EG: How do you think The Hunger Games and the Olympic Games are similar or different?

KL: Well for one, we’re not killing each other! Also, the Hunger Games are every year and the Olympics are only every four years. The main difference though is that during the Olympics the whole world is competing in peace and everyone gets along. I have plenty of friends on other country’s teams and we all get along. You know, we’ll practice and shoot against each other then go and hang out after. 

EG: What was it like working with Jennifer Lawrence?  

KL: Jennifer was a very fast learner and a good listener too. She has a fun personality and was easy to work with every day. She was good at acting like she had been shooting for years. 

EG: Were you proud when you saw her in the movie? 

KL: Yes, and it was weird too because I kept thinking, “Hey! I gave her that technique.” 

EG: What was a funny moment you guys had when working together in training? 

KL: I’d tell her that when I saw her in the movie I would tell everyone “that’s my student!” and she would say to me that when she saw me competing in the Olympics she would be the one telling everyone “that’s my teacher!” so we had a really fun time working together and we would laugh. 

EG: How do you feel about the new found popularity archery is gaining thanks to The Hunger Games? 

KL: I’m really thankful. The audience loves to watch archery because it’s such a unique sport. Age, height, and gender don’t matter; you can always have fun with it. All you need is skill and it’s great because you can go and pick up a bow and arrow anywhere, you don’t need to have a permit to go shoot at an archery range.

As the Olympics begin, many eyes are on archery this year. With this, comes the popularity of Khatuna Lorig, who trained Jennifer Lawrence for her role in The Hunger Games. In a recent interview, Elle Girl sat down with Lorig to discuss training, teaching Jen, and archery’s rise in popularity.

Read the part about The Hunger Games below:

EG: How do you think The Hunger Games and the Olympic Games are similar or different?
KL: Well for one, we’re not killing each other!  Also, the Hunger Games are every year and the Olympics are only every four years.  The main difference though is that during the Olympics the whole world is competing in peace and everyone gets along.  I have plenty of friends on other country’s teams and we all get along.  You know, we’ll practice and shoot against each other then go and hang out after.

EG: What was it like working with Jennifer Lawrence?
KL: Jennifer was a very fast learner and a good listener too.  She has a fun personality and was easy to work with every day.  She was good at acting like she had been shooting for years.

EG: Were you proud when you saw her in the movie? 
KL: Yes, and it was weird too because I kept thinking, “Hey! I gave her that technique.”

EG: What was a funny moment you guys had when working together in training?
KL: I’d tell her that when I saw her in the movie I would tell everyone “that’s my student!” and she would say to me that when she saw me competing in the Olympics she would be the one telling everyone “that’s my teacher!” so we had a really fun time working together and we would laugh.

Read the full interview here.

I love hearing stories about what happened behind the scenes during preparation. Even more, I absolutely adore the stories about Jen growing close to everyone she works with. It makes me so proud to have her as a part of our fandom! Are you loving these tidbits? Do you want some more, or would you rather pretend Jen was born knowing how to shoot an arrow? Let us know what you think!

Source: Elle Girl via hggirlonfire

It’s really awesome that archery is getting to be in the spotlight during the 2012 Games, not only with Katniss but other characters having their year like Clint Barton, Merida and even Oliver Queen in the fall with the CW’s Arrow coming out. Archery usually gets forgotten about during the Olympics with swimming and gymnastics getting the attention.

I’ve always been really interested in archery, and archery being Katniss’s thing was one of the things that attracted me to The Hunger Games trilogy in the first place. So it’s kind of cool being able to in-real-life root for the woman who showed Jennifer Lawrence her Katniss moves. The US women’s team looks like they’re on the road to a medal (they might even have one by the time you read this), which hasn’t happened since 1988. To put that in perspective, I wasn’t even a one-year-old at the time.

Totally seeing that technique

So tributes, let’s root extra hard for the US women’s archery team, especially Khatuna! She is as much a part of this fandom as any other cast and crew member, and I’m sure The Hunger Games would’ve looked a lot different without her.

We’d love to see her do that apple-out-of-the-pig’s mouth trick
Twiffidy

If you know absolutely NOTHING about Olympic archery, we highly recommend this hilarious “Idiots’ Guide to Olympic Archery” featuring comedian Anthony Richardson. For more information on the events, equipment, and terminology, we suggest you consult the “About Archery” page at nbcolympics.com.

WHEN AND WHERE TO WATCH:

If you have a cable or satellite subscription that includes MSNBC and CNBC, you can watch EVERY Olympic event LIVE at nbcolympics.com/liveextra. If you live in the U.S., most of the archery events will be streaming quite early in the morning. Click here to pull up the complete archery schedule online.

If you’d rather watch on TV, here are the days/times/channels for all of the archery events (time is Eastern Time). You can check your local listing by clicking here. All times are subject to change.

