Iowa’s “Armless Archer” actually began his magnificent journey toward Paralympic gold in Kalona years ago.

Oh, yes. Pathway Christian, a small private school located among rural Mennonite and Amish farms on Highway 1 just north of Kalona, has a gold medalist now.

Matt Stutzman, a four-time Paralympian who is known worldwide as the “Armless Archer” for Team USA because he uses only his legs to hold his bow and shoot arrows, won his first Paralympic gold medal in compound archery September 1 in Paris.

Talk about a magical American moment.

“In the last four years, I never thought once about winning a gold medal,” he told reporters after defeating China’s Ai Xinliang by two points in the gold medal match with a Paralympic record score of 149. “It was about having fun and making memories. It’s a pretty good memory, yeah?”

And it all began here.

Matt’s father, Leon, was principal and a physical education teacher at Pathway while Matt grew up in Kalona. A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Matt was born without arms, then was adopted by Jean and Leon Stutzman when he was 13 months old.

Jean taught Matt how to sit up. From there, determination took over.

Matt got into sports at Pathway.

“We asked him to do the things he could do,” Leon Stutzman told the Mennonite World Review, “and he grew up basically figuring things out by himself. He wanted to do everything normal kids did, and we let him go ahead and try to do anything he could do.”

Deer-hunting season actually led him to archery.

“Using a bow to harvest deer came up,” Matt Stutzman said. “For me, it was not something that I was going to fail at. It turned out I was pretty good at shooting it. … Eventually it took me into the sport of competitive archery.”

He made his Paralympic Games debut in London in 2012 and won a silver medal in men’s compound. He also competed in the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, and he won four world medals along the way, including two world titles. In 2020, he was one of the featured Paralympians in a Netflix documentary, “Rising Phoenix.”

In Paris, the 41-year-old kid from Kalona and who now lives in Fairfield, the “Armless Archer” did indeed rise.

To watch Matt at his craft is to watch a magician. How does one use only legs and feet to hold a bow, never mind actually shoot an arrow into a target ranging from 50 to 70 meters away. Try and do that with an arm, never mind a foot.

He has helped lead not only a number of armless archers into the Paralympic Games and onto the podium, but perhaps into the job market as well. And that’s where this gets real. Before the London Games, Stutzman remembers not being able to get a job.

“People wouldn’t hire me because I had no arms and they would tell me that to my face,” he said on a YouTube documentary. “After the Games, they were like, ‘Hey, you need a job, come on over. I got a job for you.’

“I was mad because I was like, oh, they just see I have no arms. But the reality is they just weren’t educated on what we could do.”

They are educated now. Right? We all are.

This may have been the last Paralympic Games for Stutzman. He has said Paris was his last hurrah. And maybe especially now.

“You’ll never top this,” he told USArchery.org. “When I was stood on the podium, I couldn’t believe I was there.”

Believe it, Matt.

When he won the Paralympic championship, Stutzman danced across the stage, shouting and celebrating, in front of 8,000 cheering spectators and his family.

“When I first walked out for my first match,” he said, “I really had to fight back the tears of just being able to perform in front of my family and having them cheer, knowing they had my back no matter what happened.”

Once the Games end this week, it’ll be back to Iowa for Stutzman. He lives in Fairfield with his family, which includes sons Carter, Cameron and Alex.

But when he’s back, maybe no more police stops?

Here’s another thing to understand about Matt. His humor. Here’s a guy who tried bull riding and BMX racing and soccer and still manages to drive. And that leads to a funny story, per TeamUSA.org.

One day this year, while driving to an airport in Iowa, Stutzman was trying to access the GPS on his phone, balancing it between his head and his shoulder while driving with his legs (one for steering, the other for the gas and brake pedals). He was stopped by a police officer.

“He proceeds to look me dead in the face and says, ‘I need to let you know that Iowa is a hands-free state.’

“I’m like, ‘That’s what I’m doing, sir.’”

OK, let’s call him the “Armless Driver.”

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul