“She doesn’t know what’s coming for her,” uttered a confident 17-year-old Casey Kaufhold, minutes before taking the stage against Olympic Champion An San of Korea for the semifinals at the World Archery Championships.

Team USA’s Kaufhold, fresh off her first Olympic appearance and a fourth place finish at the World Archery Youth Championships, continued to push her incredible drive to win to bound up the rankings in qualification at the home-court World Championship event in Yankton, South Dakota, seeding fifth. After earning a spot in the elite-eight for the recurve women, she took the stage looking poised and determined. She swiftly upset India’s Bhakat in four sets, bookending the match with perfect 30s.

Through to the semifinals, Kaufhold showed no mercy, opening with two 29s to San’s 28s to take an early lead 4-0. San came back with a 28 to Kaufhold’s 27, but then dropped a 24 leaving the door wide open for Kaufhold. The U.S.’s young phenom closed with two solid 10s for a 28 and the 6-2 win.

“I literally thought of it as I have nothing to lose,” said Kaufhold. “I’m 17 and I’ve only been shooting international tournaments for like three years so why hold back. I put everything out there, didn’t hold back pretty much and that was my main goal, to leave it all out there on the stage.”

She then went on to shoot against Korea’s Olympic team gold medalist Jang Minhee and came up just short in three quick sets to finish with the silver medal. This was the first USA women’s World Archery Championships medal in 33 years (Denise Parker in 1989).

“It feels really great,” said Kaufhold. “I didn’t have as good of a year previous as I would have liked, but to end the senior international season with a silver at the World Championships is just great. I’m super happy with how I shot. I kept myself composed throughout and I really just couldn’t be happier.”

Left to right: Women’s recurve World Archery Championships second-place Casey Kaufhold (USA), first-place Jang Minhee (Korea), and third-place An San (Korea), who recently won the Olympic gold medal.

On taking the silver medal for the host nation, Kaufhold said: “It feels really good to win on U.S. soil. I was able to have my mom here and my coach Heather [Pfiel] here just having that support, and all my teammates and fans cheering as well, the atmosphere was just great.”

For complete results, visit www.worldarchery.org; you can watch the finals on www.archery.tv.