Saturday, July 28 – Men’s Team Elimination Round and Final
11:15am – noon, NBC Sports Network
5:45pm – 7pm, NBC Sports Network

Sunday, July 29 – Women’s Team Final
11:45am – 1:20pm, MSNBC *updated*

Monday, July 30 - Women’s Individual Elimination Round
4:30a – 5:00a, NBCSN *updated*
6:00a – 6:30a, NBCSN *updated*

Tuesday, July 31 – Men’s Individual Elimination Round
11:15a – 12:15p, MSNBC *updated*

Wednesday, August 1 – Men’s Individual Elimination Round
2:15pm – 2:45pm, NBC Sports Network

Thursday, August 2 – Women’s Individual Final
9:15am – 9:45am, NBC Sports Network *updated*
11:15am – 11:45am, NBC Sports Network *updated*

Friday, August 3 – Men’s Individual Final
11:15am – noon, NBC Sports Network

WHO TO WATCH:

Brady Ellison – Ellison is currently the world’s top-ranked archer and is favored to win gold. If he does, he’ll be the first American to win gold in an archery event since 1996! He shoots with a pink recurve bow because he’s a big supporter of breast cancer awareness/research, and he apparently killed a bear when he was 11. (Oh yeah, and he recently shot an arrow through a doughnut hole. Let’s face it: This guy is awesome.)

Khatuna Lorig – Lorig’s name might be familiar to you because she was Jennifer Lawrence’s archery trainer. Originally from the Republic of Georgia, Lorig won a bronze medal for Women’s Team Archery at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. She’s already off to a great start this year, having helped the U.S. women’s team advance to second place in the rankings round on Friday morning.

South Korea – South Korea has absolutely dominated Olympic archery since the sport made its debut in 1988. They’ve won gold in the last three Olympic men’s team events and have won every gold medal possible for women’s team archery events. This year, they’ve already set two world records and will likely continue to kick some serious ass. On the men’s side, pay close attention to Im Dong-Hyun, who is legally blind!

If there are any other Olympic archers that you think people should know about (especially competitors from countries other than the U.S. and South Korea), please leave a comment below!

Image source: nbcolympics.com (image of Brady Ellison by Teresa Iaconi)

Back in March, bothABC News and Hollywood.com spoke with Jennifer Lawrence’s archery coach, Khatuna Lorig, a 4 time Olympian who helped make our Katniss arena ready. Now, another great interview with Lorig has surfaced as E! Online spoke with her as she prepares for the 2012 Olympics in London. Khatuna spoke about preparing for the Games and also a bit about training Jennifer, as well as her thoughts on her performance on screen.

“I got a call that some actress needed to learn how to shoot an arrow,” she explained. “They didn’t tell me much about it…I was asked to make her shoot like a professional.”

The result was daily hourlong training sessions on the very field that Lorig’s own Olympics training is now taking place.

“Who was she? I had no idea,” she said, explaining that it was her own mother who informed her of the status of her A-list trainee. Her reaction?

“Oh my God, I’m working with a star!” She quickly got up to speed on the Hunger Games series, saying, “I started reading it and got hooked right away.” Which means both she and Lawrence were doing their homework, with the fruits of Jennifer’s labor evident onscreen.

“She did really good,” Lorig explained, praising Lawrence’s believability above other onscreen archers.

“We did not laugh at her,” she said, going on to name no names of those she and her Olympic teammates might’ve spared a chuckle or two for. Still, as good as Lawrence is, Lorig has set her sights on helping the starlet achieve perfection, saying she’d love to continue her training and make her “even more glamorous with a bow.”

Video after the jump

Source: E! Online

We all know Katniss has a talent for archery. And we all know that might be one of a biggest understatements ever. Those of us following Jennifer Lawrence’s many interviews probably know that she had to learn archery for as a part of her training. What you may not know, however, is she was trained by a four-time Olympian archer. Khatuna Lorig was hired to train Jen and turn her into the archer we know Katniss to be. Hollywood.com now has a great article in which they interview Lorig. She discusses Jen’s abilities, their relationship, some injuries Jen got while learning, and more! Make sure to check it out!

After only ten lessons, Lorig had no doubt in her mind that if Lawrence kept practicing, she could work her way up to a competitive level (and she should know—Lorig also trained actress Geena Davis, who went to tryout for the 2000 Summer Olympics!). But will the Oscar-nominated actress’ new-found skills affect her performance as Katniss? Lorig already knows it has. “It comes from your eyes. It comes down to your face. You know right away if the person is scared, or if she or he is confident to shoot against you. What I saw from the previews? That’s my technique!”

Lorig isn’t sure if she’ll be back as Jennifer Lawrence’s coach for the sequel Catching Fire, but she’d be happy to return, as the two grew to be friends. “I told her I would be very proud when I see her onscreen. I told her, I’ll see her on the screen and say, ‘That’s my student!’ And you know what she said? She said, ‘When I see you in the Olympics, I’ll say, ‘She’s my coach!’’

Read the full article here.

It sounds like Jen has worked really hard to make her portrayal of Katniss as realistic as possible. And it seems like she’s there– she really can shoot an arrow with confidence. Do you think this will help her truly embody Katniss as a character? Let us know if you have any thoughts in the comments!