Archery Trophies and Medals
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus.
Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat, while in
modern times, its main use is that of a recreational activity and archery competition, hence the need for archery trophies and medals. A person
who participates in archery is typically known as an "archer" or
"bowman".
Archery had its debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics
and has been contested in 14 Olympiads. Eighty three different nations
have appeared in the Olympic archery competitions, with France appearing
the most often at 11 times. It is governed by the International Archery Federation (FITA). Recurve archery is the only discipline of archery featured at the Olympic Games. Archery is also an event at the Summer Paralympics
Archery Competition
Modern Olympic archery consists of four medal events: men's
individual, women's individual, men's team, and women's team. In all
four events, the distance from the archer to the target is 70 metres.
Individual
In the individual competitions, 64 archers compete. The competition begins with the ranking round. Each archer shoots 72 arrows
(in six ends, or groups, of 12 arrows). They are then ranked by score
to determine their seeding for the single-elimination bracket. After
this, final rankings for each archer is determined by the archer's score
in the round in which the archer was defeated, with the archers
defeated in the first round being ranked 33rd through 64th.
Pre-2008
The first elimination round
pits the first ranked archer against the sixty-fourth, the second
against the sixty-third, and so on. In this match as well as the second
and third, the archers shoot simultaneously 18 arrows in ends of 3
arrows. The archer with the higher score after 18 arrows moves on to the
next round while the loser is eliminated.
After three such rounds, there are 8 archers remaining. The remaining
three rounds (quarterfinals, semifinals, and medal matches) are
referred to as the finals rounds. They consist of each archer shooting
12 arrows, again in ends of 3 arrows. The two archers in the match
alternate by arrow instead of shooting their arrows simultaneously as in
the first three rounds. The losers of the quarterfinals are eliminated,
while the losers of the semifinals play each other to determine the bronze medal
and fourth place. The two archers who are undefeated through the
semifinals face each other in the gold medal match, in which the winner
takes the gold medal while the loser receives the silver medal.
2008 changes
All matches in 2008 were in the previous finals round format, using 12 arrow matches. Archers alternated shooting by arrow.
Team
Each country that has three archers in the individual competition
also gets to compete as a team. The same three archers from the
individual competition must compete as the country's team. Their scores
in the individual ranking round are added to determine the team's
ranking round score.
The first team round is the round of 16, but as the number of teams
is usually between 9 and 15 the highest ranked teams typically get a bye
in the first round. Matches consist of each team firing 27 arrows in 3
ends of 9 arrows, with each archer on the team firing 3 arrows per end.
Advancement and medals are determined in the same manner as the
individual competition.
2008 changes
The number of arrows per team in a match was reduced to 24, in 4 ends
of 6 arrows. Each of the three archers on a team shot 8 arrows in a
match.