1. Alison Jane Williamson MBE was born on 3 November 1971 and is a retired British archer who represented Great Britain at six consecutive Olympic Games from 1992 to 2012.
23 Facts About Alison Williamson
1. 2.
Alison Williamson won a bronze medal in the women's individual event at the 2004 Summer Olympics, becoming the first British woman to win an Olympic archery medal in ninety-six years.
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Alison Williamson was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2012.
4.
Alison Williamson was born on 3 November 1971 in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
5.
Alison Williamson was introduced to archery at the age of seven by her parents, who both practised the sport recreationally.
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At the age of ten Alison Williamson won a silver medal at the 1981 Wenlock Olympian Games and at fourteen she qualified for her first international tournament.
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Alison Williamson is a member of the Long Mynd Archers club based in Shropshire.
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Alison Williamson is a graduate of Arizona State University and in 2000 listed Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey as her favourite sportsperson.
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Alison Williamson made her Olympic debut at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, finishing the women's individual event in eighth place.
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Alison Williamson entered her third Olympic Games in 2000 with expectations that she would be a contender for a medal.
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Alison Williamson was however eliminated in the last sixteen of the women's individual event by the eventual gold medalist Yun Mi-jin of South Korea, who posted a new Olympic record score of 173 for an eighteen-arrow match to beat Williamson's own tournament best by nine points.
12.
Alison Williamson had considered herself fortunate to have progressed as one of the last sixteen archers.
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The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens marked the fourth time Alison Williamson had contested an Olympic archery event.
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Alison Williamson was later defeated in the semi-finals by South Korea's Park Sung-hyun, and faced fellow losing semi-finalist Yuan Shu Chi of Chinese Taipei in the bronze medal match.
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Alison Williamson's achievement marked the first Olympic archery medal won by Great Britain since 1992 and the first for a British woman since Sybil Newall in 1908.
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Alison Williamson was announced to the British Olympic team for her fifth Olympics in June 2008.
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Alison Williamson was joined by Naomi Folkard and Charlotte Burgess in the women's individual and women's team events, the three having won gold medal at the 2008 Archery World Cup stage in the Dominican Republic earlier that year.
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Alison Williamson was later eliminated from the women's individual event in a surprise defeat to Khatuna Lorig of the United States, who in their twelve-arrow encounter shot a score just two points shy of the Olympic record.
19.
In June 2012 Alison Williamson was again successful in being selected for the British Olympic team, equalling the British record set by fencer Bill Hoskyns and athlete Tessa Sanderson in competing in six consecutive Summer Olympic Games.
20.
Alison Williamson finished the preliminary ranking round for the women's individual event in forty-seventh place, a position the Evening Standard described as "disappointing", before being eliminated by Mongolia's Bishindee Urantungalag in the opening elimination round.
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Alison Williamson has won two medals at the World Archery Championships.
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Alison Williamson won two silver medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, reaching the final of both the women's individual and women's team recurve events.
23.
Alison Williamson cited her inability to "continue to dedicate the hours that are needed", adding "now the time is right to just concentrate on the day job".