H
istorically, nations have, through human
endeavour, developed those elements and
personalities that have affected the world. In the
western world, for example, Italy gave us VERDI,
MICHELANGELO and Leonardo Da VINCI; France
spawned NAPOLEON, the Curies and the Eiffel
Tower; Great Britain produced the Magna Carta and
the first great parliament. In ancient times, Egypt
produced the pyramids and an advanced society.
Most of these societies, except for the Egyptians,
were preceded by the Hellenes and the Greeks, whose
city-states established the precedent for our democracies. SOCRATES and ARISTOTLE still influence modern
philosophy, as do their playwrights; and Greek architecture to this day serves as the model for many of the
world's symphony halls, courthouses, museums and
porticos with their fluted Doric, Ionic and Corinthian
columns supporting the triangular facade above
them. Therefore, in its way, the world still embraces
ancient Greece, including the Greek value of sport.
The Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens has roots that
date back 2300 years into antiquity, to the time of the
ancient Olympic Games. However, the Stadium never held an ancient Olympics, all of which were held
in Olympia in western Greece. Instead, this was the
place of the Panathenean Games, honouring Athena,
the goddess of wisdom within this city that bears her
name. (Panathinaiko is translated as Panathenean in
English.) These more local contests were held annually as compared to the Olympic Games, which were
held every fourth year. However, upon the revival of
the Olympic Games in 1896, the Panathinaiko Stadium
became the site of the first modern Olympics.
56
It is fitting that the archery competitions at the
2004 Olympic Games in Athens were staged at the
Panathinaiko Stadium. One of the world's oldest
sports had held its Olympic competitions at the site
of one of the most ancient sports stadia.
A cave-like tunnel leads from outside, high on
the hill behind the stadium, down to the track - the
route that served as the entry for those Panathenian
athletes. And, as the archers walked through the
tunnel, they walked with the spirits of the ancient
athletes, sensing the pageantry and the competitive nervousness athletes universally experience as
they walk onto the track or into the arena before
they race, wrestle and compete for glory. This sense
of time and place has special meaning within the
spirit of those in the Olympic family.
Tens of thousands of years ago, early man depended upon foot speed to bare-handedly catch his
food. He also threw rocks to stun his prey and developed an efficient spear to hurl. As his developing intelligence made him more shrewd, he created
traps and slings as he strove to create more efficient
and safer methods to hunt ever larger animals and
means that could harvest animals at a distance, silently, even while hidden. He needed the meat for
protein, the pelt for clothing and shelter, the bone
and sinew to make tools.
He discovered the power stored within a sapling
or bough bent into an arc or bow, held to that arc
by a bowstring - therefore archery. The bowstring
could be drawn, creating even more tension in the
bow limbs and transferring that power upon release
of the drawn bowstring to a pointed arrow. The ar-
JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
row would be hurled forward, accurately guided by
feathers placed near the carved nock that initially
held it to the bowstring. Thereby the archer used the
then unknown principles of physics to bring down
his prey at a greater, and thereby safer distance.
We assume certain archers were more efficient,
whose skills found them gathering more prey, or
who were more accurate against targets or whose
strength drew stronger bows allowing them to
shoot over longer distances. Therefore, within
Homo sapiens' instinct to compete, a "sport" was
born, its origins lost in pre-history.
Various concepts of the bow and arrow have been
used on all the populated continents for purposes of
hunting, sport and warfare, ranging from the most
primitive to advanced societies: from the aborigines
of those continents on to the Egyptians of five-thousand years ago, then the Assyrians, Chinese, Goths,
Picts, Huns, and the armies of Genghis KHAN and
the Mongol hordes, among others. Even today, natives of the Kalahari Desert and Southeast Asian islands and the Yamonani and other tribes of Brazil
still hunt with bow and arrow. The exception may
be the Australian Aborigine where archaeological
digs found small bows indicating they were probably used only for ceremonial purposes.
Stories of archers abound in mythology, history and literature. Within Roman mythology, the
winged Cupid is an archer whose arrows bear
love. Within HOMER'S Iliad, the leader Pandarus is
renowned as an archer though he is treacherous,
and within that Greek poem, Paris kills Achilles by
shooting an arrow guided by Apollo into Achilles'
heel, the only point at which he is vulnerable.
