HOW DOES IT WORK?
You shoot an arrow at a target鈥攖he closer to the middle, the higher the score. Like lethal, high-powered darts, or something. There鈥檚 a team and an individual competition for both men and women. Medal dates are July 28 (men鈥檚 team), July 29 (women鈥檚 team), August 2 (women鈥檚 individual), and August 3 (men鈥檚 individual). The target is divided into 10 zones (worth from 1-10 points), and all archers shoot from 76.5 yards away. After a preliminary stage, the archers face off in a one-on-one knockout competition, with five sets of three arrows. A set win is worth two points, and a draw is worth one. The first to six advances. For the team competition, each team of three shoots 24 arrows in four sets of six, with each member shooting twice.
HISTORY
Modern archery鈥攚hen competition and equipment was standardized鈥攂egan in 1972, although the event debuted at the Olympics in 1900 and then went on hiatus for about 50 years. Since 1972, South Korea has dominated the competition, winning 30 medals and 16 golds. The United States comes in at a distant second with 16 medals and eight golds. No other country has more than one gold or seven total medals.
WHO IS THE BEST?
Possibly a 26-year-old, legally blind dude from South Korea, actually. Im Dong-Hyun sees horribly (no better than 20/100 vision in either eye, say reports), but he won the 2007 World Championship and is currently ranked second in the world. A pair of other South Koreans have won the past two World Championships, so they look a decent bet to win what would somehow be the country鈥檚 first-ever individual men鈥檚 archery gold. South Korea is the favorite in both the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 team competitions, although Italy won the 2011 women鈥檚 World Championship. Denisse Van Lamoen, Chile鈥檚 flag bearer, is the defending women鈥檚 world champ, but 18-year-old Deepike Kumari of India is currently ranked number-one in the world.
DOES THE U.S. HAVE ANY CHANCE?
The U.S. men haven鈥檛 won an individual or a team medal since 2000. That should change, though, as 23-year-old Brady Ellison is currently the top-ranked archer in the world, after surpassing Im for the number-one spot. Ellison鈥檚 only lost two matches in 2011 and is maybe the favorite for gold. He also has a goatee and occasionally uses a pink, breast-cancer bow, most likely making him the only person in the world able to claim both of those things. The men鈥檚 team is expected to medal, while the women probably have an outside shot at a team medal, but would need to pick up a couple of consecutive major upsets to grab any individual medals.
SUGGESTED READING
鈥溾 by Jim Caple