Gold-medal shooter takes aim in Illinois

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Nancy Napolski-Johnson has an Olympic Gold medal in shooting, yet the Downers Grove native was searching for a trophy of a different kind on a recent trip to the woods of Southern Illinois.

Napolski-Johnson was hunting for her first deer with a bow and arrow. Johnson, who won the first Gold medal of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, bagged a deer with a rifle before, but not with a bow.

The University of Kentucky graduate recently accepted an invitation to match wits with deer at the Mount Farms and Campbell Resources hunting club in Johnson County, in far southern Illinois.

The facility is owned by a friend of her brother, John Napolski, who is a graduate student at Southern Illinois University.

To Napolski-Johnson, bow-hunting isn't that different from sport shooting.

"I find a lot of similarities in it, especially shooting with a release. It's a very similar mindset to pulling a trigger," she said.

But like other shooters in this hunt-crazy region, Napolski-Johnson says bagging animals is just a part of the fun.

"For me, it's more just being out there and the thrill of the hunt," she said.

"When do you get to go out there without a watch, lose track of time, or think about everything -- or nothing?"

Napolski-Johnson also remembers the old days of her childhood, when hunting was something that only the boys did.

"Every fall the guys would pack up the camper and the girls would stay home. I wondered, 'What are they experiencing?'" she said.