Apollo's twin sister Artemis is the goddess of hunting and wild animals. Diana is the Roman counterpart of Artemis and in paintings and statuary is
typically posed holding a bow.
Within The Odyssey (again HOMER), Odysseus
(Ulysses) proves and identifies himself to his wife,
Penelope, dispelling her suitors with an archer's
feat of power and accuracy.
Penelope sets the challenge:
Sagittarius, the archer and centaur, half-human halfhorse, is found within astrology and astronomy as
one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac and as an arcshaped constellation in our night sky avenging Orion,
the hunter, with a drawn bow whose arrow is aimed
at the star Antares, the Scorpion who slew Orion.
Legends about archers include the Swiss hero
William TELL, compelled to shoot an arrow through
an apple upon his son's head; and Robin HOOD, whose
band of archers took from the rich to give to the poor in
oppressed old England. SHAKESPEARE'S kingly armies
had phalanxes of bowmen, and the Normans defeated
the English with longbows at Hastings in 1066.
Within our own experience, we saw the Olympic
movement create its own legend on the night of
the 1992 Opening Ceremonies in Barcelona, where
archer Antonio REBOLLO shot a flaming arrow in
blazing trajectory over the cauldron atop Montjuic
Stadium to spectacularly light the Olympic Flame.
The Panathinaiko Stadium itself is placed close to
mythology. Upon a high hilltop, less than a kilometer to its northwest we see in clear and contemplative view the Acropolis, which holds the Parthenon,
the massive Doric-columned temple dedicated to
the virgin goddess of wisdom, Athena.
"Here is my Lord Odysseus' hunting bow.
Bend and string it if you can
Who sends an arrow through iron axe-helve sockets?
Twelve in line, I join my life with his.
Odysseus in one motion strung the bow,
Slid his right hand down the cord and
Plucked it so the taut gut
Vibrated, hummed and sang
Now flashed arrow from twanging bow
Clean as a whistle, through every socket ring
And grazed not one."
JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
57
So much for history and mythology and into modernity — for in 2004, the Olympic Games returned
to the country of their ancient birth and into Athens,
the city of their modern revival more than a century
ago. The ancient Olympic Games took place from
776 B.C., until 393 A.D., in Olympia, Greece whose
hills were home to the senior gods including Zeus.
They originated as a peaceful festival celebrating
and concluding the four-year segments of their calendar, called Olympiads. The Games were instruments of peace as, during the Games, athletes from
warring armies laid down their arms to come to
Olympia to compete without hostility. (The concept
of the "Olympic Truce" still exists - today, the United
Nations implores nations to desist from conflict during the tenure of each Olympic Games.) Then, as
the Games descended into paganism, violence and
bloodshed, recently-Christianized Roman Emperor,
THEODOSIUS I, ended them.
During the early 1890s, the young French Baron
Pierre de COUBERTIN campaigned to revive the
Olympic Games and the 14-member International
Olympic Committee was established in 1894. They
set to work organizing the first Olympic Games
of the modern era, which took place in Athens in
1896. And, how appropriate it was in 1896 for the
new Olympics to come home to Greece, though in
their modern form it was more efficient to come
to the population centre of metropolitan Athens
instead of to the rural township of Olympia almost 200 kilometers to the west. They had come
home to Greece, if not to Olympia, the coming
Olympics were an inspiration for the reconstruction of Athens' Panathinaiko Stadium as the centerpiece of the Games. A connection still exists
between Athens and Olympia in that, prior to
each Olympic Games, winter and summer,
the Olympic flame is lit in Olympia by the
rays of the sun focused on the torch with a
concave mirror. The flame is then borne by
Greek runners to the Stadium in Athens.
There, it is passed to citizens of the next
host city, starting a journey that finds
the flame borne by runners across the
host nation, destined to arrive at the
Olympic site during the Opening
Ceremony.
The stadium is a natural bowl
consisting of two parallel rectangular hillsides facing each
other, one east, one west, once
divided by a ravine now converted into the Stadium's
floor. The original, crude
stadium, consisting primarily of those hillocks
serving as grassy seat58
ing for spectators, was built in 329 B.C., so ordered
by Licourgas, Athens' governor. There were only a
few wooden structures to accommodate royalty and
religious leaders. It was renovated three quarters of
a century later (250 B.C.) and reconstructed again
almost four centuries after that (139 A.D.), this time
in tiered white marble covering the hillsides. To the
south, a semi-circle of construction was added to
connect the hillsides, giving the stadium its elongated horseshoe appearance.
