Explained: Olympic archery

Archery 03 May 24

Olympic archery is the modern form of an ancient discipline.

Combining strength, precision, and concentration, Team GB stole the show on the range in 1908 with a stunning five medals, including golds for William Dodd and Queenie Newall.

The country was made to wait until 1992 for its next medals, thanks in part to the sport’s half-decade hiatus from the Games, as Simon Terry earned both individual and team bronze in Barcelona.

Another bronze followed at Athens 2004 courtesy of Alison Williamson, with British archers looking to podium for the first time in two decades in Paris.

Here is all you need to know about everything bow and arrow.

How far away do archers shoot from?

In Olympic archery, archers shoot at a target that is 70m away.

The target is 122cm in diameter, with the central ring, worth 10 points, just 12.2cm wide.

How does scoring work in archery?

Archers are rewarded for shooting as close to the centre of the target as they can.

The maximum an archer can score with each arrow is 10 points, with fewer points awarded the further from the centre they shoot.

At Olympic level, archers will expect to be regularly scoring nine or more from each arrow.

There is also the X ring, an even smaller ring inside the 10 ring, which denotes the dead centre of the target.

Arrows that find the X ring are still worth 10 points, but are marked differently on a scorecard and can be used in the case of a tiebreak.

How do you win a medal in archery at the Olympics?

The aim of the game in archery is simple, score more than your opponent, but the route to gold is slightly more complicated.

Archers begin their Olympic campaign in the ranking round, where each archer shoots 72 arrows, with the score of each archer determining their ranking from 1 to 64.

In the two singles events, these rankings translate to their place in the knockout bracket, with the top ranking archer facing the lowest, and so on.

Those who progress continue to the next round, until eventually one archer emerges victorious from the final, or gold medal match.

How many events are contested?

There are five events in Olympic archery.

Men and women separately contest individual and team medals, before coming together in the mixed team event.

How do team events work?

The ranking system also helps shape the team and mixed team events.

The 12 highest combined scores from each nation’s three archers qualify for the team knockouts and the top 16 combined scores of each nation’s top-scoring man and woman proceeding to the mixed team knockouts.

In the team events, the top four nations go directly through to the quarter-finals while the other eight nations face-off for the remaining four places.

How do you win a knockout match?

A knockout match in Olympic archery sees two individuals or teams go head-to-head, with the winner progressing to the next round.

The victor is determined using set play, with each match comprising up to five sets in individual matches, and four in team matches.

In individual matches, each archer shoots three arrows per set with highest scorer taking the set, worth two points. A tied set sees both archers take a point each.

The first archer to earn six or more points, or have the most points after five sets, is declared the match winner. For team matches, the first team to reach five or more points wins.

In team matches, each team has six arrows per set, split evenly between the three team members, while mixed team matches have four arrows per set, two per team member.

How are ties decided in archery?

If a knockout match is level on points after five sets, the winner is decided via a shoot-off.

In individual matches, each archer shoots one arrow with the closest to the centre winning.

In team matches, each team member shoots one arrow each, with the team with the highest score progressing. If the scores are tied, the team with the arrow closest to the centre wins.

What happens if an arrow lands on the line between two rings?

If an arrow lands on the line between two rings, the higher value is awarded to the archer.

What type of bows to Olympic archers use?

Recurve is the only archery discipline that competes at the Olympics. It is considered the modern version of traditional archery bows.

Recurve bows get their name from the way the bow curves towards and then away from the archer at each of its ends, known as limbs.

Archers then shoot the arrow by pulling back the string and releasing.

Compound archers often compete at the same events as recurve archers but not at the Olympics.

The compound bow, which uses a system of pulleys and cables to help shoot the arrow.

Sportsbeat 2024

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