JAGER Maja

Olympic qualifying results
She secured an individual quota spot for Denmark ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games through her performance at the 2019 World Championships in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. In October 2019 she was officially selected for the Danish team that will compete in Tokyo by Archery Denmark. (worldarchery.org, 08 Oct 2020; dr.dk, 14 Jun 2019)

Draw length (in)
27 (worldarchery.org, 30 Jun 2019)

Draw weight (lbs)
39 (worldarchery.org, 30 Jun 2019)

General
TIME IN KOREA
In 2013 she was invited to the Republic of Korea by coach Kim Hyung-Tak. She intended to be there for 12 months, but ended up staying for five years. Part of the condition of her residence permit was that she study at a local university, but first she had to learn enough of the Korean language to be able to understand her lectures. "It was a huge upheaval and a huge culture shock. The first three months were probably the toughest of my life. I was constantly confused. Especially because the teachers couldn't speak English. Korean teaching took place in Korean. It was a real mouthful, and most of the time I was up from 08:00 to 23:00 because I was going to workouts, to school and to do homework." (dr.dk, 15 Dec 2019)

MOVE LEADS TO RESULTS
She saw an almost instant improvement in her results after moving to the Republic of Korea to train with coach Kim Hyung-Tak, claiming gold in the individual event at the 2013 World Championships in Antalya, Turkey. "[Kim] has a huge amount of experience and a great talent for analysing technique, which means he can quickly see what needs to change. We changed technical things. I remember it was a slight adjustment to my grip on the string, and it definitely had an impact on winning the world championships six months after I moved to Korea. It was absolutely amazing. I knew I was good shooting, but it had happened a little abruptly. It was quite unexpected, but very nice." (dr.dk, 15 Dec 2019)

RIO DISAPPOINTMENT
She competed at the 2012 Olympic Games in London but missed out four years later in Rio de Janeiro as Denmark did not qualify any places for the Olympic archery competitions. "I'm really looking forward to the Tokyo Olympics. I clearly remember the great atmosphere in London and it's going to be the same in Tokyo. It was a huge disappointment not to attend the Rio Olympics. But archery is a brutal sport where small circumstances can make a huge difference." (worldarchery.org, 08 Oct 2019; dr.dk, 14 Jun 2019)

FURTHER EDUCATION
In 2018 she began studying bioinformatics and systems biology at the Technical University of Denmark in Kongens Lyngby. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Jan 2020)

She became the first female archer representing Denmark to win individual gold at the world championships by claiming victory at the 2013 edition of the tournament in Antalya, Turkey. (SportsDeskOnline, 12 Feb 2020; bt.dk, 03 Jan 2014)