The wealthy benefactor for this reconstruction
was HERODES ATTICUS, whose sarcophagus honorably
rests on the hillside just above the east side of the stadium with the Greek inscription translated as:
"Here lies Herodes of Marathon, son of Atticus,
worthy
of all praise; all that surrounds him is his works"
In 1893, more than seventeen centuries after
ATTICUS' reconstruction in 139 A.D., the Panathinaiko
Stadium was reconstructed once again, this time
inspired by the coming of the modern Olympic
Games in 1896. The Stadium had been used in some
capacity until the fifteenth century after which it lay
in disrepair and was dismantled. Its site was excavated in 1869 by Ernst TSCHILLER, a German, and
a quarter-century later, with the coming Olympic
Games as inspiration, a civic project was undertaken to reconstruct the marble stadium under the
direction of architect Anastassios Metaxas.
To be accurate, the first Games of the modern
Olympics took place on the "site" and not within the
original Panathinaiko Stadium because time (and the
stone being used for other needs) had destroyed the
original marble construction. Timoleon PHILEMON, an
Olympic official in 1896, described the condition of
the Stadium as they found it, "The Stadium was completely deserted, a shapeless field, a place of stones, thistles
and rubbish gathered together on all sides, hardly having
the skeleton shape, but a shapeless bulk" Therefore, " ...it
was difficult to make it understood that the Panathenean
Stadium would be the principle field of the Games, the
JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
Altis of Athens, the centre around which the whole celebration would pivot." When those Olympic organizers came to the site they found only bits and pieces of
the original edifice as, over the centuries, the marble
blocks had been removed to create other structures
or to be burned into lime. Therefore, the Stadium had
to be entirely reconstructed, symbolically including
the few marble pieces that remained.
It was a task easier said than done. Funds for
reconstruction were short until the organizers approached a wealthy merchant, Georgios AVEROFF,
who, as PHILEMON wrote, ''...understood its most
Greek meaning and the true grandeur of the request put
to him." AVEROFF responded with such munificence
that a statue of him was unveiled at the Stadium's
entrance on the eve of the Games, about one hundred meters from HERODES' sarcophagus. AVEROFF
had become HERODES.
And so, by 1896, Panathinaiko Stadium was reconstructed in its present grandeur of white marble to be the appropriate site of the first Olympic
Games of the modern era.
Over the centuries, the Stadium has gone
through several incarnations, evolving from two
parallel grassy hillsides more than 2,300 years ago,
to these massive tiers of white marble blocks, many
longer than three meters with a width and height
of one meter. Other blocks are smaller according
to their function. The larger blocks weigh more
than four tons (2800 kilograms). The Stadium's
nickname is "Kallimarmaro," meaning "beautiful marble" and justifiably so under the bright
Mediterranean sunshine. At night, under artificial
lighting the Stadium seems to glow in the dark assuming a ghostly white beauty.
On March 25, 1896, (April 6th on the Gregorian
calendar) in the presence of King KONSTANTIN and
the Greek royal family, the first Olympic Games of
the modern era commenced with about 250 athletes representing 14 nations vying for medals in 9
sports. Track and field events plus gymnastics and
wrestling were contested within the Stadium. The
marathon race, considered a separate sport, was also
concluded at the stadium; while shooting, fencing,
swimming, cycling and lawn tennis held their competitions at other locations. The most anticipated
event was the marathon, a 40-kilometer road race
won by the Greek Spiridon Louis (who stopped to
have a glass of wine along the way), making him
a national hero and Greek legend. The swimming
competitions were held within the Bay of Zea at
Piraeus. The Opening Ceremony took place within
Panathinaiko before 70,000 spectators and, during
the ten days of competition, an estimated 312,000
spectators enjoyed the competitions within a city
whose population was 128,000. There were no competitions in archery until four years later at the second modern Olympic Games in Paris.
