Jager was born on 22 December 1991 in Nørre Broby to Jan and Hanne Jager.[2] She was introduced to archery at the age of eight,[3] and in her youth practised in a warehouse in Tilst, a venue procured by her father using his local connections as a fruit grower in the Aarhus region. She was later trained by former Danish Olympic archer Ole Gammelgaard.[2]
In 2013 Jager moved to Goesan, South Korea to train under Kim Hyung-Tak, the coach of the Korean archery team at the 1984 Summer Olympics, as part of an agreement between Kim and the Danish Archery Federation.[4] To meet her residency requirements in South Korea she undertook and completed an undergraduate degree in computer system engineering at Jungwon University. Despite a difficult start adapting to her new environment, which she later reflected were the most challenging of her life, Jager graduated from Jungwon University and returned to Denmark in 2018 after five years in South Korea. As of 2019 Jager was enrolled in a postgraduate programme at the Technical University of Denmark.[5]
Career
Early career (2009–2012)
Jager made her first appearance for the Danish national team at the 2009 Archery World Cup.[2] She later participated in the 2010 European Archery Championships and the 2011 World Archery Championships, where she finished ninth overall in the women's individual competition.[a] The following year she made her Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[3] She and teammates Carina Christiansen and Louise Laursen comprised Denmark's three-person entry for the women's team event, the nation's debut in the discipline.[7] In the preliminary ranking round, which determined the seedings for the subsequent elimination rounds, the trio set a new Danish national record of 1,946 points over the 216-arrow contest, finishing with the eighth seed of the twelve competing nations.[8] Victory over India in the first knockout round saw them advance to the quarter-finals, where they were eliminated by South Korea.[9]
World Champion (2013)
In early 2013 Jager relocated to South Korea at the invitation of 1984 Olympic gold medal-winning coach Kim Hyung-Tak, one of two athletes selected by the Danish Archery Federation to undergo full-time training in the country ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics.[4] Jager spent six months under Kim's instruction before contesting the 2013 World Championships held in Belek, Turkey.[5] She entered the tournament's individual event with an unimpressive record, having failed to progress beyond the last 32 competitors in an international competition since 2011.[10] In the event's preliminary ranking stage Jager achieved a new Danish record for the 144-arrow round, scoring 1,351 points from a maximum of 1,440 to qualify for the subsequent elimination rounds as the eighth seed.[11] Jager proceeded to deliver a surprising run of results in the knock-out rounds,[5] eliminating both Ki Bo-bae and Yun Ok-hee, the World Archery Federation's number one and number two-ranked archers respectively, to enter the final against Xu Jing, who had achieved a silver medal in the women's team event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. After tying on five set points each over the regulation five sets, Jager outshot Xu in the subsequent tiebreaking one-arrow shoot-off, landing her single arrow 1 millimetre (0.039 in) closer to the centre of the target to claim the world championship title.[10]
Jager combined with Nikolaj Wulff at the 2014 European Archery Championships to win silver in the mixed team recurve event.[14] She later achieved a second silver medal at the European Games the following year as the runner-up to Germany's Karina Winter in the women's individual event.[15] The 2015 World Championships in July however saw her fail to defend both her individual title, losing in the second round by Mexico's Karla Hinojosa,[16] and her team bronze medal, where she and her teammates Carina Christiansen and Natasja Bech failed to attain a high enough rank to qualify for the team elimination rounds.[17] In June 2016 Jager was defeated by Christiansen in the Olympic qualifying tournament, eliminating her from contention for the following month's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.[18]
^The Danish broadcaster DR credits Jager with fifth overall,[3] though the World Archery Federation's official results document lists her final position as ninth.[6]
References
^"Maja Jager". London 2012. London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
^ abcEngmann, Jesper (4 January 2014). "Pigen i midten af skiven". Jyllands-Posten (in Danish). Retrieved 9 December 2020.
^ abcGjesse Hansen, Jens (25 May 2012). "Maja Buskbjerg Jager". DR (in Danish). Retrieved 10 December 2020.
^"OL-bueskytter skød skarpt" [Olympic archers shot sharply]. TV2 Østjylland (in Danish). 29 July 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
^"Bueskytter åbner OL med rekord" [Archers open Olympics with record]. DR (in Danish). Ritzau. 27 July 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
^"Sydkorea skyller bueskytter ud af OL" [South Korea flushes archers out of Olympics]. Sjællandske Nyheder (in Danish). Ritzau. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
^"Maja Jager er Årets Sportsnavn 2013" [Maja Jager is the Sports Name of the Year 2013]. TV2 Sport (in Danish). Ritzau. 4 January 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
^Helkov, Jeppe (29 July 2015). "Dansk favorit ude af VM i bueskydning" [Danish favorite out of archery World Championship]. Berlingske (in Danish). Retrieved 17 December 2020.
^Burkel Nielsen, Ronni (27 July 2015). "Dansk damehold skuffede ved VM i bueskydning" [Danish women's team disappointed at archery World Championship]. Berlingske (in Danish). Retrieved 15 December 2020.
