posted by Extreme Elk Hunting on Jan 31
It might sound incredible but the first Olympics in Greece, never had archery as a sports. During the course of the 1000-year history of the Olympics, this event could have been included sometime in the past. The 1900 Olympics saw archery for men as an event for the first time and the women’s event began in 1904.
There were too many disparities in the Olympics rules those early years and after 1920, archery was dropped as an event. The Olympics rules were finally accepted by the participating countries after many years had lapsed and archery made a come back to the games in the Munich games held in 1972. It was not until 1988 that the sport was also judged for team participation in addition to individual competitions.
The format of the game, since 1992, includes head-to-head competition amongst the top 64 aspirants. Individual and team events for men and women are the four events in archery. The primary target is the bull’s eye, which in the individual events men and women throw 72 arrows from a distance of 70 meters which is 229 feel and 8 inches. The time gap between two shots is 40 seconds and the perfect score is 720 with an overtime shot called ’sudden death’ which is allowed in case there is a tie.
Just like the individual events, in the team events each archer throws 72 arrows standing from a distance of 70 meters and each of the 16 teams has 3 archers. In case of a tie, each archer throws an arrow and the arrow which comes closest to the bull’s eye is the winner. The scoring in this game is according to where the arrow hits the target, which consists of 10 rings so if the arrow hits the outermost ring, the archer gets 1 point, 2 points for the next ring and finally 10 if the center of the target is hit.
The recurve bow which is used during archery events help at Olympics makes the arrow travel at a speed of 150 mph. These technologically advanced bows are made from graphite, wood and fiberglass which stabilize the motion of the arrow which has to travel in a perfect straight line and helps the archer to aim perfect. The total cost of the equipment goes over 00 with 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 needs to be in a form which is as perfect as possible. A superb trainer as well as the perfect equipment is essential too. Fortunately, archery is much less expensive to pursue than many other sports. You need to study, learn and communicate with other archers and then participate in local events to get expertise but before all this, you need to practice regularly.
Athletes with disabilities can also indulge in archery as a sport. A New Zealand woman, Neroli Fairhall, was the first paraplegic to compete in the Olympic Games and was 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.
