Olympic archery at Tokyo 2020: Top five things to know
Who are the top archers? When and where will Olympic archery take place at the Games in 2021? What is the history of archery at the Olympics? Find out here.
Archery
Archery and the Olympics go way back. The sport first appeared in the Olympic Games in 1900. Women competed in the 1904 Olympics, making archery one of the first Olympic sports to include events for both genders.
At the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021, the mixed team event will make its debut in the Olympic programme.
Recurve archery is the only discipline featured at the Olympic Games.
But who are the ones to watch at Tokyo 2020 in 2021? When will competition take place, and where will it be held? Ever wanted to know about the sport’s Olympic history? Here is our guide to the top things to know about Olympic archery.
Top Olympic archers at Tokyo 2020
South Korea's archers swept all four gold medals at the Rio 2016 Olympics, with Chang Hye-jin and Ku Bon-chan taking home the individual titles. Ku Bon-chan then added a second gold with the team. Korean archers will again be the ones to watch at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021.
USA's three-time Olympic medallist Brady Ellison is keen on winning his first gold at the Games. For more than a decade now he has been the most famous public face of his sport.
There is even a documentary film about him, called "Believe" which was released in the summer of 2020.
Ever since Ellison stopped feeling searing discomfort through his right arm he knew that he could finally fulfil his destiny at Tokyo 2020.
"I have more drive than I ever had," the double world champion told NBC. While the world record holder is the man to beat he will face stiff competition from Kim Woojin (South Korea), Mauro Nespoli (Italy), and Ruman Shana (Bangladesh)
In the women's field, Lei Chien-ying (Chinese Taipei) who, like Ellison, clinched two world titles in 2019 is a force to be reckoned with. She will most likely be challenged by South Korea's Kang Chae-young, Deepika Kumari (India), and Germany's Lisa Unruh.
Competition format of Olympic archery at Tokyo 2020
Olympic archery consisted of four medal events from 1988 through 2016: women's individual, men's individual, women's team and men's team. At the Tokyo Games in 2021 a mixed team event is being added. Each of the 16 teams will have one woman and one man competing.
The distance from the archer to the target is the same in all five events: 70 metres.
64 archers line up for the individual event which begins with the ranking round before moving on to the elimination round. This will determine the final medal ranking.
The team event uses the results of the same ranking round as the individual competition. All scores of the team's three individual archers are being counted to get a team ranking round score. Thereafter it is a single-elimination bracket.
Olympic archery schedule at Tokyo 2020
The archery events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021 take place from 23th to 31st July.
As usual, the qualification round will be held on the day of the Opening Ceremony, 23 July 2021.
It will be followed by three days of team events. The first of which will showcase the Olympic debut of the mixed team competition.
The exciting individual events take five days: Three days of preliminary matches before the women's final which is followed by the men's final.
- 23 July 2021: Ranking rounds
- 24 July 2021: Recurve mixed team finals
- 25 July 2021: Recurve women's team finals
- 26 July 2021: Recurve men's team finals
- 27-29 July 2021: Individual eliminations
- 30 July 2021: Recurve women's finals
- 31 July 2021: Recurve men's finals
You can find the full schedule here.
Olympic archery venue at Tokyo 2020
Yumenoshima Pary Archery Field will host the competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2021.
The venue was officially opened on 28 April 2019.
The range will remain in use as a permanent archery venue following the Games.
Olympic archery history
Did you know that Queenie Newall won the women's archery at the London Olympic Games in 1908 at the age of 53? To this day she is still the oldest woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
After it was first contested at the Olympic Games in 1900 archery appeared again in 1904, 1908 and 1920. Archery then went on a 52-year hiatus from the Olympics before it was re-introduced to the programme at the Munich Games in 1972.
The sport then had a 52-year hiatus from the Olympics. It was re-introduced to the programme in 1972, with individual events for men and women.
Back then Belgium's Hubert van Innis picked up six gold medals and three silvers which makes him the most decorated archer in Olympic history. Kim Soo-Nyung from South Korea managed to win four Olympic titles, one silver and one bronze medal when he competed in the 1988, 1992 and 2000 Games.
The South Korean archers have dominated Olympic competition since 1984 winning 23 out of 34 possible gold medals.