Simon Fairweather started archery at the age of 14 in 1984. Up until his retirement from the sport in 2005, he was selected for and competed in, 5 Olympic teams and 8 World Championship teams and dominated the sport in Australia winning countless national titles. He remains the only archer worldwide (since the FITA round was introduced to World Championships) who has won a World Championships or Olympic Games title under two different competition formats. For various reasons, FITA has changed the format of competition several times since the ‘84 Olympics, which has been challenging for archers to adjust to. The Highlight of Fairweather’s career is undoubtedly winning the 2000 Olympic Games Gold medal in front of a home crowd. He also won the 1991 World Target Championships.  Fairweather remains the only Australian to achieve either of these feats in the Olympic discipline. His good friend Clint Freeman from Tasmania is the only other Aussie to win a ‘Worlds’ - his win being in the non-Olympic discipline ‘Compound’ division. Most of Fairweather’s work is either a carved piece or starts out as a carved master destined for casting. Generally European Boxwood is the preferred medium for small carvings, as its hardness, combined with fine grain with no voids within the grain, makes it able to take incredible detail. Boxwood is a pale straw colour and is readily stained with various colourants. Carving these small works is slow going and frequently they take 7-10 days or even much longer. See more of his work at http://simonfairweather.com.au/ About Simon Made with Xara