The Next Katniss?

Now, Markle is in the hunt to win a gold medal.

“I don’t think any of it set in for at least a couple days afterward,” said her mother Jessika Peer-Markle. “By the time she flew home, she was exhausted but was still on an adrenaline-rush. She said she was going to do this in 2023. She’s pretty remarkable. Sometimes I forget she’s 15.”

Markle is more than remarkable. 

She’s absolutely driven. 

“She took to it immediately from day one, and though she didn’t know the mechanics of archery, everything about it felt natural to her,” said her father Joe Markle, shop foreman at Ed Morse. “She was hitting the target repeatedly. The instructor moved her to the advanced class in a week.”

After taking first place in team rounds at the USA Archery Junior Olympic Archery Development Nationals and earning a bronze medal at the U15 Compound Bow Division two years ago, the wunderkind with a sharpshooter's eye and a ton of determination set her sights on winning a spot on Team USA.

Similar to firing an arrow through the center of an 80-centimeter target, Markle didn’t miss.

Ask Markle what drives her to practice shooting 200 arrows a day from 50 meters (164 feet) at the Fort Huachuca range to become one of the best under-18 archers in the U.S., and you’ll get one of the most confident, self-assured answers you’ll ever hear from a 15-year-old with a smile as wide as the San Pedro Valley:

“I feel I can do big things in this sport, really big things, and I want to make a real impact in it. I feel I have the ability that can take me there, that I can be good enough to go to the Olympics and be number one someday.”

Markle has been gearing up for the World Archery Youth Championships in Canada for years and has been training with a coach in Phoenix since her parents recognized her ability. She has participated in more than 100 top-level competitions in California, Arizona, Texas, Hawaii, Florida and New Mexico and has won a slug of medals. 

She knows the World Youth Archery Championship is the big stage, the Super Bowl of youth archery, and if there’s pressure of being in the spotlight for the competition she’ll be facing in August, she’s not letting it get in her way.

Competing for Team USA in Canada against the world's best U18 archers isn’t the beginner’s class at a city rec program. Markle is well-aware of what she’s up against.

She’s also aware of what she can do with an 11-pound compound bow with a 56-pound weight draw — a bow her mother said male adults generally use — and she doesn’t feel pressure bearing down on her. She still shoots daily at the base and in her backyard, and practices “blank-bailing,” a routine where archers shoot at shorter distances to concentrate more on form and technique.

“When I shoot more than 200 arrows a day, I don’t do so well, so I try to keep under that,” said Markle. “Mentally, I write everyday about how I’m doing with a checklist of certain things I’m trying to improve. It keeps my progress focused.”

Despite the long ride to Phoenix for training, shooting 200 arrows a day, and the hundreds of tournaments her parents have taken her to, at the end of the day Markle is still that 15-year-old in pigtails who loves art, enjoys school and plays ball with her younger brother.

In August, she’ll put on her game face, her blue USA Team jersey, draw back on her bow and try to win one individual and two team medals in the biggest competition of her life.

“I can't wait to experience this,” she said. “I’m ready.

“She’s phenomenal,” said Grady Crockett of Crockett Bro’s Archery, where Khloe works several days a week. “She’s breaking Arizona records all the time, and she’d destroy me shooting at paper targets. As an archer, she has it all together in hand-eye coordination, strength, drive, ability and mentally, which comes from shooting 200 arrows a day. That’s why she made Team USA. She’s after her personal best every time she shoots.”