Eric Peters had a rough stretch off the archery range from 2018 to ‘22.

With the losses of his father and grandmother, a breakup, the interruption of sport because of COVID-19 and the departure of his longtime coach, all combined with a busy schedule as he worked toward a chemistry degree at the University of Waterloo while trying to rise up the ranks in an international sport, it’s no surprise the Ottawa native struggled to the best version of himself at work — or that he felt a weight lift off his shoulders when non-sport challenges finally eased up last year.

“Now that things have stopped being so aggressively difficult, it has just allowed me to do my own thing, really let go and be in it mentally at 100 per cent,” Peters said. 

“I’ve just seen a lot more success because of it.”

Peters showed he had reached a much higher level last summer when he earned a surprising silver medal in the men’s individual recurve event at the world archery championship in Berlin. It was the first medal for a Canadian in an individual event at archery worlds in 10 years.

That showing, combined with his current ranking of fifth in the world, makes Peters a Paris podium threat in a sport where Canada never has won an Olympic medal.

“(In) archery you can train physically as hard as you want, but the bigger thing is the mental side of the sport,” he said. “When things are mentally easier on you outside the sport, you can just perform so much better.”

With the help of mental performance coach Joe Lesner, Peters now feels he’s in the best headspace of his career.

It’s been a long road to get to this point.

When Peters was 11, his dad, Chris, finally gave in and got him the equipment he’d become enamoured with through fantasy books and video games. Soon after first picking up a bow, Peters raised the eyebrows of local coaches.

But while he was a natural at hitting the target, he wasn’t nearly as effective at staying on an even keel.

“I’m physically talented, I have the ability to shoot really, really good arrows,” Peters, 27, said. “But mentally, I was not talented to start. I was too serious, almost too driven and too competitive for my own good. It’s a sport about being in control and taming the adrenaline and taming your body and emotions. I was a little too wild for it. (Lesner) has been super keen in just getting me to the mental stage I need to be at to perform well.”

That was in evidence at worlds with heavy winds and rain making things quite difficult for many archers.

Growing up in Canada’s capital, of course, also gives Peters an edge when the weather turns nasty.

“I felt like this is hard, but this is good for me,” he said of training in Canada. “The weather is difficult, but this is really good for me just because I am stronger and just more capable of dealing with these conditions than a very, very large portion of the field.”

With that experience in his back pocket, Peters has every right to feel confident about contending for the podium in France. But while he’s certainly shooting for a medal, he’s far more focused on the process than the end result.

“The goal when I show up there is to shoot my arrows the way I want to,” Peters said. “Shoot my arrows confidently, shoot my arrows aggressively, not being scared. I don’t want to be defensive. I want to go there, go all out and see what happens. And win or lose, I’ll figure it out.”

Peters’ Paris support crew will include the people closest to him in life — his mom, Danxia Xu, and his fiancee and fellow archer Liliana (they met at a bow shop in the Waterloo area and are getting married next year).

Unfortunately, the man who gave Peters a chance to live out his archery dreams won’t get to see his son perform on the Olympic stage. After a stroke and a battle with cancer, Chris Peters died in 2022.

“I wish he could have seen this, seeing the world championships, seeing me going to the Games. He was heartbroken when I just missed out on Tokyo (in 2021),” Eric Peters said.

“I’m going to be thinking about him, of course. I just want to do him proud. To do him proud would be to go there and fight my own game.”