Andre Shelby is a United States Paralympic archer. He was born on December 8, 1966, to Lee and Etta Shelby in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Growing up, Shelby attended Jeffersonville High School, where he played on both the football and basketball teams. He graduated from the school in 1985.
After high school, Shelby served in the United States Navy for 18 years until he was forced to retire following a motorcycle accident in 2004. The accident left him paraplegic and dependent on a wheelchair. Despite this life-changing event, Shelby remained active. During his rehabilitation, he explored various sports, including tennis, basketball, skiing, water skiing, and horseback riding. By 2008 he discovered his true passion: archery. His interest deepened after attending a clinic hosted by two Paralympic archers, Jeff Fabry and Russell Wolfe. Shelby once said, “Originally it would be once a month; that turned into four times a month, and that turned into me wanting to buy a bow and try to get better and better. Archery is more about yourself—it’s an individual thing.”
Shelby’s wife, Marilyn Shelby, initially believed that archery was just a hobby for him. However, she encouraged him to pursue it competitively. In June 2015, Shelby qualified for the United States National Team and the Parapan American Games, where he won a gold medal. A year later, he competed in the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he won a gold medal in the Men’s Individual Compound Open. This victory made Shelby the first African American archer to win a gold medal. Reflecting on the moment, Shelby said, “There I was, a world champion, which was just unbelievable. That was the year that everything took off. It all came together at one time and carried over to 2016 and the Paralympics.”
Following the 2016 Paralympic Games, Shelby competed in the U.S. Indoor National Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he took first place. In May 2017, he also competed in the Juan Enrique Barrios Cup in Manatí, Puerto Rico. There, Shelby and his teammates, Kevin Polish and Ben Thompson, set a new world record for the Compound Men’s Open Team by scoring 2,063 points in the ranking round. Shelby won a silver medal in the individual competition and a bronze medal in the team event at the 2017 World Archery Para Championships in Mexico City, Mexico. In 2018, he earned gold medals in both the individual and team competitions at the Pan American Outdoor Championships. He went on to win a silver medal in the 2022 Pan American Outdoor Championships. As of 2025, Shelby’s archery career remains active.
