The world’s top archers will be shooting for gold in Paris.
Archery made its Olympic debut in the French capital well over 100 years ago and has been an Olympic mainstay since 1972. The top competitors from across the world will reconvene in Paris this summer with a chance to stake their claim as the best bowmen on Earth.
Before the archers nock and fire, here is everything to know about archery at the 2024 Paris Olympics:
When did archery become an Olympic sport?
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Archery was introduced at the second modern Olympics in Paris in 1900. There were seven archery events at those Games, with France winning four golds and Belgium winning three.
The sport was featured at the next two Olympics and the 1920 Games before being removed and left off the Olympics program for more than 50 years. Archery returned for the 1972 Munich Olympics and has been a part of every Summer Olympics since.
Olympics archery medal table
South Korea leads the all-time Olympics archery medal count with 43 total: 27 gold, nine silver and seven bronze. The country came away with four out of five possible golds in archery at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
The U.S. is next on the list with 33 overall archery medals. Its 10 silvers and nine bronzes are the most in history, but its 14 gold medals are still well behind South Korea’s 27. No American medaled in archery in Tokyo.
France (25 medals, seven golds) and Belgium (21 medals, 11 golds) are next on the all-time Olympics archery medal table.
How many archery events are there at the Paris Olympics?
There are five archery events at the 2024 Olympics, including a mixed team event that made its debut at the Tokyo Games:
- Men’s individual
- Women’s individual
- Men’s team
- Women’s team
- Mixed team event
Olympics archery competition format: Individual
Both the individual and team events begin with the same ranking round featuring 64 men and 64 women.
Archers compete for total points in the ranking round. Each competitor shoots 72 arrows at a target 70 meters away in 12 sets (also called ends) of six arrows each. The competitor has two minutes to shoot the six arrows in each set.
The total scores from the ranking round are used to determine the seeding in the individual and team events, which use a tournament format. The No. 1 archer from the ranking round begins the individual round against the No. 64 archer, No. 2 faces No. 63 and so on.
The higher-ranked archer chooses who shoots first in the first set. The archer who earns fewer points in a given set shoots first in the following set. The single match play features alternate shooting and each archer has 20 seconds to shoot their arrow when it’s their turn.
Each match pins archers in a best-of-five set format. Both archers shoot three arrows in each set and the archer with the higher score in a given set earns two points. If the archers tie in a given set, they each earn one point. The first archer to six points wins the match.
If a match is tied after five sets, the match moves to a single-arrow shoot-off. The higher-ranked archer begins the shoot-off and the one who shoots closer to the center of the target wins. If both archers score a 10, another shoot-off is required and the process repeats until a winner is determined.
Winners continue to advance until they reach the final, in which the winner earns gold and the loser earns silver. The two losing archers from the semifinals compete in a match for bronze.
Olympics archery competition format: Men’s and women’s team
Men’s and women’s teams are made up of three athletes.
The men’s and women’s teams are seeded Nos. 1-12 based on the combined scores of their three archers from the ranking round. Nos. 1-4 receive a bye in the opening round as Nos. 5-12 compete for spots in the quarterfinals.
Matches are a maximum of four sets with each team shooting six arrows (two per archer) in each set. Each team has two minutes to shoot its six arrows in a given set.
Winning a set earns a team two points. If the two teams tie in a given set, they each earn one point. The first team to five points wins the match.
If the match is tied after four sets, it goes to a shoot-off in which each archer shoots one arrow. Each team has one minute to shoot its three arrows. The team with the highest combined score in the shoot-off wins the match. If the teams earn the same score in the shoot-off, the team with the arrow closest to the center of the target in the shoot-off is named the winner. If still tied, the second- — or third- — closest arrow will determine the winner.
Olympics archery competition format: Mixed team
Mixed teams consist of one man and one woman. Teams are ranked based on the combined scores of their two archers from the ranking round and seeded into a bracket.
Matches are a maximum of four sets with each team shooting four arrows (two per archer) in each set. Each team has 80 seconds to shoot its four arrows in a given set.
Winning a set earns a team two points. If the two teams tie in a given set, they each earn one point. The first team to five points wins the match.
If the match is tied after four sets, it goes to a shoot-off in which each archer shoots one arrow. The team with the highest combined score in the shoot-off wins the match. If the teams earn the same score in the shoot-off, the team with the arrow closest to the center of the target in the shoot-off is named the winner. If still tied, the second-closest arrow will determine the winner.
Olympic archery target and scoring
Archers will shoot at a target that is 4 feet (122 cm) in diameter.
Points are allocated based on where an archer’s arrow lands. A maximum score of 10 is given out when an arrow hits the very center of the target and further rings have decreasing points the further away from the center an arrow lands.
Archery venue for 2024 Olympics
Archery events for the 2024 Paris Olympics will be held at Les Invalides.
