Archery

Sport Overview

Archery at Paris 2024

Venue: Invalides

Competition Dates: July 25, July 28-August 4 (Days -1, 2-9)

Events: 5 (2 men, 2 women, 1 mixed)

Trivia: Test your knowledge!

Men and women compete in separate individual and team events in Olympic archery. There is also a mixed team event.  

Olympic archery is contested with recurve bows. From a distance of 70 metres, archers aim at a 122cm diameter five-ring target. Each ring is sub-divided in half to create 10 scoring zones. The centre yellow ring is worth 10 points while the outer white ring is worth one point.   

A Qualification Round of 72 arrows determines the seeding for all events. That sets up the Olympic Round for each event in which the athletes or teams face off in single elimination bracket tournaments.

Each individual match is best-of-five sets of three arrows. After each set of three arrows, the archer with the highest score earns two points. If a set is scored as a tie, each archer receives one point. The first archer to reach six points wins the match. If a match is tied at five, each archer shoots one arrow to see who can get closest to the centre of the target for the win.

Crispine Duenas and Stephanie Barrett stand back on facing a target visible between them

Each men’s team and each women’s team has three archers while a mixed team is composed of one man and one woman. Every team match consists of a maximum four sets in which each archer on each team shoots two arrows. The team with the highest total score after a set earns two points. The first team to reach five points wins the match.

Canada’s Olympic Archery History (Pre-Paris 2024)

Canada has not yet won an Olympic medal in archery. The country’s best result came at Montreal 1976 where Lucille Lemay finished fifth in the women’s individual event. The top men’s result was Donald Jackson’s sixth place finish at Munich 1972. Canada last competed in the men’s team event at Beijing 2008, placing 11th, while Canada has never entered the women’s team event. In the inaugural Olympic mixed team event, Crispin Duenas and Stephanie Barrett placed 17th.

Crispin Duenas releases his arrow in an archery competition

Olympic Archery History

Archery was included at the 1900, 1904, and 1908 Olympic Games. After a short absence, it returned to the program at Antwerp 1920 but was then not included again until Munich 1972 when men and women competed in individual events. Men’s and women’s team events were added at Seoul 1988 and the mixed team event was included for the first time at Tokyo 2020.

Teams