Archery had its debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics and has been contested in 18 Olympiads. 105 nations have competed in the Olympic archery events, with France appearing the most often at 15 times. The most noticeable trend has been the excellence of South Korean archers, who have won 32 out of 44 gold medals in archery events since 1984. Olympic archery is governed by the World Archery Federation. Recurve archery is the only discipline of archery featured at the Olympic Games. Archery is also an event at the Summer Paralympics.
The World Archery Federation is the governing body of the sport of archery. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is composed of 156 national federations and other archery associations, and is recognised by the International Olympic Committee.
Target archery is the most popular form of archery, in which members shoot at stationary circular targets at varying distances. All types of bow – longbow, barebow, recurve and compound – can be used. In Great Britain, imperial rounds, measured in yards, are still used for many tournaments and these have slightly different rules to metric (WA) rounds, which are used internationally. Archers are divided into seniors and juniors, with juniors being those under the age of 21.
Dave Cousins is an American compound archer and former number one ranked compound archer in the world.
The Archery World Cup is a competition organized by the World Archery Federation, where the archers compete in four stages in four countries and the best eight archers of each category advance to an additional stage to contest the Archery World Cup Final. Started in 2006, this form of competition was introduced following the success of the 2003 World Archery Championships in New York and the 2004 Summer Olympics with the intent of making the sport more popular and attractive to spectators, with the matches being held in 'spectacular' locations and the final matches being broadcast online. It has received plaudits for its innovative approach to the sport, raising its profile and reach.
Erika Eiffel, also known as Aya, is an American competitive archer and advocate for object sexuality. She "married" the Eiffel Tower in a commitment ceremony in 2007.
Deepika Kumari is an Indian professional archer. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the women's individual recurve event. She also won a gold there in the women's team recurve event with Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi. She won individual gold in two of the three stages of the World Cup—one in Guatemala and another in Paris. In the process she also reclaimed the number one ranking after nine years at the Paris World Cup. Deepika won individual gold medals at the Archery World Cup Stage 1. She defeated Mexico by 5–1 in the final to win the gold in Paris.
Danielle Brown MBE is a British competitive archer and award winning children's author. She has competed in the Paralympic Games, winning gold medals in Beijing and London, and has also won medals shooting in the able-bodied category, including at the Commonwealth Games.
The national Indian governing body of archery as a sport in India is the Archery Association of India.
Archery New Zealand Inc. is the national governing body for the sport of Archery in New Zealand as recognised by the World Archery Federation.
Albina Nikolayevna Loginova is a Russian compound archer. She was the World Archery number one in women's compound archery, achieving it on 9 July 2013. She now serves as a coach.
Mahtab Parsamehr is an Iranian archer.
Ivana Buden is a Croatian compound archer. She has won medals at the major World Archery Federation competitions, the World Cup and the World Archery Championships. The highest ranking she has reached is the first position, which she reached for the last time in July 2009.
The World Archery Rankings is a ranking system developed by the World Archery Federation for international competitive archery. It is calculated using a points system and published following major World Archery tournaments.
Gladys Willems is a Belgian compound archer. She has competed at the major World Archery Federation competitions, the World Cup, winning stage medals, and the World Archery Championships, winning a gold medal at the indoor championships. She set a world record of 149 for a 15-arrow round in 2011, a record which stood until broken by Sara López's first ever perfect round of 150 in 2013, and a FITA round world record of 1411 in 2007 in Lausanne. The highest world ranking she has achieved is 4, in 2007.
María Carmen Rubio Larrion is an archer from Spain. She has represented Spain in archery at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, and at the World Championships, where she finished sixth in the women's individual compound event in 2013. She has also represented Spain at European Championships.
Doris Mary Jones was the junior world compound bow archery champion in 2006. She is a Métis from Selkirk, Canada. Jones has been an archer since the age of four, competing all over the world, and is active with the Manitoba Metis Federation.
Trisha Deb is an Indian archer.
Ankita Bhakat is an Indian recurve archer from West Bengal, who is currently ranked world number 20 by the World Archery Federation. She is a member of the Indian national recurve team and competes in international events in the women's individual, women's team and the mixed team recurve categories. She competed in the 2017 World Archery Youth Championships held at Rosario, Argentina, and won the gold medal in the recurve junior mixed team event with partner Jemson Singh Ningthoujam.
Toja Ellison is a Slovenian compound archer. At the 2019 European Games held in Minsk, Belarus, she won the gold medal in the women's individual compound event.
