Archery debuted at the second Olympics in 1900 and after being held in the next two would only appear once (1920) between 1908 and 1972. The early Olympic archery was nothing like the modern versions with very different events. Women were able to compete in both 1904 and 1908 and have been part of the modern version since the first appearance in 1972. The current program is only in recurve archery (compound being the other style) with individual and team competitions (first instituted in 1988). Archery will be held at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí in Rio which is actually a large parade ground that holds 90,000 people. Bet you don’t have anything like that in your hometown.
Qualifying was done on a country-by-country basis with quotas won over the last year. You can either qualify a whole team of three or only an individual spot. The US men qualified their team at the World Championships in Copenhagen last year while the US women could not qualify a team at the World Championships or the last chance World Cup event in Antalya, Turkey in June. The only US spot was qualified at the World Championships as one of the individual qualifiers.
The Team:
The US team is thus three men and one woman for Rio. Two of the men have Olympic experience with one here for the third time. Both Jake Kaminski and Brady Ellison are the veterans of the team at 27 while Zach Garrett and Mackenzie Brown are just 21.
Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.
USA Archery
Men:
Brady Ellison**
Jake Kaminski*
Zach Garrett
Women:
Mackenzie Brown
* – Was on team in 2012 – London
** – Was on team in 2012 & 2008 (Beijing)
Format:
The individual competitions will begin with a Ranking Round to set the seeds for the knockout portion of the tournament. After the knockout bracket is set (1v64, 2v63 and so on) the competitors will face off in five-set matches. Each set consists of three arrows. Win three sets and you are through.
The team competitions will be seeded using the combined scores of the team members from the Ranking Round, the top 4 teams on each side getting a bye with teams 5-12 matching up. In the team competition the format has changed for this year with each member shooting twice in an “end”. Four ends is a match but if it’s tied it’ll go to extras where each archer will only get one shot an in end.
Schedule:
All times ET
Friday, August 5th
8 AM – Men’s Ranking Round
12 PM – Women’s Ranking Round
Saturday, August 6th
8 AM – Men’s Team – Round of 16
1 PM – Men’s Team – Quarterfinals
2:43 PM – Men’s Team – Semifinals
3:39 PM – Men’s Team – Finals
Monday, August 8th
8 AM – Men’s Individual – Round of 64
8:26 AM – Women’s Individual – Round of 64
8:52 AM – Men’s Individual – Round of 32
9:05 AM – Women’s Individual – Round of 32
Tuesday, August 9th
8 AM – Men’s Individual – Round of 64
8:26 AM – Women’s Individual – Round of 64
8:52 AM – Men’s Individual – Round of 32
9:05 AM – Women’s Individual – Round of 32
Wednesday, August 10th
8 AM – Men’s Individual – Round of 64
8:26 AM – Women’s Individual – Round of 64
8:52 AM – Men’s Individual – Round of 32
9:05 AM – Women’s Individual – Round of 32
Thursday, August 11th
8 AM – Women’s Individual – Round of 16
2 PM – Women’s Individual – Quarterfinals
2:55 PM – Women’s Individual – Semifinals
3:27 PM – Women’s Individual – Finals
Friday, August 12th
8 AM – Men’s Individual – Round of 16
2 PM – Men’s Individual – Quarterfinals
2:55 PM – Men’s Individual – Semifinals
3:27 PM – Men’s Individual – Finals
Past Results:
The US has the second most medal of all time with 32 to Korea’s 34, but 17 of those were in 1904 when there were exactly ZERO other countries competing. They’d have had 18 if they could find one more team for the women’s event. The US has not medaled in the women’s individual event since 1976 (a gold by Luann Ryon) or the men’s individual event since 2000 (a silver by Vic Wunderle) but the men’s team won silver in London including both Brady Ellison and Jake Kaminksi.
