GREELEY — When Greeley police Officer Rebecca Ries set foot in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in August, readying her bow to shoot in the World Police and Fire Games, her opponents sized up the petite blond and watched her shoot low on her target — with pink arrows to boot.
“People probably thought, ‘What’s Barbie doing out here with a bow? Come on,’ ” Ries said.
But Ries wasn’t worried about her shooting, having carried a bow since she was 5 years old and hunted big game since she was 12. In the end, she returned to Greeley with two gold medals in archery.
Ries traveled to the games in Ireland with her husband, Lane Walter. Ries won in both categories in which she competed, and Walter tied for second in his archery division.
Even though Ries said their bow styles are different, she still likes to point out that she earned about twice as many points as her husband.
“Even though, at the end of the day, it’s funny that I joke with him that I beat him, there’s no way this would have been possible without him,” Ries said.
Ries has lived in Loveland since she was 6, and she grew up hunting with her family. She said she shot her first animal, an elk, with her bow when she was 12. Since then, she’s shot a bull elk, a brown bear and an antelope that put her in the top 20 worldwide.
Ries said she always has competed with her older sister in showing horses and in hunting. Now that good-natured competition has extended to her husband. “It’s like a rivalry in my house because I’ve shot everything bigger than my husband,” she said.
