great salad restaurant.

The reason for the Tucson trek: Alexander Kirillov, one of the nation's premier private coaches.

Kirillov, 52, is the head of PSE Archery's shooting and technical school. Located a half-mile off Grant Road near Interstate 10, PSE is one of the nation's archery hubs. With more than 140,000 square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and practice range space, PSE builds and ships all its products from the facility. Kirillov cranks out archers — beginners and experts — almost as fast.

"He works very hard and inspires us to work very hard," Nichols said. "He's always been like that from the very beginning."

But for all the archers he tutored who eventually made the Olympics — both in America and the former Soviet Union — none has won a medal. Nichols wants to win a medal later this year in Beijing, for herself and her coach, but is keeping the proper perspective.

"Any athlete that goes to the Olympics is going to consider the possibility of medaling," Nichols said. "Winning is something so completely out of my control. If I put my focus on my expectations, on something that is performance-based, it's easy to get into a mind-set that's very detrimental."

She first came to Tucson in 2001 and, on the advice of a fellow archer, considered using Kirillov as a coach. Almost from the beginning, she was comfortable around Kirillov, whom she calls her "Russian papa."

Leading up to the Olympics, Nichols has spent about one week per month in Tucson. Before last month's U.S. Olympic Archery Trials in Phoenix, Nichols spent almost two months straight in Tucson.

"In Cheyenne," she said, "we have like 2 1/2 months of summer."

Kirillov first picked up archery as a 14-year-old living in Dushanbe, which is the capital of Tajikistan. He went to a shooting club with a friend and was told by a coach he had a knack for the sport.

"A coach showed me special tips and he said, 'You have a talent,' " Kirillov said. "When I heard him tell me I could be very good … it was unbelievable."

Kirillov, who also played soccer and basketball, was good enough to make the USSR national archery team, but never participated in an Olympics. He gravitated toward coaching, running the USSR national team before emigrating to Seattle in 1992.

"The Soviet Union was broke," he said.

He makes his living teaching small muscle movements that affect an arrow's path — and getting his students to repeat their form thousands of times.

"It's very different to teach people how to compete," he said. "It's important to have that character — that you are brave, that you are a winner."

Kirillov said he sees those traits in Nichols, who is using her 2004 Olympic experience in Athens, where she lost in the quarterfinals, for guidance.

"There's so much buildup," Nichols said. "It really can become more important (than it should be). As an athlete, it's important for it not to be more important."

Kirillov may not be there to see it. Because the Olympic team has its own coach, he cannot receive additional credentials.

If he goes, he has to sit in the stands like everyone else.

"I don't know yet," Kirillov said. "I can fly, but then what? Can I help her?"

Nichols thinks so. After all, he's been there for her for seven years.

"It would be nice to have him there," she said.

BY THE NUMBERS, PART II

2

Main competitions for each gender: an individual and a team event

3

Members of the U.S. men's team going to Beijing: five-time Olympian Butch Johnson; three-time Olympian Vic Wunderle; and 19-year-old Glendale native Brady Ellison

2

Members of the U.S. women's team going to Beijing: Jennifer Nichols, who trains in Tucson, and Khatuna Lorig, who is participating in her fourth Games for her third country. Lorig has represented the former Soviet Union, the Republic of Georgia and now the United States

8

Months, the length of the Olympic team selection process