Ballet dancer hitting the bullseye

Amy Oliver’s first passion in life was ballet. Archery, in which she would make her name, did not fit the bill for a young girl growing up in Rotherham.

“I didn’t really like it, because archery was seen as more of boys sport and I was into my ballet, stuff like that,” says Oliver, who was part of the British trio of archers which won Commonwealth Games silver medal in Delhi last year.

She only hung up the plimsoles and took up archery seriously when she was 16, despite the sport being in her blood – with both parents and grandparents members of their local club in Dearne Valley – it was not a natural progression on what she hopes will now be a dream Olympic journey. “Then when I was 16, I tried it again with my auntie and went from there, when I really got the bug.”

In the last five years, Oliver, 23, has held British and European titles and won a world bronze medal at the global championships in Turin earlier this year alongside team-mate Larry Godfrey.

There is, though, fierce competition for the three places in the recurve team at London 2012 – with the likes of Naomi Folkard and Charlotte Burgess also vying to support experienced Olympic campaigner Alison Williamson, who claimed bronze at the 2004 Athens Games. Oliver, though, is determined to stay focussed on the prize ahead.

“Archery is very competitive, but we have got plenty of up-and-coming athletes,” said Oliver.

“I am really happy to have been in the top two over this last year, being able to go to the World Championships and claim a bronze medal.

“I just want to carry on now to be in the top three for Olympic selection. If I shoot the way I have been doing, then hopefully qualification won’t be a problem, but it is going to be tough because everyone is shooting really well at the minute.”

Oliver hopes the London Archery Classic, which runs from today to Saturday at the Olympic venue of Lord’s cricket ground can act as a marker on the road to London.

“I am really looking forward to it, just to see where I lie in it all,” she said. “I have been at the gym nearly every day since the World Championships, just because I feel like I had a disadvantage because I was not shooting a strong enough poundage on the bow. I have done a lot of mental training, like imagery, and they are some of the key things I have been working on.”

Whatever the outcome over the next 12 months, Oliver knows she will have given it her all – at a personal cost. “We have all sacrificed a lot already, but you only get one chance. Everything is geared towards the Olympics,” she said.

“I don’t see my family or my boyfriend and don’t really see any of my friends that much because I am always living out of a suitcase up and down the country, like at Lilleshall where the national governing body is based and Archery Team GB shoot.

“I have given up my job to train full-time but everybody knows how important it is to me and are really supportive.”

“We have a lot of clubs in Rotherham, and hopefully we can make it a well-known sport.”