Geeks on Sports: London Olympics 2012 – Archery

Event Dates: Friday July 27 – Friday August 3

4 Medal Events

128 Competitors (64 Men and Women)

 

Geeks on Sports previewer Tim Blacksmith here today to tell you all about Archery…ok, well maybe not exactly EVERYTHING, since let’s face it, can you really know everything about a sport with such a rich and emblematic history?

 

You may be familiar with archery from such classic films as Robin Hood, Rambo and the classic The Osterman Weekend.  But films rarely spotlight the majesty of archery as a competitor sport.

 

Archery Target

 

The Olympic standard for a target in archery is 122cm (4’ for us dumb Americans) in diameter containing several alternating colored rings.  Each ring is worth a different value for a strike with the golden center being worth 10 points.  The competitors must stand at a distance of 70m (Roughly 229’7” – the same height as the Town Hall Tower in Krakow, Poland – clearly the architectural feat of Poland) from the target.

 

The competition is handled as a single elimination tournament with men and women competing separately to determine a men’s and women’s champion and runners-up (a.k.a. losers) for gold, silver and bronze medals.  Also part of the archery competition is a team tournament involving 3-member squads competing in a best-of-24-arrow shoot-out (not really called that, but I gotta jazz some of this stuff up).  All competitions are gender segregated.

 

 

Classic Archer

 

Archery has a storied history in the Olympic Games.  And by storied I mean that it was introduced in 1900, eliminated after 1908 as boring with a single reappearance in the 1950 Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland (and let’s face it, the Finns just love their archery) until 1972 when the sport was re-established as a constant in the games (clearly resulting in the terrible “Munich Catastrophe”).

 

Compared with some of the other events at the London Games, archery is not considered action-packed.  But if you like watching dramatic events unfold…just try to not sit on the edge of your seat as that last arrow is drawn back and held before release!

 

To see where to watch this or your other favorite sports, check out NBC’s coverage in your local area.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this preview of the 2012 London Olympics Archery event.  Continue to check 8DaysAGeek for more previews of Olympic events.

 

This is Geeks on Sports previewer Tim Blacksmith signing off.

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One Comment

  1. Heyward Shepherd

    No the 1972 catastrophe was brought to us by the religion of peace, just as the Orlando “Catastrophy” was.

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