Alexandra ‘Lexie’ Feeney has recaptured her form of two decades ago that saw her represent Australia in Archery at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and is putting it to work for a crack at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Career, study, other sporting interests and injuries all took their turn at dictating Lexie’s life choices since first stepping away from international competition after a 2013 World Cup, but through it all there’s been one constant at home which never let the passion for Archery die.
“I saw the target set up in my garage the whole time, so I always knew I would come back to shooting one day and acting on that feeling of really wanting to go to another Olympics,” Lexie said.
Lexie, 35, was 19 when she became an Olympian in Beijing where she finished 48th out of 64 competitors.
Again she is entrenched in the archery community through her roles as chair of the Archery Australia Athletes’ Committee, Archery NSW’s Olympic delegate, plus coaching with the Newcastle City Archers and Gosford’s Coastal Archery – all while competing in national events, international events, coaching herself and working full-time for the NSW Department of Education.
“My life is pretty hectic,” she said.
![](https://content.olympics.com.au/public/2024-11/Lexie-Feeney-Beijing-2008.jpg)
“I'm up at 5:20am. I do three strength-based sessions in the gym during the week. I'll log into work at 7:30am or 8am, work till about 3:30pm or 4pm, head out and shoot. I’ll shoot from 4pm till 7pm. Come home, have dinner, have a stretch, go to bed and start it all over again.
“Then on weekends I’ll do a half day or full day, depending on the competition that’s on.”
When 2022 came around Lexie had spent four years out of the sport. Between 2014 and 2018 she kept Archery as a hobby using the compound bow, different from the Olympic discipline of recurve, until a hand and wrist injury required surgery.
“I didn't hurt it shooting, I actually hurt it pulling arrows out of the target.
“I tried to come back to shooting (after surgery) but it just caused so much pain in my hands that I ended up sort of going OK, I need to put this away.
“But I didn't sell any of my gear. I kept it all.”
Somehow it was another injury, while living an active lifestyle of playing Beach Touch Football, Ultimate Frisbee and Hockey, which put her in a moon boot for 12 weeks that brought about a return to Archery.
“I couldn't really walk around but I went down to the local archery club and just had a chat about rejoining,” she said.
“I only had my competition gear and the bow is quite heavy to draw back. So I was literally driving 30 minutes to shoot 20 arrows. But coming back into the sport, I was like, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it properly and set myself up for success.”
Success to Lexie in 2022 meant putting herself in contention for the Olympic Archery Team. In her mind the possibility of being ready for the Paris Olympics was unrealistic, but was excited and motivated by a six-year journey to hopefully get to the LA 2028 Olympics.
![Olympians Lexie Feeney and Ryan Tyack at the 2024 World Archery Field Championships | Credit: World Archery](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent.olympics.com.au%2Fpublic%2F2024-11%2FLexie-Feeney-and-Ryan-Tyack.jpg&w=1200&q=95)
As a by-product of her plan, Lexie won the 2022 women’s recurve Australian Open title and came close to making the Paris Olympic qualifying trials. But the focus remains firmly on LA, not just for herself but also for Australia to qualify a full Olympic Archery Team for the first time since Athens 2004.
For now Lexie continues to coach herself while getting pointers from her dad, Peter Feeney, who started Archery coaching in 1999. The pair were introduced to the sport at a resort in Fiji and were hooked so as soon as Peter got back to Western Sydney, where Lexie grew up and did most of her schooling at Nepean Christian School, Peter went straight into the Blacktown Archers club. But there was a hold up for Lexie.
![](https://content.olympics.com.au/public/2024-11/Lexie-Fenney-Fiji-1999.jpg)
“It was like eight months before they let me go and do a beginner's course and I just remember nagging dad all the time, for him to take me with him,” she said.
“Just after my 11th birthday in July 2000 I got to actually start at a club and get proper lessons. It was a couple months later the Sydney Olympics were on and obviously Simon Fairweather won that historic gold medal and that really lit a flame.
“Since then, every step along the way I feel like I was always supported and never felt like I couldn’t achieve my dreams. I had some really influential women at my club, across NSW and Australia that inspired me and just really made me feel like I could reach my dreams of going to the Olympics.”
Those Sydney 2000 Games inspired Lexie so much, for a hot minute she was eyeing off competing in two Olympic events.
“I'm watching the women's 100m heats and looking at the times and being like ‘Mum I could run that fast.’
“And she was like ‘Oh yeah, OK, sure. Like you're going to go to the Olympics.’
“A few days later Simon Fairweather won the gold medal and I was just like, ‘I could do that, I could go to the Olympics for Archery.’ My mum laughed and said ‘Are you doing both running and archery?’
![](https://content.olympics.com.au/public/2024-11/Simon-Fairweather-Sydney-2000.jpg)
“From that point it was always a belief in myself that I’m going to be an Olympian and that’s absolutely what I want to do.”
Eight years later her mum, dad, aunt, uncle and two cousins all went and watched Lexie compete at the Beijing Olympics, sticking out in the stands like “highlighters” with their green and gold attire.
Representing Australia in two Olympic sports may not be on the cards for Lexie, but the chance to become a dual Olympian is still well and truly alive.