Stephan Hansen made it a memorable return to the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit as he secured a place in the compound men’s final fours at Puebla, the first stage of the 2026 season.
His appearance in Mexico this week was his first on archery’s premier international circuit since Paris 2023, and the last time the 2026 Indoor World Series silver medallist reached the semifinals was at Salt Lake City 2018, which he eventually went on to win.
Eight years is a long time in archery however, with Hansen back then representing his birth country Denmark. Now, he is a member of the USA team since his switch was confirmed in October.
The 30-year-old is the only American to shoot in tomorrow’s compound individual semifinals as well.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to get fully ready because of Vegas, but it was the same for pretty much everybody,” said Hansen, who defeated world number one Mike Schloesser via shoot-off at Parque del Arte before dropping a near perfect 149 against François Dubois in the quarterfinal. “It’s fun to be back and fun to compete again in these things. I missed it a little bit. I always have a lot of respect for Mike.”
“We have been shooting against each other for I don’t even know how long. I was lucky to beat him in Nimes, the last time we shot there with good scores but we have been competing against each other forever.”
“The first match was hard too. Robin [Jaatma] shot really good, he had way more Xs than me but I had to clean it to beat him and with Mike, I dropped one early and then he gave me one back and then the shoot-off was a little windy for both of us.”
“It’s one of the guys that it always feels better to beat because he’s number one right now, it’s pretty satisfying,” Hansen added.
