World Archery Championships 2023: Preview, full schedule, how to watch live Paris 2024 qualifying action
Berlin, Germany, hosts the first major Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifier event in archery – the 2023 World Championships. Here's how you can livestream the event, running from 31 July to 6 August 2023.
Archery
The first major Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifier in archery takes place from 31 July to 6 August at the World Archery Championships 2023 in Berlin, Germany, and is available to watch on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com (territorial restrictions apply).
Over 530 recurve and compound archers will gather in the German capital to compete in 10 events, with nearly 330 of them also aiming to earn a qualification berth for the Olympic Games next year.
The archers will compete at Maifeld and along Olympischer Platz in the Berlin Olympic Park, with a total of 24 Olympic quota spots up for grabs.
Here's what you need to know about the 2023 World Archery Championships.
World Archery Championships 2023 - archers to watch
Recurve
The top three teams in the recurve men's and recurve women's events in Berlin will each secure three quota spots per team, with three further quotas in each individual event allocated to the next three National Olympic Committees that did not qualify as a team (this means places may be awarded based on quarter-final and semi-final eliminations in the individual events). While there is a mixed team event in Berlin, this will not count towards Olympic qualification. Additionally, four individual spots have already been awarded at the 2023 European Games, but those will be re-allocated if the NOCs involved earn any quota spots in Berlin.
The Republic of Korea are traditionally strong in recurve archery, with An San becoming the first archer to claim three gold medals at a single Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020 in 2021. She and teammate Choi Mi-sun will have to contend with the rise of British archers Penny Healey and Bryony Pitman, respectively first and second in the current world rankings. Healey, just 18, won gold at the 2023 European Games.
On the men's side, the top-ranked South Korean is Kim Woo-jin, the double Olympic champion in the team event. However, Kim – who is the defending champion from Yankton 2021 – has only competed twice internationally this year and finished fifth and ninth at his two World Cup outings. Meanwhile, Brazil's Marcus d'Almeida – the man Kim beat for gold in 2021 – is the current world number one and has already won two events this year.
Germany's Florian Unruh, the world number two, appears to enter as the man in form – and perhaps the favourite, given he will have home support. The European Games champion clinched victory at the perfect time to head into the World Championships. Spain also put two men on the podium at that event. Also among the contenders are Italy's Mauro Nespoli – the Olympic silver medallist from Tokyo won the last World Cup stage ahead of the Worlds with victory in Medellín last month – and USA's Brady Ellison, who should be ruled out at one's own peril.
Compound
The compound bow is the non-Olympic discipline. In Berlin, 208 archers are entered in the men's and women's events.
Mike Schloesser is the heavy favourite in the men's individual compound event. The world number 1 suffered a surprise quarter-final elimination at the European Games and will be looking to rebound in the best manner possible. The Dutchman has not won an individual World Archery Championships gold medal since 2013 (not including Indoor and Field).
Slovakia's Jozef Bosansky has moved up to world number two following his win at the European Games; he, along with the likes of Nicolas Girard of France, James Lutz of USA, Austria's Nico Wiener, and Abhishek Verma of India form the next rank of challengers to Schloesser.
On the women's side, Sara López of Colombia has been around the block and remains a top challenger in the event. She is the defending champion from the 2021 World Championships, and the current world number two cannot be ruled out to retain her title.
However, standing in López's way is the only woman ahead of her in rankings, Ella Gibson of Great Britain. The 23-year-old won gold at the 2022 World Games, and recently took home silver from the European Games.
World Archery Championships Berlin 2023 full schedule including Paris 2024 qualifying events
All times are in Central European Summer Time / CEST, which is 2 hours ahead of GMT/UTC.
Monday 31 July
- Training sessions
Tuesday 1 August
- 09:30–12:30 Men's and women's recurve qualification
- 14:00–17:00 Men's and women's compound qualifying
Wednesday 2 August
- 10:00–11:45 Men's and women's team recurve round of 24, round of 16, quarter-finals
- 13:00–14:55 Mixed team recurve and Mixed team compound round of 24, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals
- 16:00–18:15 Men's and women's team compound round of 24, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals
Thursday 3 August
- 09:30–12:30 Men's and women's recurve round of 96, round of 48, round of 32, round of 16
- 14:00–17:00 Men's and women's compound round of 96, round of 48, round of 32, round of 16
Friday 4 August
- 10:02–11:06 Women's team compound bronze and gold finals
- 11:06–12:10 Men's team compound bronze and gold finals
- 12:10–13:00 Mixed team compound bronze and gold finals
- 14:02–16:03 Women's team recurve semi-finals, bronze and gold finals (Olympic qualifier)
- 16:03–18:04 Men's team recurve semi-finals, bronze and gold finals (Olympic qualifier)
- 18:04–18:54 Mixed team recurve bronze and gold finals
Saturday 5 August
- 10:02–11:14 Women's compound quarter-finals, semi-finals
- 11:19–11:53 Women's compound bronze and gold finals
- 14:02–15:14 Men's compound quarter-finals, semi-finals
- 15:19–15:53 Men's compound bronze and gold finals
Sunday 6 August
- 10:02–11:14 Women's recurve quarter-finals, semi-finals (Olympic qualifier)
- 11:19–11:53 Women's recurve bronze and gold finals (Olympic qualifier)
- 14:02–15:14 Men's recurve quarter-finals, semi-finals (Olympic qualifier)
- 15:19–15:53 Men's recurve bronze and gold finals (Olympic qualifier)
How to watch World Archery Championships Berlin 2023 live
The World Archery Championships Berlin 2023, a Paris 2024 qualifier, will be live streamed on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com (territorial restrictions apply), and the official Olympics apps for mobile and connected TV devices.
A live stream may also be available on the WorldArcheryTV YouTube channel.