History

Numerous and diverse archery events were included in the 1900

Archery at the 1900 Summer Olympics

At the 1900 Summer Olympics, six of the archery events that took place in Paris, France, were considered Olympic, with 153 archers competing in them. The identities of 17 of those archers are known, though a number of those are known only by their surnames. It was the first time that archery was...

, 1904

Archery at the 1904 Summer Olympics

At the 1904 Summer Olympics in Saint Louis, six archery events were contested, of which three were men's and three were women's competitions. Only American archers competed. 23 men and 6 women constituted the entire field....

, 1908

Archery at the 1908 Summer Olympics

At the 1908 Summer Olympics, three archery events were contested. Great Britain sent 41 archers , France sent 15 men, and the United States sent one man.-Medal summary:-Medal table:-Sources:...

, and 1920

Archery at the 1920 Summer Olympics

Archery at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp marked the return of the sport after a 12-year absence following it not being contested in the 1912 Summer Olympics and the cancellation of the 1916 Summer Olympics due to World War I. The only competitors were men, and from only three countries...

 Summer Olympics. Since archery was reintroduced at the 1972 Munich Games, an individual men's event has been a part of the program. It has undergone some format changes. Notably the Double FITA Round was altered to an Olympic Round beginning at the 1992 Barcelona games.

Darrell Pace

Darrell Pace

Darrell Owen Pace is a former archer from the United States, who won two individual Olympic and World Championships titles each during his career. In 2011, he was declared as the Men's archer for 20th century by the International Archery Federation .Pace, at the age of 16, became the youngest...

 of the United States is the most decorated archer in the Men's Individual Archery event, having earned two gold medals in 1976

Archery at the 1976 Summer Olympics

At the 1976 Summer Olympics two archery events were contested. It was the second iteration of the modern archery competition in the Olympics, following the same format as in the 1972 Summer Olympics. The two events were men's individual and women's individual, and the competition in each event...

 and 1984

Archery at the 1984 Summer Olympics

Archery at the 1984 Summer Olympics was contested in the same format used since 1972. There were two events: men's individual and women's individual. Points were in a format called the double FITA round, which included 288 arrows shot over four days at four different distances: 70 meters, 60...

. The United States has the most medals and golds: 10 and 5, respectively. 13 nations and 27 athletes have shared the 30 medals awarded in this event.

Format

In the individual competitions, 64 archers compete. The competition begins with the ranking round. Each archer shoots 72 arrow

Arrow

An arrow is a shafted projectile that is shot with a bow. It predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.An arrow usually consists of a shaft with an arrowhead attached to the front end, with fletchings and a nock at the other.- History:...

s (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.

The first elimination round

Archery Olympic Round

The Olympic Round was introduced to target archery so that it could become watchable as a competitive sport. The Main focus of this being for the Olympics when shown on television. The round was developed by the International Archery Federation FITA...

 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

Bronze medal

A bronze medal is a medal awarded to the third place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St...

 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

Gold medal

A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...

 while the loser receives the silver medal

Silver medal

A silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....

.

2008 changes

All matches in 2008 were in the previous finals round format, using 12 arrow matches. Archers alternated shooting by arrow.

Medalists

1972 Munich Archery at the 1972 Summer Olympics Archery at the 1972 Summer Olympics consisted of two medal events, one for men and one for women.Each event was composed of two FITA rounds. Each of those FITA rounds consisted of the archers shooting 36 arrows at targets at 4 different distances, for a total of 144 arrows...
1976 Montreal Archery at the 1976 Summer Olympics At the 1976 Summer Olympics two archery events were contested. It was the second iteration of the modern archery competition in the Olympics, following the same format as in the 1972 Summer Olympics. The two events were men's individual and women's individual, and the competition in each event...
1980 Moscow Archery at the 1980 Summer Olympics Archery at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held at the archery range, located at the Trade Unions Olympic Sports Centre . The archery schedule began on 30 July and ended on 2 August. Two archery events were contested: men's individual and women's individual...
1984 Los Angeles Archery at the 1984 Summer Olympics Archery at the 1984 Summer Olympics was contested in the same format used since 1972. There were two events: men's individual and women's individual. Points were in a format called the double FITA round, which included 288 arrows shot over four days at four different distances: 70 meters, 60...
1988 Seoul Archery at the 1988 Summer Olympics Four events were contested in archery at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. These events included team competitions for the first time in modern Olympic archery. Men's and women's individual competitions continued to be part of the schedule as well....
1992 Barcelona Archery at the 1992 Summer Olympics There were 4 different Archery competitions at the 1992 Summer Olympics. The format of the previous Olympics was dropped for this Olympiad, with an entirely new system being put in place....
1996 Atlanta Archery at the 1996 Summer Olympics Archery at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta consisted of four events. The events were held in neighboring Stone Mountain.All archery was done at a range of 70 metres. 64 archers competed in each the men's individual and women's individual competitions. They began with a 72-arrow ranking round...
2000 Sydney Archery at the 2000 Summer Olympics Archery at the 2000 Summer Olympics was held at Sydney International Archery Park in Sydney, Australia with ranking rounds on 16 September and regular competition held from 17 September to 20 September...
2004 Athens Archery at the 2004 Summer Olympics Archery at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held at Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, Greece with ranking rounds on 12 August and regular competition held from 15 August to 21 August...
2008 Beijing Archery at the 2008 Summer Olympics Archery at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held over a seven day period from August 9 to August 15. The events took place at the Olympic Green Archery Field, a temporary venue on the Olympic Green, Beijing's Olympic Park.-Competition Format:...
2012 London Archery at the 2012 Summer Olympics The Archery events at the 2012 Summer Olympics is scheduled to be held over an eight day period from 27 July to 3 August. Four events will be held, and all events shall take place at Lord's Cricket Ground in London in front of a temporary stand built to accommodate 6,500 spectators.- Competition...