What you should Know About 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.

Since 1992, the structure of the game is head-to-head competition amongst 64 top players. Individual for men, individual for women, team for men and team for women are the four events in archery. In the individual events for men and women, players throw 72 arrows at the bull’s eye target standing at 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.

Each team has 3 archers and there are 16 teams in the team events where each archer throws 72 arrows which are shot from a distance of 70 meters. To select a winner in case of a tie, each archer shoots one arrow and whosoever’s arrow comes closest to the bull’s eye is the obvious choice. The target carries 10 rings where if the outer circle is hit the archer is allotted 1 point, 2 points for the next ring and so on with the center carrying 10 points.

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.