The sport of archery requires precision, control, focus, physical ability and determination. Top athletes train daily, and for hours at a time, but even recreational archery can carry huge benefits to your health. Whether practised indoors or out, competitively or socially – and despite often being perceived as stationary – archery gets you active, burning calories and in a better state of mind.





WOMEN ARCHERS AS COMPETITORS.

In fact, the Olympic Games can be traced to 776 B.C., but they didn’t allow women to compete until the 1904 Games. Archery was the sole sport in the Olympics where female sportsmen would participate. Later, women participated in swimming as well as track-cum-field sports events in 1912 and 1928 respectively.

In the year 1908, Sybil “Queenie” Newall, a famous archer from Great Britain, was the oldest female to win individual gold medal during Olympic Games. Since the year 1896, more than one hundred and twenty archers who won over 180 medals were more than fifty years old. At the year of sixty three, a woman archer namely Eliza Pollock won a gold medal and then two bronze medals in the archery sports in 1904 Olympic sports.





IT’S AN ANCIENT GAME.

Archery is an ancient art that can be traced back centuries. Bows and arrows were the weapons of choice for the Babylonians in 2340 BC, but thanks to the excavation of arrowheads in Africa, it’s believed that the practice dates back over 25,000 years.

Archaeologists in Germany have found bows and arrows dating back to 10,000BC. The modern sport of archery is around two hundred years old. It featured in the first Olympic Games in Paris in 1900.

The Victorians enjoyed archery. A watercolour at Belton House, Lincolnshire, shows an archery game being played between Victorian Lord Fauntleroys: Adelbert Brownlow Wellington Cust and Christopher Hulme Tower.

YOU’RE A TOXOPHILITE IF YOU LOVE BOWS AND ARROWS.

It’s a funny-sounding word, but it’s legitimate. “Toxophilite” originates from Greek “toxon” for “bow and arrow” and “philos” for “loving.” The earliest known book on archery, titled ‘Toxophilus,’ was published in 1545 and written by Roger Ascham.





KING HENRY’S REIGN.

Archery is a sport beloved by British monarchs and nobility. King Henry V had such a passion for the sport that, during his reign, men were obliged to practice their archery skills every Sunday after church.

King Henry V ordered 500,000 arrows for his army in 1421. The arrows were stored in the Tower of London under the watchful eye of the appointed “keeper of the king’s arrows.”





ARCHERY AS A NATIONAL SPORT.

Bhutan is the only country in the world where archery is the national sport. As Bhutan is a Buddhist nation, a bow and arrow would never be used for warfare, but the practice is still enjoyed as a sporting pursuit.



OLYMPIC ARCHERS ONCE ARROWED PIGEONS.

In 1900 Olympic Games, the archers used pigeons as their targets. When the archers focus to a target almost ninety meters away, size of target is just like size of thumbtack being held just at an arm’s length. The bird, however, was simply a plastic tube with feathers. Not a real bird. Shotgunners, however, did shoot live pigeons in the Paris 1900 Games. There are different classifications for the Olympic sports like cycling, gymnastics and swimming but there is only one classification for this type of sport.



ARCHERY WAS REMOVED FROM THE OLYMPICS FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS.

Can you believe it? How did the sport go from absent to most-watched? As mentioned earlier, archery was introduced to the Olympics in 1900. It was then dropped in 1920 because of irregularity concerning the rules used and equipment available on an international scale. Fortunately, it was reintroduced in 1972 and is still a popular part of the games today.



CLOUT ARCHERY.

In this outdoor archery game the archer throws arrows at greater distance. He or she shoots nearly six arrows and then when the person signaled proceeds to next target. This type of archery comprises thirty six arrows.



THE COUNTRY WITH THE MOST OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS.

To date, South Korea holds the most Olympic gold medals for archery, with a current total of 23.

No matter what your age (yes even in your 80’s), level of physical fitness, or even disability; archery can be played by almost anyone willing to give it a go. Often sports are associated with athletic prowess, leaving people to shy away from sports all together. Naturally some arm, back and core fitness is required to pull on a bow string, but this can be comparable to normal every day activities (e.g. bringing in a bag of groceries from the car). Your bow will be tailored to your strength requirements and over time your strength will also build with ongoing practice.