What Is Olympic Archery and How Does it Work?

The Paris 2024 archery tournament will see 128 archers compete in five events – men’s and women’s individual recurve, men’s and women’s team recurve, and mixed team recurve. The entire tournament will take place at the iconic Les Invalides. So what is Olympic archery and what are the rules?

It’s a story that can be traced back tens of thousands of years. Here’s your archery Olympics guide.

Arrowheads made of stone and bone have been unearthed in modern-day South Africa dating back somewhere between 60,000 – 70,000 years, and the earliest remains of what is believed to be a bow are from Germany and may be as old as 18,000 years.

The Chinese are said to have developed archery contests around 3,000 years ago to determine social standing, and the Royal Company of Archers was established in 1676 to separate archery from a battlefield staple to a purely sporting endeavour. But it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that archery as a competitive sport began to gain popularity around the world.

Archery at the Olympics debuted at Paris 1900 with seven events. However, since then the sport has had a stop-start life as an Olympic discipline, mainly due to inconsistencies with the rules and a lack of international standardisation. At St. Louis 1904, six events – three men’s and three women’s – were held, and at the next Games four years later in London, just three events remained.

Olympic Games archery didn’t feature at Stockholm 1912, while at Antwerp 1920 only men’s events were included in the programme. And that’s where things went quiet for decades. Indeed, it was only after a hiatus of 52 years that Olympic archery returned at Munich 1972, with new formats and a standardised set of rules under the auspices of the World Archery Federation.

For all competitions, the target is placed 70 metres from the shooting line and it’s 122 centimetres in diameter. The outer ring is worth one point, the next ring in is worth two points, the following ring is worth three, and so on. This pattern continues to the innermost ring, or bullseye, which is worth 10 points.

The events are known as recurve, which refers to a specific type of standardised bow. A recurve bow is characterised by the tips of the limbs curving away from the archer when the bow is unstrung. This design stores more energy and delivers it more efficiently than a straight-limbed bow, giving the arrow greater speed and power.

Men’s & Women’s Individual Recurve

Each competition consists of 64 archers.

Competition Format: Each archer shoots 72 arrows in a qualification round. The top 32 archers advance to the elimination rounds, which are head-to-head matches.

Scoring: The archers shoot in sets of three arrows each and score between one and ten points per arrow depending on where on the target they hit. The winner of each set gets two points. If the set is tied, each archer gets one point.

Winning: Matches are won by the first archer to reach six points. If the score is level at 5-5, a single arrow shoot-off determines the winner. The closest arrow to the centre wins.

Men’s & Women’s Team Recurve

Each team consists of three archers.

Competition Format: Each team shoots a total of 216 arrows (72 per archer) in the qualification round and the top 16 teams advance to the elimination rounds.

Scoring: The teams shoot in sets of six arrows (two per archer). The winner of each set gets two points. If the set is tied, each team gets one point.

Winning: Matches are won by the first team to reach five points. If the score is level at 4-4, a single arrow shoot-off determines the winner. Each archer shoots one arrow, and the total score of the team’s three arrows decides the outcome. If the teams still can’t be separated, the closest arrow to the centre is the tiebreaker.

Mixed Team Recurve

Each mixed team consists of one male and one female archer.

Competition Format: Each team shoots a total of 144 arrows (72 per archer) in the qualification round. The top 16 teams advance to the elimination rounds.

Scoring: The teams shoot in sets of four arrows (two per archer). The winner of each set gets two points. If the set is tied, each team gets one point.

Winning: Matches are won by the first team to reach five points. Exactly the same rules as the team recurve event apply – if the score is level at four points each, a single arrow shoot-off determines the winner. Each archer shoots one arrow, and the total score of the team’s two arrows decides the outcome. If the teams still can’t be separated, the closest arrow to the centre is the tiebreaker.

The standardised Olympic rules for archery as laid out by the World Archery Federation didn’t come into effect until the 1972 Games, however the statistics below take into account the 1900, 1904, 1908 and 1920 competitions.

Up to and including Tokyo 2020, the participating nations have shared 201 medals, and archery at the Olympics has been dominated by South Korea who have, in total, 43 medals (27 gold, 9 silver, and 7 bronze). Second in the overall medal table is the USA with 33 medals (14G, 10S, 9B) and third is Belgium with 21, made up of 11 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze.

We hope you enjoyed reading this Olympics archery guide and don’t forget, you can catch all the action from Paris 2024 on discovery+!