Lisa Barbelin has already won an Olympic medal, two senior continental titles and enough World Cup hardware to fill the trophy shelf of any recurve archer in Europe. At 26, she now adds a quieter line to her resume — one aimed less at scoring rings and more at the next generation chasing them.
The two-time French Olympian has been named an Athlete Role Model for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee announced this month. She will work with young archers competing at the Games through on-site workshops and educational sessions, a position the IOC has assigned at every edition of the Youth Olympics since the format launched in Singapore in 2010.
It is a job that asks for more than competition pedigree. Barbelin has plenty of that — individual European recurve gold in Antalya in 2021, multiple World Cup medals, and a bronze in the women's team event at Paris 2024 — but she described the assignment as one she values for what it lets her give back rather than what it adds.
"It is such an honour for me to become Athlete Role Model for Dakar 2026," Barbelin said. "I'm really excited to start and to take part in the event."
The Athlete Role Model programme is one of the durable features of the Youth Olympics. Each edition has invited Olympians and Paralympians to spend the duration of the Games not as competitors but as mentors to athletes who are mostly aged 15 to 18 and at their first major international meet. Workshops cover everything from media training to nutrition, anti-doping, mental health and career planning after competition.
For archery, the line of Role Models is a notable one. Dutch Olympian Wietse Van Alten took the role at the inaugural Singapore 2010 Games. American three-time Olympian Khatuna Lorig followed in 2014, and Mexico's Aida Roman — a London 2012 silver medallist — took it on in 2018. Barbelin is the latest in that line.
She sees experience itself as the qualification.
"I think I could give a lot of advice to younger athletes, because I have a lot of experience in sport," she said.
Her message to the young recurve and compound archers who will compete in Senegal, where Dakar will become the first African city to host an Olympic-branded event of any size, leans on the cliches sport is built around — but only because Barbelin has lived them. She missed the Tokyo 2020 podium before earning her Paris bronze. She finished outside the Antalya finals once before returning to win.
"Trust you, every day," she said. "Be kind to you. Trust the process, everything is possible."
For the IOC, the appointment also fits the recruitment pattern of the last several Games. Athletes who have competed at multiple Olympics but are not yet retired — still active, still close to the technical day-to-day of international archery — tend to make the most useful Role Models. Barbelin is exactly that profile. She is still on the French national team. She is still on the World Cup circuit.
Dakar 2026 has had a long road to the line itself. Originally awarded to Dakar for 2022, the Games were postponed twice in the wake of the global Covid disruption and broader logistical resets. They are now scheduled for late 2026, with the archery competition expected to feature individual, mixed-team and team events across recurve disciplines.
Barbelin will be there. Not in the field, but on the sideline talking to the next Barbelin. As role models go, that is what the programme is meant to deliver — and from her own account of why she took the job, it is exactly what she is bringing.