When people drive down East Lincoln Way in Jefferson, they may have noticed a bronze statue at the intersection of Lincoln Way and Vine Street of a woman with a bow and arrow pointing at an archery target diagonally across the intersection.

That statue is in honor of Jefferson’s Olympic gold medalist Doreen Wilber. Today marks the 50th anniversary of when Wilber won the gold medal for women’s archery on September 15, 1972 from the Munich, Germany Olympic games. The 1948 Jefferson High School graduate got started in archery when her husband, Paul “Skeeter” Wilber, who was a mechanic, had a customer that paid his bill with a bow and arrow instead of cash, Doreen was just 27 years old at the time. 

Doreen won the gold medal in 1972 at the age of 42 and became the first woman to set a world record, shooting over 1,200 in international competition. She is a member of nine different halls of fame, including the Jefferson High School Hall of Fame, and was named one of Iowa’s Top 40 Athletes of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated.