Interesting Facts about Archery

We as a race use bow and arrow for war, hunt and sport around 600 centuries. Here are some interesting facts about archery.

• South Korea, so far, has the most Olympic gold medals in archery than any other country.
• Eliza Pollock is the oldest female medalist in Olympic history. She won a gold medal and two bronze medals in archery in the 1904 Olympic Games when she was 63.
• Archery is a national sport of Bhutan to the extent that nearly every village has its own archery range.
• Final arrow shot in an archery competition is called an upshot.
• Roger Ascham wrote the earliest book on archery in English. It was written in 1545 and its name is “Toxophilus.”
• “Toxophilite” is an expert in archery.
• William Shatner (Captain Kirk from the Star Trek) is an avid archer.
• If, during the competition, the archer’s arrow hits the target but falls off or bounces archer holds up a flag to let the judges know what happened. Archer is scored according the mark that the arrowhead left on the target, if that mark can be identified. If not, archer scores zero for that hit.
• If in a competition, archer drops an arrow or misfires it on the shooting line he/she can reshoot it but only if they can reach it without crossing the shooting line.

• First athlete in a wheelchair to compete at a regular Olympics was Neroli Fairhall from New Zealand. He did that in 1984.
• Archery first became an Olympic sport in the 1900 games. Live pigeons were then, infamously, used as targets. Because archery didn’t have international rues then it was discontinued in 1924 and reintroduced in 1972 in Munich. It is an Olympic sport ever since.
• There is a story that King James II banned the golf in Scotland in 1457 because, according to him, men were wasting too much time playing golf instead of training with the bow and arrow.
• When competing, archers mark their arrows with full names, initials, or by coloring the fletchings.
• Like in many other shooting competitions, if an arrow hits right on the line between two scoring circles, the archer is given higher score of the two.
• 3D archery is a type of field archery where archers shoot at life-size models of animals. It is popular with hunters and many of them started leaving hunting and concentrating on this competition.
• Olympic Games have four archery events: individual events for men and women, and team events for women and men.
• Mounted archery first developed as a part of an army during the Iron Age. It replaced the chariots from Bronze Age as a more efficient way of fighting.
• Target o which the target face is attached is called “boss.”
• Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremony of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games was lit with a flaming arrow. Antonio Rebollo, Paralympic archer from Spain shot this arrow.
• Only sport that women could compete at during the 1904 Olympics was archery.
• Two main ways of aiming are used in archery: using a mechanical or fixed sight, or barebow.
• U.S. Paralympian archer Matt Stutzman was born without arms. He uses his feet to hold and aim his bow and he set the Guinness World Record for longest shot by hitting the target that was 210 meters away.
• At ski archery, archers ski on a cross-country track and shoot at targets. If they miss the target thay have to ski a penalty loop.
• Term “archery” comes from Latin “arcus” which means bow.