Modern Amazons: Women's Olympic Archery
The history of womens archery, iconic women in the sport and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
he use of bows and arrows dates back to prehistoric times, with the earliest evidence of arrowheads discovered in the Sibudu Cave, South Africa, which is 64,000 years old. Throughout their time in history, the bow and arrow have served as both warfare weaponry and as means of hunting for the survival of civilization. Funny enough, modern archery is one of the safest sports in the world and is ranked even above golf and bowling in terms of injuries. While archery was arguably a symbol of power in ancient civilisations, representing the might of kings and their armies, it was not one solely of men and masculinity. There is also the feminine mythology of the fierce and beautiful Amazons who cut off their breasts to draw their bows better and shoot their arrows. Furthermore, a woman using a bow and arrow is represented in ancient Greek mythology as the fierce goddess Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and animals. Later in the Middle Ages, Anne Boleyn is said to have used archery to seduce English King Henry VIII into his second marriage, though it ended up not so good for her. So, it comes as no surprise that women are drawn to the practice of archery.
Bow and arrows eventually developed into the competitive sport we know as archery, with the earliest tournaments dating all the way back to the Zhou Dynasty in China. Fast forward to Paris in the year 1900, when archery made its Olympic debut with only men competing in six different archery events. When women were first allowed to compete in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, archery was the only sport that females could participate in. Then, both men and women were competing in individual and team archery events. The sport maintained its place on the Olympic stage in 1904, 1908, and 1920 before taking a fifty-two-year break. During this hiatus, Fédération Internationale de Tir à l’Arc(FITA)(now named World Archery Federation), the international archery organization, was formed with the goal of creating regular archery championships on a global scale and paving archery’s path back into the Summer Games. In 1972, FITA reached its goal with the return of archery to the Games in Munich.
A female archer is called “archeress” in dictionaries, but modern women who compete in the sport prefer to call themselves “archer,” a more gender-neutral term. Women still compete separately from men, and the simple explanation for this is because men usually have greater upper-body strength and stamina than women. Archery is all about accurate shooting, which is affected by the speed at which the arrow travels and wind interference. Male archers can pull a heavier draw weight on their forty-two-pound bows, which allows them to put more power into their shots and fire the arrows at a quicker speed and a better accuracy than a female archer. You need a strong back, shoulders, and arms to be a professional archer. The rhomboid and trapezius pull back the string while the arms merely support the bow and the arrow and hold it all in place. In fact, archers often end up with body asymmetries due to the repetitive movements and muscle build on one side.
For the first time in Olympic history, archery athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Games will have the chance to compete in mixed-gender teams. With this additional event, medallist countries will earn bragging rights for their strengths in both the male and female sides of the sport. The teams will be comprised of one male and one female athlete and will be ranked using a combination of their scores from the ranking round.
Multiple international archery events in the years leading up to the Summer Games help determine who qualifies for the coveted sixty-four places available to female archers at the Olympics. The top eight teams from these tournaments earned three places each in the Olympics, which included Belarus, China, Great Britain, Germany, South Korea, Ukraine, Russia, and Chinese Taipei. The women athletes of the Republic of Korea lived up to their reputation as some of the strongest competitors in the sport of archery by earning first place in individual, team, and mixed team events.
Archery Hall of Fame Museum, located in Missouri (USA), has eighty-five inductees, including sixteen women. Among them is Ann Weber Hoyt, many times national and international champion, who devoted more than sixty-five years of service to archery, described by some experts as “the greatest female archer of all times.” Babe Bitzenburge, another outstanding athlete, who suffered from severe ulcers and ate only baby food, set a world record in 1941 with her longest shot of 379 yards that was only a few inches less than a record set by a man in that year. Ann Martson, an archer, won the title of “Most Perfect Baby of England” at two months of age as well as “Sweetheart of Bow and Arrow” at Miss America Pageant Archery Competition at twenty years old in 1958.
In the world of archery now, it is without a doubt that the Republic of Korea reigns supreme. Since the introduction of team archery at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the women’s team has never been beaten in an Olympic competition. Additionally, it is the home country of the most decorated female archery Olympian, Kim Soo-Nyung. Kim dominated both the individual and team events at the Olympic Games of Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992, and Sydney in 2000. She boasts four Olympic gold medals, one silver and one bronze, and she is often regarded as one of the best women’s archery athletes of all time.
Another athlete hoping to prolong the Republic of Korea’s success at the 2020 Olympic Games is Kang Chae Young. Kang earned a first-place seed at the 2019 World Archery Championships in the individual women’s event. She also helped lead her country to a first-place ranking in both the women’s team event and the mixed team event. If she is able to bring the skill and determination that she exhibited to dominate this qualifying tournament, then she will definitely be one to watch in Tokyo.
Representing Chinese Taipei, Lei Chien-Ying will be another athlete to watch at the 2020 Olympics. As the second seed at the World Archery Championships in 2019, Lei defeated Kang Chae Young of Korea in the gold medal round, becoming the first-ever individual gold medallist of her country at that tournament. This earned her a well-deserved first spot on her country’s 2020 Tokyo archery team. If she performs well, she may have an opportunity to defend her title against Young at some point in the Summer Games.
Deepika Kumari of India has also earned her name at the top of the list of competitors this summer in Tokyo. She is currently ranked ninth in the world, and Tokyo will be her third consecutive Olympic bid. Her husband, Atanu Das, has also secured his place on the men’s archery team. The two have competed as a mixed team in the past, so there is potential that the couple will take the Olympic stage together this summer.
Coming off a silver medal in individual archery at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Lisa Unruh, a German athlete, is hoping to go for gold at the 2020 Games. Initially thinking she would be unable to participate in Tokyo due to shoulder surgery, the postponing of the Olympics provided her with an unexpected but welcomed opportunity. The additional time to prepare for the Summer Games has given her the confidence she needs to be a top contender in Tokyo.
In its Olympic debut, the mixed team archery event will be an exciting one to watch. Mixed teams from around the world will have an opportunity to make history in the sport and earn their rankings as Olympic medallists. Casey Kaulfhold, a promising newcomer, and Brady Ellison, a gold medallist at the world championships, are most likely to represent the USA in the mixed team event in Tokyo based on their strong previous performances together.
Women have taken their fair place on the pinnacle of the sport of archery and have thrived, whether it’s performing on the centre stage at the Olympics or taking part in a local archery club range. Since its return, archery has consistently appeared in the Olympics on both the men’s and women’s sides. To the untrained eye, it may be hard to understand how archery is not only a mental battle but also physical. The tournament format provides grounds for many win-or-lose situations, which can be as taxing physically as it is mentally for the competing athletes. To be successful at the game of archery, one must maintain high levels of concentration to perform well through the fatigue of sets and matches, making it both an unpredictable and exciting sport to watch. Even in the future, archery will most probably keep its place in our lives. Did you know that Khatuna Lorig, a five-time US Olympic archery champion, taught Jennifer Lawrence how to use a bow and arrow in preparation for The Hunger Games, a futuristic Hollywood film?
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