Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows. The word comes from the Latin arcus, meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern times, it is mainly a competitive sport and recreational activity. A person who practices archery is typically called an archer, bowman, or toxophilite.
Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms and bows/crossbows.
Archery had its debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics and has been contested in 17 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 27 out of 39 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.
Limba Ram is an Indian archer who represented India in international competitions, including three Olympics. He equalled an archery world record in 1992 at the Asian Archery Championships in Beijing. He was awarded the Padma Shri Award in 2012.
Archery, or the use of bow and arrows, was probably developed in Africa by the later Middle Stone Age. It is documented as part of warfare and hunting from the classical period until the end of the 19th century, when it was made obsolete by the invention and spread of repeating firearms.
Field archery is any archery discipline that involves shooting at outdoor targets of varying and often unmarked distance, typically in woodland and rough terrain.
Matthew Gray is an Australian archer. His day job is being a water policeman. He has participated in three Olympic Games and won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Mounted archery is a form of archery that involves shooting arrows while on horseback. A horse archer is a person who does mounted archery. Archery has occasionally been used from the backs of other riding animals. In large open areas, mounted archery was a highly successful technique for hunting, for protecting herds, and for war. It was a defining characteristic of the Eurasian nomads during antiquity and the medieval period, as well as the Iranian peoples such as the Alans, Sarmatians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Massagetae, Parthians, and Persians in Antiquity, and by the Hungarians, Mongols, Chinese, and Turkic peoples during the Middle Ages. The expansion of these cultures have had a great influence on other geographical regions including Eastern Europe, West Asia, and East Asia. In East Asia, horse archery came to be particularly honored in the samurai tradition of Japan, where horse archery is called Yabusame.
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.
Deepika Kumari is an Indian professional archer. She won a gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the women's individual recurve event. She also won a gold medal in the same competition in the women's team recurve event along with Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi. She has 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 in Paris World Cup. Deepika Kumari won individual gold medals at the Archery World Cup Stage 1. Deepika Kumari also defeated Mexico by 5–1 in the final to win 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.
Modern competitive archery involves shooting arrows at a target for accuracy and precision from a set distance or distances. This is the most popular form of competitive archery worldwide and is called target archery. A form particularly popular in Europe, North America, and South America is field archery, shot at targets generally set at various distances in a wooded setting. There are also several other lesser-known and historical forms, as well as archery novelty games.
Sports in Bhutan comprise both traditional Bhutanese and modern international games. Archery is the national sport in Bhutan. Competitions are held regularly in most villages. Other traditional Bhutanese sports include khuru, soksom, pundo and digor.
Ryan Tyack is an Australian archer competing in men's recurve events at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He earned a gold medal at the 2006 Junior World Outdoor Target Championships in the male recurve cadet event. He also won a gold at the 2008 World Youth Archery Championships in the men's under-18 event. He was named to the Australian archery shadow Olympic squad for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and won the individual competition at the 2014 World Indoor Archery Championships.
Norbert Murphy is a Canadian archer. He won a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the Men's individual compound W1. He is currently 3rd in the world in the Men's Compound W1.
Chinese Taipei competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. "Chinese Taipei" is the designated name used by Taiwan to participate in some international organizations and almost all sporting events, including the Olympic Games. Neither the common name "Taiwan" nor the official name "Republic of China" would be used due primarily to opposition from the People's Republic of China. This was also the region's ninth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Chang Hye-jin is a South Korean former recurve archer. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Chang was the Olympic champion in both the women's individual and women's team events at 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She is also a former number one-ranked recurve archer, having headed the World Archery Rankings between 2017 and 2019.
Malaysia competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's fifteenth appearance at the Olympics, although it had previously competed in two other editions under the name Malaya. Tan Sri Mohamed Al-Amin Abdul Majid was the chef de mission of the national delegation at the Games.
Patrick Huston is a British two-time Olympian archer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He captured three world championship titles under the youth level, and eventually competed as a member of the two person archery squad of Team GB at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio, losing the first round match to the eventual champion Ku Bon-chan of South Korea. In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics his best result was a men's team 5th. Huston currently lives near Lilleshall National Sporting Centre and trained full-time under senior national coach Richard Priestman for Archery UK, while remaining a loyal founding member of East Belfast Archery Club. World ranking 14 at 16 January 2023
Archery at the 2016 Summer Paralympics was held between 10 and 17 September 2016 at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí in the Maracana zone of Rio de Janeiro, and consisted of nine events. The make up of those events changed substantially from the 2012 games, and consisted of three men's events, three women's events and three events for mixed gender teams. Men, women and mixed teams each competed in two events for compound bow, one for wheelchair athletes, the other open, and an open event for recurve bow, the bow used for all Olympic events.
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