The Panathinaiko Stadium at the 1st Olympic Games 1896 (from: Coubertin, Pierre de/Philemon, Timoleon/Politis, N.G./
Anninos, Charalambos, The Olympic Games. B.C. 776 -1896 A.D., part 2, Athens/London 1897, p. 27)
JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
59
The Panathinaiko Stadium at the 2nd International Olympic Games Athens 1906 (from: Savvidis, Pan S., Leukoma ton en
Athenais B' Diethnon Olympiakon Agonon, Athens 1907)
The 2004 Olympic archery was held within an
stadium 252 meters long and 127 meters wide. The
length of its competitive surface is 207 meters and its
width 33 meters. The surface is currently designed
to hold competitions in athletics with a six-lane surrounding track and various pits and surfaces for long
jump, high jump and shot put competitions. On the
track, near the curved south section of the stadium, are
two herms, nearly two meters high, that were found
when the Stadium was excavated. On each herm are
back-to-back carved heads, similar to the drawings of
Janus. One of the back-to-back heads is that of a young
man, the other of an old man, which may symbolize
the future and past respectively. The youth represents
a sense of freedom and abandonment; the elder represents the caution that comes with age.
Vertical staircases and horizontal walkways divide the Stadium into 66 sections and various estimates place the seating capacity at about 70,000
spectators, although the increased size of today's
spectators may find that capacity somewhat lowered. There are 47 tiers of flat marble to serve as seats,
the tiers rising at a 45-degree angle. Two thrones
were sculpted into the marble at the lower, center
section of the south end of the Stadium to accommodate royalty or priests. The tunnel that served as
the entrance for athletes and judges descends from
high on the hill behind the stadium down onto the
competition field at its southeast corner. There is no
internal structure within the Stadium as it is built in
a natural basin upon those two hillsides.
60
In 2004, the Panathinaiko Stadium did not serve
as the main stadium. The primary venue for the
Opening and Closing Ceremonies and Athletics
was the relatively modern (1982) 75,000 seat
Olympic Stadium, which is in the nearby suburb
of Maroussi.
How did this conjuncture of Olympic archery
and Panathinaiko come to be? The idea to hold the
Olympic archery competitions at the Panathinaiko
Stadium came jointly from the imaginations of
Giuseppe CINNIRELLA, Secretary General of the
International Archery Federation (Federation
Internationale de Tir a l'Arc; FITA), Tom DIELEN, the
Federation's Executive Director, at that time, and
myself, Jim EASTON, President of the Federation.
We all realized how very appropriate it would be
to hold the competitions of what is probably one of
the world's oldest sports at a competitive site used
for sport in antiquity. Having the Stadium used as
an Olympic venue for archery would also serve as a
powerful reminder of the 1896 reincarnation of the
Olympic Games.
Still, appropriate ideas are not easily brought
to reality. The shape of the Stadium seemed not
to lend itself to a major archery venue. Current
Olympic competitions consist of eight target lanes.
The Stadium's narrow configuration could accommodate only four lanes. So, competition was adapted to fit the venue, with only two matches being
shot at one time; with the added benefit of making
it even easier for the spectators to follow the action.
JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
The seating capacity was limited to one section of
the Stadium, accommodating about 5,500 spectators, although that capacity could be expanded to
8,000 depending upon demand.
The Stadium is owned by the Hellenic (Greek)
Olympic Committee, and is a registered national
monument, a national treasure. It remains little
used except for an occasional jogger and as the setting for the transfer of the Olympic flame from its
Hellenic custodians to the organizers of the next
Olympic Games. There are also other occasional
events there such as the Opening Ceremony of the
1997 IAAF World championships (track and field)
and in 2004, it was where the Greeks chose to acclaim their national football team after their amazing triumph in the European Championships.
The proposal was considered by ATHOC's top
executives but initially rejected. FITA officials still
believed this was too good an idea to be dismissed
and emphasized that use of the Stadium made
economic sense in that the non-invasive use of the
Stadium would cost far less in time and money
than having to construct a new archery venue to
hold eight shooting lanes and thousands of spectators. The Olympic organizers only needed to add
another day of competition, a seventh, to complete
the elimination matches. The four lanes within the
Stadium were sufficient for the last four days of
single elimination matches and finals competitions
for individuals and teams.
As FITA persisted, we first acquired allies in the
ATHOC Sports Department and when Mrs. Gianna
ANGELOPOULOS-DASKALAKI became President of
ATHOC, she also understood the value of our request. In July 2000, she confirmed the decision to
use the Panathinaiko Stadium as the archery venue
by including it in the ATHENS 2004 Competition
Schedule for the first time.
