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Manitoba Blue Cross is proud to sponsor local athlete, Jason Lyon.

August 5, 2011

Manitoba Blue Cross-sponsored athlete, Jason Lyon, takes aim in his local archery range, releases his arrow and shoots the target dead centre. It's a familiar routine that the Olympic athlete reenacts up to five days per week.

"When you're just starting out, you see results almost daily. It makes you want to keep shooting," says Lyon. "Now, I'm at the level where all of those hours of practice help me to maintain the level I'm at."

The 2008 Manitoba Male Athlete of the year started his archery career at the age of 17. Eight years later and with dozens of accolades to his name, the Kinesiology student, now in his third year at The University of Winnipeg, is quickly becoming a household name.

Lyon led the Canadian Men's Recurve Team to a Silver Medal at the 2007 Pan-American Games, attained the highest finish of any Canadian archer in match play format at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and took home a Silver Medal in the men's individual recurve competition at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

"I used to get nervous before big tournaments like this, but now it's about controlling your anger after a bad shot," continues Lyon. "Golfers have a few minutes to compose themselves between strokes. Archers have to shoot three arrows in less than two minutes."

Lyon recently added to his accomplishments by shooting a record qualification score at the 2011 World Senior Archery Championships in Turin, Italy, securing a single spot for Canada at the 2012 London Olympic Games. As the first and only Canadian recurve archer to hold the FITA 1440 record at 1350, Lyon attributes a lot of his success to the support he's received along the way."

"It's difficult to work while competing. I need to travel twice a month for a week at a time. With the cost of flights and tournament fees, I'm looking at tens of thousands of dollars per year to be competitive," says Lyon. "Without the sponsorship of Manitoba Blue Cross, I don't know if I could have reached the level I'm at today."

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