An Introduction to Archery

Anyone who knows about the legend of Arjuna in the Mahabharata would be slightly familiar with archery competitions. Equipment technology are now different than in the Mahabharata, but the skills needed for the historic sport of archery remain essentially unchanged. The recurve bow made with aerospace aluminium alloys and carbon fibre has become standard and arrows made of aluminium and carbon can travel more than 240 km per hour. But, the most important requirements are straightforward: extreme mental control, physical conditioning for strength and stamina, steady hands, sharp eyes and nerves of steel.

Archery was a feature of the Olympic Games from 1900 to 1920. In 1904, archery became one of the first Olympic sports to include women. But then the sport disappeared for more than 50 years and the IOC returned archery to the Olympics at Munich in 1972. It has remained on the programme ever since.
The sport of archery has gained popularity in recent times thanks to the introduction of match play (two archers, 12 arrows, only the winner moves on) and the World Cup concept. This new concept, introduced in 2006, has made the sport more exciting and fast-paced for television audiences.

Competition:
Archers shoot at targets 70 metres away in four events - men’s and women’s individual and team competitions. The target is 1.22 metres in diameter and marked with 10 concentric rings. From where the archers stand, it looks about the same size as the head of a thumbtack held at arm’s length.
The centre ring, known as the 10-ring, measures 12.2 centimetres in diameter, and counts 10 points. The outer ring counts one, and the rings in between increase by one point in value as they near the centre.

Archers, or teams, compete in head-to-head matches in single elimination after being ranked from 1 to 64 during qualifications. The semi-finals winners decide the gold and silver medals in the final, and the semi-finals losers shoot for the bronze.

List of Events:

• individual (FITA Olympic round - 70m) Men
• team (FITA Olympic round - 70m) Men
• individual (FITA Olympic round - 70m) Women
• team (FITA Olympic round - 70m) Women

Jargon Buster:

• Boss: the name for an Archery target.
• Nock: To place an arrow on a bow string.
• Robin Hood: describes a shot that splits the shaft of an arrow already in the target.
• Spotter: An official scorer who uses a telescope to identify the arrow’s exact position.
• Bowman: An archer.

Related Websites:
International Archery Federation (FITA)
Wikipedia: Archery at the Summer Olympics