I remember the very first time I saw Sarah in action – 3 years ago at IATC. She was equal parts confident and calm as she was brimming with energy and authority. When I saw her jump up on a pool table to deliver the starting announcements for IATC 2026, I knew I needed to get the interview – and I did, the very next day. In this axe thrower interview, Sarah and I talk about her development in the sport, how she remains calm, and the value of tummy troubles.

How long have you been throwing, and where is home?

I throw out of Battle Port Lands. I’ve been throwing for about seven years.

God, that’s a long time. Does it feel different than when you started?

Yeah.

I was working there – just someone super part-time – and then I started throwing about a year or half a year into working there. I didn’t get competitive with it until about three or four years ago. Before that, I was just super casual.

So you were throwing back when the clutches were enormous?

Still miss them.

I was throwing on pine boards and when everyone was throwing Shopros, and I guess people were throwing the Axe Gangs by then, to try to toe in.

What do you think, development wise, made it possible for you to compete in things like the big show?

[[Dear reader: why the hell did I say “big show” instead of Worlds? What the hell?]]

So I always played it safe the first couple of years I was throwing, but then I started throwing with all the Yorkdale and Vaughn people like Kimmy and Rander and those guys. And they started forcing me to go Clutch with them. It was hard at first, and I had to be okay with losing. But it’s what helped me get better, going 100% clutch with them, and then going to tournaments later on, traveling for these things.

What’s the best piece of advice that you could give to newer throwers?

[[Badgery note: it was at this point that someone came up to Sarah to ask for a hug.]]

Sarah: Oh hi. We’ll cut this part out. [hugs someone]

Badger: No, the hugs stay in.

Sarah: The hugs will stay in.
Person she was hugging: Hugs will stay in. I have another thing for you.
Sarah: Oh, okay.
Person she was hugging: Because my cat hit it on the floor.

Sarah: Okay, please give me the thing. I would love the thing. Sorry, what was the question Again? A piece of advice for new throwers?

Don’t doubt yourself. Don’t be hard on yourself. It’s all a learning process and results don’t happen right away for everybody. And for everybody, it looks different. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slow.

For me, it was of the educational variety. I had to learn for a very long time. Growing pains for a very long time.

What’s something you wish you did before coming here?

In terms of in life or throwing wise?

I want you to take that question however you want to interpret it.

I wish I read some more books on meditation.

I wish I did more individual sports, because I played a lot of team sports. So picking myself up when I was down was something that would happen easier when I was playing on a soccer team or if I was doing a team sport, because I had coaches, I had teammates. And here it’s like… just trying to stay out of your head because it’s mostly mental.

There’s the shot making ability part of it. And then there’s just the hitter game, which honestly, Philippe LaChance actually turned me to this book. And when I read it, it helped a lot because I wasn’t so results driven after that. I was just more like, how do I feel about myself as a thrower?

But I also wish I had other hobbies right now so I’d have other things to turn to. So all my focus isn’t just on action.

But that’s what I wish I would’ve done differently before coming here, maybe being better at being cool under pressure situations.

Well, I saw you last year and the year before that, and this year you’re dealing with so much going on, especially at Port Lands. From the outside, it seems like you are very cool and calm and handling everything that’s going on.

Yeah. Well, a lot of my friends who do know me, they know that other side of me. But I think there’s the whole thing about working at a venue and then just trying to separate myself from “work mode” Sarah, and “thrower” Sarah

And then also just trying to have a balance of enjoying myself while trying to be competitive at the same time. But I feel like I have gotten better at the pressure situations.

Actually… I wanted to quit about a year and a half ago.

After that final, that initial series final, I kind of went through a lot because people would be like, “Oh, you’re that girl from that live stream.” And I felt like I had a lot more attention on me… I wasn’t handling it so well.

So I had to work a lot on my mental game, particularly over the last 12 months.

[[Dear throwkin, it was at this point another person came up and asked Sarah to…uh…take a picture of a cake? And not like, a part of their or anyone else’s body, but an actual, baked-in-an-oven cake]]:

Person with a cake: Can you take a picture of my cake to send it so she knows –

Sarah: Sure, honey. Hold on. I’m just doing an interview right now though.

Person with a cake: Oh, just have like a –

Badger: It’s totally okay.

[[The cake is captured on camera…or maybe the person left without the picture? I can’t remember now. I can’t even remember seeing the cake, so maybe this was all a fever dream?]]

Sarah: Sorry about that.

Badger: It’s okay. It’s totally fine.

Sarah: I bet you’ve gotten interrupted a couple times like this before?

Badger: I get interrupted all the time. I once was doing an interview with Vin in Baltimore and a little puppy came up to us and we spent 15 minutes talking to the puppy. I included it in the interview. I like that. It was fine. It was good.

Sarah: I love puppies.

Badger: They’re the best. They’re the only reason really to live. The owner took them away and I was like, “But this is part of me now, this dog.”

Do you feel like you have a secret weapon in axe throwing?

Yeah. I actually find that when I’m really tired or if I’m over it, I find I’m actually better at throwing than I am when I’m really hyper focused on trying to win. So I think my secret weapon is sometimes dissociating.

Once, when I won at Riot Axe – which is the only tournament win I have – I was actually having tummy issues. So I was using the bathroom quite a bit. In-between matches I’d run to the bathroom. And I don’t know, but I feel like that was perfect because I was leaving everything in the lanes and I was just, I guess, kind of in my own world.

Yeah?

Me and the toilet.

You and the toilet.

The only things in my world at home.

A tale as old as time.

Was there anybody responsible for getting you to the point that you’re at currently?

Kimmy. Kimmy and Brit and the Graham, all of the crew from Vaughn, they’re the ones who… they helped me the most because after our Tuesday league at Vaughn, we would practice until like two or three in the morning.

I would just get my ass whooped, handed to me. Best four out of sevens, we’d do like a four, five, six person game, like a four-way game, and we’d go.

I feel like it took me a number of seasons until I finally got one win out of them. And it would be like I would maybe get a round, but mostly I’d get swept. Eventually I’d start to get two rounds and then three rounds and then I’d make pull away a win. That’s sort of what helped me, just playing with throwers of that caliber.

Anybody you want to shout out or anything you want to add?

I want to shout out to all the women of axe throwing. And all the people traveling from out of town. I always think maybe I’m stupid because I work a lot of IATC, and then try to compete in the tournaments at the same time.

But I want to shout out everybody that’s helped me, and made me realize why I do it, why I throw and compete and why I work IATC events; because the community, I think, is the reason why I’ve stayed as long as I have.

Those are the people I want to shout out. No one particularly. Oh, I guess Austin Campbell, I love Sauce Boss. He’s my best friend. So yes, I want to shout him out.

And Kimmy

Oh, Stormy as well.

…and the Hucks. They’ve helped me out a lot in the last six months or so.

[[The interview recording, dear reader, literally ends with Sarah starting to say something else and then getting interrupted by another person walking up and asking her a question. Which, honestly, is kinda a perfect final note]]

Big thanks to Sarah for taking time out of here wildly busy schedule at IATC to talk to me. She’s just the best, honestly.