As stated earlier, archery was not contested at
those original 1896 Olympics, but it was included
in the 1900 - Paris, 1904 - St. Louis, 1908 - London
and 1920 - Antwerp Olympic Games, after which
the sport was dropped from the Games because
there was no international archery federation to set
a single set of international competitive rules. In
those early Olympics, each host nation used competitive formats which favored its own archers. For
example, in the women's competition at London,
the first eight in the "National Round" (48 arrows at
60 yards and 24 arrows at 50 yards) were all ladies
from Great Britain, including the gold medallist, 53
year-old Sybil "Queenie" NEWALL, who remains the
oldest female Olympic medallist.
The Federation Internationale de Tir a l'Arc (FITA)
was created in 1931, after which international rules
were adopted. However, it took another forty-one
years before the federation succeeded in having it
reintroduced in Munich in 1972 after an absence of
more than a half-century.
The Panathinaiko Stadium during the Marathon event at the Olympic Games 2004 (Photo: Th. Zawadzki)
JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
61
It can be assumed that mankind's early invention of the bow and arrow as a tool stands in importance with his ability to make fire and to invent
the wheel. His dominion over animals was established by his superior capacity to reason and, as
that capability increased, he discovered his ability
to create, to invent, to improve. Using archery as
our example, Homo sapiens created the simple bow.
Then, four thousand years ago, the Assyrians modified that relatively crude instrument by inventing a more efficient bow which was smaller, more
powerful and more effectively used by warriors on
horseback. In the creation of this technologically
advanced weapon, the master bowyer laminated
horn, wood and sinew to create a powerful "re-
Diana (photo: H. Weinberg)
Preparations for the Archery competitions in Sydney 2000 (Official Report)
curve bow." In a recurve design bow, the two tips
of the bow curve forward, being partially straightened when the bowstring is drawn, adding velocity to the arrow upon its release. A modern version
of the recurve bow is used for Olympic competition today. Materials that construct the modern
three-piece recurve bow (a handle and two limbs),
are alloys of light weight metals for the handle and
wood or syntactic foam, fiberglass and carbon fiber
for the limbs.
The most recent incarnation for the archer is
the "compound bow," which was invented by H.
Wilber Allen, who received an American patent for
his design in 1969. The compound bowstring is not
attached to the tips of the bow limbs. Instead, an
elongated bowstring extends over two cam-shaped
pulley wheels attached at the end of each bow
62
limb, allowing the archer to draw a heavier pull
bow, which stores more energy, releasing the arrow at greater velocity even though, because of the
cams, less energy is needed to hold the bowstring
at full draw. The bow continues to be refined and
there are national and international tournaments
and championships for archers using compound
bows; however the compound bow is not part of
the Olympic competition.
Olympic archery, with a recurve bow, symbolizes the ancient and traditional sport of archery
that returned to the Olympic Games in 1972, after a
52-year absence.
Modern competitive bows, recurve or compound, have attached to them the accoutrements of
accuracy such as: elongated stabilizer rods to steady
the bow during aiming, an adjustable sight for aiming and a "clicker" which helps the archer to draw
every arrow to the same length before releasing it.
Wind is a challenge to all archers. However, the
only real measurement of wind velocity is by the
archer's acute senses and the reaction of the small
flag that waves above each target and of the several
windsocks on the field. The bow sight is aimed,
with adjustments for the wind, at the target's bullseye; but principles of physics require that each arrow also be shot at a slightly upward angle so that
the arrow can fall into the center of the target.
Arrows were originally made of wood, then
steel tubes, and for over 50 years, aluminum tubes,
but today, nearly all arrows used in the Olympics
have a thin tubular aluminum core with a barJOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
rel shaped carbon fiber outer wrap. What were
the guiding feathers, are now vanes made from a
soft plastic or thin mylar film. In antiquity, arrow
tips were made of chiseled flint or stone. Today,
Olympic arrow tips are made of stainless steel or
tungsten. Over time, arrows have become smaller
in diameter with stiffer and lighter carbon fiber
construction. These arrows have a flatter trajectory
and are less affected by wind. It is apparent that
the sport of archery persists as both art and science,
involving constant research and development of
materials and designs.
