BOB FAW: Twenty-year-old Jenny Nichols isn't just one of the world's foremost archers. Ranked number one on the U.S. Women's Olympic archery team, she's taking dead aim on gold in Athens and on something she treasures even more.
JENNIFER NICHOLS (Olympic Archer): I want to do well, and I want to get a good performance. I want to represent my country well. But the foremost thing in my mind is that God will be glorified and that, if anything, people can see that there is a loving God who loves me and everyone else.
FAW: Jenny's is a precision, highly technical sport: her carbon bow costs $2,000; her arrows, carbon and aluminum, cost $300 a dozen.Ms. NICHOLS (To Bob Faw): This combination will do well in the wind because it's a heavier arrow.
FAW: What sets Jenny Nichols apart, though, isn't her equipment -- it's her faith. There, tucked away inside her quiver, are passages of Scripture.
Ms. NICHOLS: I memorize or recite them while I practice and then during tournaments, when I get nervous or my head gets too much into the game, where I'm worried too much about my results, I'll start reciting these verses, like this one. It is Isaiah: "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you."FAW (To Ms. Nichols): I wonder if anybody ever complains that that might give you an unfair advantage?
Ms. NICHOLS: No, because everybody has the opportunity to do that if they want to.
FAW: But Jenny doesn't rely just on inspiration. Nearly every day, for five or six hours, she practices. Yes, it does make perfect.(To Ms. Nichols): Can you tell, when you release it, if it is going to be good?
Ms. NICHOLS: Most of the time. After I warm up, I usually can tell. I know when it's a 10.
FAW: Jenny, who is postponing college to concentrate on archery, has been a straight shooter ever since she was 11 and her father, a one-time archer, brought home bows so the entire family could share a sport together.
BRENT NICHOLS (Father): Archery was good for us because it gives a focus for the kids to keep them out of things that are happening in the world; it gives them a discipline. At the same time they are not in the malls, they are not out with a group of friends riding around in cars.
CHERYL NICHOLS (Mother): We do shelter them, I guess. We pick and choose as parents and teachers what kind of social experiences they have and who their friends are.
FAW: And whenever it can, the family travels together -- cheering on Mandy, who failed in her bid to make the Olympics, and especially Jenny, who considers this support so vital she chose to stay at home rather than train full-time somewhere else, as many Olympians do.
DEBBIE KRIENKI (Archer): I think there's the matter of ability that exists for us all, but there is always that something extra that puts one person above the others. Jennifer has an absolute advantage by her absolute faith in God -- an advantage over me and an advantage over everyone else.
Ms. NICHOLS: I want it to be like a worship to him. I give God my best, but if that doesn't measure up to what other people are doing, I have offered my best. And that is all he wants.
