Achievement
Gef’s 30 Under 30 2024 Winners: Q&A with Aalin George
Ten categories. Thirty young visionaries making their mark on the Isle of Man. Introducing the 2024 #Gef30Under30 winners: the next generation of our island’s leaders.
Whether it’s overcoming adversity, winning competitions, or Team GB archery, the London Institute of Business & Technology Achievement winners are right on target.
What is your name and age?
Aalin George, age 28.
Job title or role in the community?
Isle of Man archery team, former Team GB athlete.
How did you start your career or role in the community?
My Dad used to work with Joy Gough who was running the club at the time and my older sister saw an archery picture on her desk. Seeing that she was interested, Joy told my Dad to “bring her down” and it started from there. With myself, my dad and my two sisters eventually all joining. I was terrible when I first started at 7-years-old however I got the hang of it by age 12. Being in a small club with so few juniors at the time spurred me on to shoot with the seniors and shooting full distance (70m, 4 age groups above me). By 13-years-old I had qualified as a senior to compete in my first Island Games winning an individual silver, and qualified to compete in the senior commonwealth games in Delhi.
Archery has taken me to so many places with the GB team I would never have expected, some places you couldn’t pay me enough money to go back to. But it adds to experience, and shows the value of saying yes to any opportunity in front of you.
Tell us about your business/industry, is there something interesting about it that most people wouldn’t expect?
My bow will shoot arrows at 316fps, and my draw weight is 52lbs, at an average tournament you will pull this back 156 times. Which is the equivalent of 4 tons.
Have you experienced any hurdles in your career or community efforts and if so, how did you overcome them?
Archery, unfortunately, does not pay the bills, and in 2017 I did the adult thing of trying to buy a house. I haven’t shot competitively from then until the end of 2022. Fortunately I have a good employer on my side now who is keen to watch me thrive in my archery and is accommodating with time off to be able to compete. I dove straight back into my archery, accepting it would be a while before I was “bow fit”. But we have a great archery community over here and it wasn’t long before they had me all set up correctly to compete with them in the Island Games last year.
Tell us about why you think you won the category you did?
I have always grown up being that girl that does archery. I even dressed up as Katniss from The Hunger Games for World Book Day (complete with a fake bow, which school still confiscated). And, as with any sport on the island, it is harder to compete at a top level as you have the added cost with travel off the island, but was fortunate with the help from my family and IOM Sport Aid. Even when I wasn’t shooting competitively I was helping out on beginners courses.
Who are your role models, either on-island or off, in your sector or outside of it?
I got to shoot with many of my archery role models on a weekly basis in the UK. But outside of archery it would have been Tom Daley, him being a similar age to me and competing at his first Olympics at 14 really resonated with me. And meeting him at the commonwealth games in Delhi when I was 14 was monumental.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll be waiting for the rest of your life. You have to do what makes you uncomfortable. To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.
What do you wish you knew when you were getting started in your career?
I wish I had taken the chance to take in more of the places I had travelled outside of the archery field. I have visited so many places, but couldn’t tell you much beyond how I rated the 50m span of grass I walked for a week. The country’s where I set aside time off the archery field after competition are the places I performed best looking back. And I think this is because it allowed me the headspace to relax.
What are your plans for the future?
Qualification for Island games 2025 is looming, but just getting time behind the bow and seeing what UK competitions we can get in to see where we can get for 2025.
What changes do you hope to see in your sector or community in the coming years?
We are hoping to get a full team together to take to the next Island games. So if anyone is interested, head over to our website and sign yourself up for a beginners course. Archery is for all ages and disabilities.
What, for you, are the benefits of staying on or moving back to the island for young people under 30?
The community and the support offered here, 100%. I have had sponsorship from so many local businesses through Isle of Man Sport Aid. One of which let me shoot some arrows into their office wall as an art feature. And even when you go away to the UK for competition there’s always someone that will offer you a sofa to sleep on knowing you’re from the little Isle of Man. We are so good over here at supporting those that need it from the start before it gets too hard, and I love that about being over here.
What does being a Gef’s 30 Under 30 winner mean to you?
It’s a massive honour knowing how many people had been nominated. It just goes to show how much we have going on on our island. It shines the spotlight on people that have worked so hard and would normally have gone unnoticed. It’s a great initiative.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
We are calling all Katniss and Hawkeye wannabes, they can sign up here.
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