Today, the archer himself is also the subject of research - his style, techniques and stance computerized and analyzed with digitized video recordings
best days for the USA, though a look at the nationalities of the contestants in 1972 and 1976 indicate
how widespread archery had become throughout
Europe, Asia and North America. PACE and RYON
did not defend their titles as the USA boycotted
Moscow. In their absence Tomi POIKOLAINEN of
Finland and Keto LOSABERIDZE of the Soviet Union
won the male and female gold medals respectively.
Overall, 56 nations boycotted those Games or elected not to accept their Olympic invitations.
PACE returned in 1984 in Los Angeles to again
win the gold, this time setting an Olympic record.
Women's competition found SEO Hyang-Soon of
South Korea winning the gold medal, establishing
an Olympic record, a harbinger of the coming dom-
The Ladies' Archery event in Athens 2004 (Photo: Th. Zawadzki)
and his fears and attitudes studied by sports psychologists. Physicists study the aerodynamics of the
arrow within meteorological conditions: headwinds,
crosswinds, tailwinds, and humidity. Olympic archers will be interested in knowing that temperatures within Panathinaiko Stadium are typically four
degrees lower (Celsius) than outside. Also, there is
usually a constant and gentle wind and sometimes a
strong wind that blows parallel to the length of the
stadium - towards the archers as they aim.
When archery came back to the Olympic Games,
the sport seemed dominated by Americans. John
WILLIAMS took the gold in 1972 at Munich and
Darrell PACE won in 1976 at Montreal, and both set
world records. Doreen WILBER in 1972 and Luonn
RYON in 1976 also took gold for the USA and each
set a World record in the process. These were the
JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
ination of world and Olympic archery by South
Korean women. In 1988 in Seoul, the American
Jay BARRS won the men's gold and South Korean
PARK Sung-Soo took silver; and three South Korean
women won the gold, silver and bronze medals,
led by KIM Soo-Nyung.
In 1992, in Barcelona, Sebastien FLUTE of France
won the men's gold medal with the women's event
being won by CHO Youn-Jeon of South Korea, her
teammate KIM Soo-Nyung this time taking the
silver. The 1996 Olympic competition in Atlanta
found the USA's Justin HUISH winning the men's
gold medal as South Korean KIM Kyung-Wook
won the women's gold.
Spectators in Sydney in 2000 were thrilled when
Australian, Simon FAIRWEATHER, won the gold in the
men's competition; while again South Korean wom63
en took all three medals in the women's competi- rings is a thin line dividing each ring into inner and
tion, with 17 year old YUN Mi-Jin winning the gold. outer scoring areas of equal width - 6.1 centimeThe first Olympic team (three archers) competi- ters (2.4 inches). The inner yellow circle, the bullstions took place at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and eye, has a diameter of 12.2 centimeters (4.8 inches).
the hometown South Koreans took the gold medal There are 10 different scoring areas.
in both the men's and the women's tournaments.
An arrow landing within the inner yellow area,
Since the 1992 Olympics, the top eight teams are the bulls-eye, scores 10 points. An arrow that lands
selected for the Olympics at the World Archery in the outer yellow ring scores 9 points. An arrow
Championships prior to the Olympics, and up to shot into the inner red ring, scores 8 points, and as
eight additional teams are selected at the Olympics arrows land further away from the center of the
from the teams with the highest score during the target within the various rings, lesser points are
Ranking Round. The Olympic team event is a scored, down to one point for the outer white ring.
single-elimination match competition where the An arrow that touches a dividing line between
three archers on each team alternate shooting three two scoring areas is given the higher value. For exrounds of three arrows each. Though Spain (1992) ample, an arrow shot into the inner blue section,
and USA (1996) won the men's team competition, but whose outer surface touches the line dividing
the Korean women were utterly dominant at that it from outer red is given a score of 7, not 6
time and the Korean men joined them at
points.
the top of the podium in Sydney in
Since archery's return to the
2000, a success both Korean teams
Olympic Games in 1972, shooting
repeated in Athens 2004.
formats have gone through several
changes. The FITA Round was used
PARK Sung Hyan's gold medthrough the 1984 Games - 288 aral in the women's competition
rows were shot from a variety of
in Athens meant that since 1984
distances, ranging from 90, 70, 50
South Korean women have won
and 30 meters for men and 70, 60,
every Olympic gold medal avail50, 30 meters for women. The winable within individual and team
ner was the archer with the highest
archery. The outstanding archer in
score after four days of shooting.
these competitions has been KIM
Then, in 1988, the first modified
Soo-Nyung, who won gold, silver
FITA Round elimination format
and bronze medals in individual
was adopted, called the Grand
competitions and three golds in
FITA Round. In 1992, Olympic
team competitions between 1988
and 2000. And, though not as Archery Logo of the Athens Games competition changed to the cur2004
rent, exciting, match-play, singledominant as their women, South
elimination Olympic Round.
