A Look at Archery and the Olympic Games

As a sports event archery never was included in the first Olympics in Greece. With the Olympics having a past record of 1000 years, it is highly likely that the event might have been included sometime in its history. Years when archery started to get included as a sport event in the Olympics were 1900 for men and 1904 for women.

During the early years of Olympics, there was no regularity in the game rules and archery was not included as an event any more after 1920. It took many years before all countries accepted the international rules for competition, but archery was able to return as an Olympic sport to the 1972 Munich Games. In 1988, team competitions were held in addition to the individual events.

The head-to-head arrangement of the event started from 1992 amongst 64 top athletes. There are four archery events: The men and women, in the individual events get an opportunity to throw 72 arrows at the bull’s eye from a distance of 70 meters which is 229 feel and 8 inches. 40 seconds is the time allowed between two shots and the aim is to reach a score of 720 and a ‘sudden death’ overtime shot is played in case of a tie.

Team competitions consist of 16 3-archer teams and as in the individual events, each archer shoots 72 arrows which are shot from a distance of 70 meters. When there is a tie, what happens is that each archer throws an arrow and whoever can aim close to the center is the winner. The target consists of 10 rings where 1 point is awarded if the outermost ring is hit, 2 points for the next ring and ultimately 10 points are awarded if the center of target is hit.

Olympic archery events involve using a recurve bow which enables the arrow to traverse at the speed of 150 mph. These extraordinary bows are made from wood, fiberglass and graphite which helps in the arrow to travel in a straight line and this stabilizing effect helps for a perfect aim. The equipment is costly and can go beyond 00 the reason being strings made from hydrocarbon or from Kelvar and the arrows from aluminum or carbon graphite.

Olympic archers usually would undergo training for ten years. One should be in impeccable form to participate. You need the right coach and the ideal equipment too. As luck would have it, archery is less costly than any other sports. The game must be learnt thoroughly and you have to spend a lot of time reading about it and discuss with other archers before you start to partake in various local and national tournaments but remember practice is critical and the more you do it the more proficient you would become.

Archery is a sport accessible to many disabled athletes. As we see, Neroli Fairhall was the first paraplegic to not only participate in the Olympics but this woman from New Zealand also became a gold medalist in the Commonwealth Games. This is such a sport that the whole family can get fun out of it and it can be pursued for the whole life.