You just sat down at your first archery event. As you view the target range, you notice eight targets in a row at the far end of the range, and eight archers at the end closest to you. Archers are competing head-to-head on targets 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and 7 and 8. The archer who scores the highest in each pairing (e.g. targets 1 and 2) wins the match. The winners move on to the next elimination round. The losers are finished.
A whistle starts and stops the shooting and indicates time-outs in case of equipment failures. Archers have 2.5 minutes to shoot 3 arrows, called an "end." Time is indicated by a signal light that glows green for 2 minutes, then yellow for the final 30 seconds, coupled with a digital countdown.
Watch as each archer goes through seven steps before they release the string to send it flying toward the 10-ring. First, he or she takes a solid stance. Then the archer grips the bowstring and fits the arrow against it. He or she then draws the bowstring, anchoring it under the chin or jawbone. After taking final aim through the sight, he or she finally loosens the three-finger grip on the string to release the arrow.
To ensure the same position for each shot, many archers touch their nose to the string. The Romans revolutionized shooting when they learned that drawing the string to the face instead of the chest resulted in more accurate shots.
Once you hear the twang of the string, don't blink. Using a recurve bow, archers can send an arrow towards its target at a speed greater than 150 miles per hour. The 10-ring target face for 70m competition is only 12.2 cm / 4.8 inches in diameter. The entire target looks about the same size from the 70m line as a thumbtack held at arm's length.
After each end, competitors walk to the target, each shared by two archers, and one calls out all the scores, while the other targetmate verifies them. An arrow earns the score of the color zone it lands on, from a 10 at the center of the yellow, to 1 point for a hit on the outer white ring. Unless an archer can touch a shot arrow with the bow without moving his or her feet from behind the starting line, any arrow that is shot counts, whether it bounces off, misses altogether or shoots straight through the target.
Each ring on the target has a point value between one and 10, with the bullseye, or "the gold," worth the maximum 10 points. If an arrow lands on the dividing line, it earns the higher value. A deflected arrow is scored where it lands. An arrow that bounces off the target but leaves a mark or passes completely through the target is counted. An arrow embedded in another arrow scores the same as the first. The gold is 11.4 cm / 4.8 inches wide, and its center is marked by a black dot known as a pinhole. The center of the target is 130 cm / 52 inches above the ground as measured from an estimated even ground level.
Competition is divided into eliminations and a finals round. Each elimination round consists of the archer shooting 18 arows at a distance of 70 meters from the target; six "ends," or groups, of three arrows each. The archer has 40 seconds to shoot each arrow, and alternates each shot with his or her opponent.
Men shoot against men; women shoot against women. This event begins with 64 each. In the ranking round, all 64 archers stand on the 70-meter line and shoot at the same time. Each archer shoots 72 arrows to determine their ranking (1 64), based on how he or she measures up against a perfect 720 points. This determines who shoots against whom in the first elimination round.The archer with the highest score is ranked #1, and the archer with the lowest score is ranked #64.
Elimination competition continues until there are only eight women and eight men left. The main scoreboard records where the archers are in the competition. It will tell you who is shooting on what target and their total score. Ten is the highest value an arrow can score, so 180 is a perfect score in the elimination rounds (10 points x 18 arrows = 180); 120 is a perfect score in the finals round, with only 12 arrows shot. To know who is winning the match, look at the scoreboard below each target. It will give you the score per arrow shot by each archer. High score wins.
A head-to-head single elimination competition then begins, where the #1 archer shoots against #64, #2 shoots against #3, #4 shoots against #5, and so on. Winners of each match move on to the next elimination match. The first elimination round cuts the field of 64 to 32. The second elimination round cuts the field in half again. And the final elimination round decides which eight archers will progress to the shoot-off.
Finalists shoot only 12 arrows (four ends of three arrows each), and they shoot two at a time. The winners progress to the semifinals, and those winners go into the final pairing. These four archers then shoot for medals.
The team competition follows. The top 16 men's and top 16 women's teams, three archers per country, were selected based on the individual ranking round scores. In team competition, each archer shoots nine arrows, also from the 70-meter mark. The progression is the same as individual competition, except each match is between two countries, not just two archers. In the end, the top four teams face each other in the finals.
Even veteran archers may be baffled to see pairing charts and archers on the field not matching. Archers are put into groups A-H but do not shoot in alphabetical order, despite being listed alphabetically by group on the start lists. Group B always shoots first, followed by groups G, F, C, D, E, H and A.
To make it even more complicated, more than one group may compete on the field at the same time. As the elimination rounds progress, fewer and fewer archers compete in each group, thus, as early as the 1/16th eliminations, two groups are able to compete on the one field. While they are all shooting, each archer competes only with the others in his or her group to determine the best archer from within the group. The two groups do not compete against each other until after the elimination rounds. Each group begins with eight shooters.
This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for
the Olympic Games Sports Publication Department. Written by Howard
Thomas.
| The volunteer staff of the 1996 Olympic Games totaled 50,152. They worked an estimated 850,000 shifts. |