Korean men have also done well in
The individual and team Olympic Rounds inOlympic competition with successive golds in the
volve only one shooting distance - 70 meters, which
team event.
Why are South Korean men and women so applies to both men's and women's competitions.
dominant in archery? The answer lies in the his- Within the Olympic Games individual competitoric and strong archery tradition in Korea and in tion, there is first a Ranking Round. Each of the
the national pride within a nation that has taken ar- 64 men and 64 women Olympic archers shoots 72
chery to its heart; where archery is taught to young arrows, then each archer is ranked from 1st to 64th
students and well-subsidized company archery according to his/her score. A bracket is established
teams abound. Also, there are many full time, well for the subsequent single-elimination matches,
paid archery coaches within the company teams, with the 1st ranked archer competing against the
the schools and national team training facilities. archer who placed 64th, the 2nd ranked archer
These South Korean Olympic medallists are role competing against 63rd, the 3rd against 62nd and
models and national heroes that children strive to so on. Therefore, there are 32 single-elimination
matches, then 16, until ultimately eight archers
emulate.
To understand the sport of archery, some knowl- qualify for the finals. Until this point, each archer
edge of how it is scored is necessary. The diameter shoots 18 arrows within each match. Then, from
of the circular archery target is 1.22 meters (4 feet). the quarterfinals through the final match, 12 arThe center of the target is yellow in color. Four rings rows are shot by each competitor. That final match
surround the yellow, the first being red, the next is the sixth for the two competitors, 90 total arrows
blue, then black and finally a white ring that serves having been launched, not to mention the 72 aras the outer circumference of the target. Within all rows shot in the original ranking round.
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JOURNAL OF OLYMPIC HISTORY 14(AUGUST 2006)NUMBER 2
Of course, within the tournament there may
be tied matches, which are broken by the score
achieved by shooting a single additional arrow.
If the archers stay tied after the third shootout,
the technical officials will determine the winner
by measuring which archer's third arrow landed
closer to the center of the target. All of which may
find victory or defeat determined by the location of
those last one, two or three arrows, the culmination
of years of anticipation, competition and training.
What can be more thrilling, even heartbreaking?
For example, in the 1996 Olympic quarterfinal
match, USA's Justin HUISH, needed only to score a 9
with his last arrow to win against Michele Frangilli
of Italy. However, Huish scored an 8 as Frangilli
scored a 10 with his final arrow to tie the match.
Within the ensuing tiebreaker, they tied once again.
In the second tie-breaker, Huish shot a 10 and
Frangilli a 9, Huish went on to the semi-final then
to the final match to win the gold medal, defeating Magnus Petersson of Sweden. Frangilli eventually finished 6th, the possible difference between a
gold medal and 6th place having been determined
by the placement of that last quarterfinal arrow, or
possibly by the uncaring vagaries of a gust of wind.
The trueness of the trajectories of Olympic arrows
defines fame and glory as well as they may define
sorrow and disappointment.
In 1992, Spain won the men's team event by only
two points - 238-236; and similarly in 1996 the USA
men's team defeated the South Koreans 251-249. In
1980, shooting the old double FITA Round (288 arrows) individuals competition, Tomi POIKOLAINEN
of Finland defeated Boris ISACHENKO of the Soviet
Union: 2455-2452, a margin of a mere three points
within the thousands that were scored. Victory or
defeat can be only a hairsbreadth apart.
When in Athens, go to the beautiful white marble Panathinaiko Stadium beneath the glory of the
Acropolis to see the perfect setting where the 2004
Olympic archery took took place, a sport that can
cause your heart to race with the twang of a bowstring and the thump of an arrow landing in the
heart of the bullseye - the arrow almost too swift to
be seen within its trajectory.
Neither ULYSSES, nor Robin HOOD, nor William
TELL could have imagined nor even dreamed it!
Antonio Rebollo at the Opening Ceremony of the
Barcelona Olympic Games 1992 (Diem Archives)
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