BILLINGS — Brady Ellison is a five-time Olympian with five archery medals to show for the work he's put in. And while some elite athletes travel thousands of miles for training, all Ellison has to do is walk downstairs inside his Billings home.
“This is our equipment room, it’s a mess right now," Ellison explained to MTN Sports with a smile as he obliged with a modest tour. The equipment room is where his bows and arrows are built and tweaked.
"I’ve been … this whole entire year has been a scramble,” he continued, almost apologetically.
His year has been scrambled pretty much from the start. Seven months ago, Brady’s wife Toja gave birth to their second son Bo. Older brother Ty — who’s 3 going on 23 — is filled with enough questions, answers and stories to become a reporter.
“And like, the other day we fished and caught a big, big bass,” Ty said with excitement sitting on Dad's lap while holding a microphone during this interview.
By the way, Ty also speaks two languages thanks to Toja, who is a Slovenian world champion compound archer. And while life continues to be a "scramble" for the family, Toja and Brady agree they complement each other on everything from competition to the kitchen.
“If I’m shooting and it’s lunchtime, then he cooks. I feel like in percentages, I’m the one behind the cooking a little more often,” Toja said with a laugh.
It's because she shoots and trains early in the morning preferring a regimented schedule, allowing Brady, more free and easy, the rest of each day to train, help around the house and entertain the kids.
Continuing the tour around a corner, Brady leads the way to an over-sized room adding, "this is our indoor range. We built this (because) we knew the winters up here … we weren’t going to be able to train outside.”
It's a room custom built for exact target distances, meaning Brady and Toja don’t even leave the house to fire at pinpoint marks — a big reason they’re both still world-caliber archers.
Last month at the Paris Olympics, Brady earned another pair of medals elevating his total to five through five separate Olympics.
“This is my first medal; team silver from London. Then team silver from Rio; individual bronze (from Rio)," he said while discussing the meaning behind each.
“My first medal is actually my least favorite because we were so close to winning gold, and I felt like we should’ve won gold.”
On the flip side, last month’s medals may be most satisfying.
“This medal is bronze,” Ty proudly said while holding the ribbon above his head in order to reveal the medal itself at chest level.
That bronze is the medal Brady earned with Casey Kaufhold, who has been winning medals with him since she was 15 — but never at the Olympics.
“This one, it’s the first (Olympic) medal with Casey that a (American) woman has won since 1988," Brady said. "This medal also put me the leader in the U.S. for medals won in archery."
Then pointing to his recent silver, Brady added, "And then this one, I’m tied for second for most medals (five) in Olympic archery history.”
These recent Paris Games were also sentimental for family reasons. All four were in attendance and it was actually Toja’s first time watching Brady in person at the Olympics.
“I feel like I was able to contribute with all my cheering, even though I don’t know if he even heard me," she said with another chuckle. "But the energy was there with him, like we were all breathing every arrow with him.”
Ty recalled it this way: “When he pulled back (his arrow), I had to be really quiet. When he shot, we just yelled.”
Brady and Toja said they still look forward to years, if not a couple decades, of competing at the highest level.
Meanwhile, don’t be surprised to see Ty reporting on his mom and dad. He’s already got it down — and they’re far from slowing down.
