Archery is a sport where participants use bows to fire arrows at targets. Success is scored by measuring the archer's accuracy from various distances. In field archery, the archer moves; in target archery, the archer remains in one place, while the target is shifted.CBBS Newsround: What Is Archery? (September 23, 2006)
Archery began as a means for hunting and warfare. The oldest arrow points that have been found are dated to be from approximately 60,000 years ago. The weapons are believed to have been used by the Howiesons Poort culture of the Middle Stone Age.http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/03/31/earliest-weapon-human.html
The Olympics (1900-1920)
The first archery competition in the Olympics was held in Paris in 1900. Hubert Van Innis of Belgium won two gold medals and one silver medal. Three women's events were added at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. Archery was not an event in the 1912 games. The sport returned to the 1920 games, but only three countries had participants. Hubert Van Innis was victorious again and increased his career medal count to nine.http://www.hickoksports.com/history/olarchery.shtml
The Olympics (1972-2000)
After 52 years archery was reinstated as an event for the Munich games in 1972. The United States team, led by Darrell Pace, won the gold at the 1976 games in Montreal. Pace also won the archery competition in Los Angeles in 1984. The women of South Korea won gold in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics, setting world records. Simon Fairweather won the first Olympic medal in archery for Australia in the 2000 games.http://www.nbcolympics.com/archery/insidethissport/history/newsid=41659.html History
Mughal Horse Archery
This is a video from History Channel that features Mughal horseback archery. The technology behind the formidable weapon is explored in the context of history. To provide a balanced view, the documentary film producers compare the Mughal composite bow with the English longbow. A weapon expert provides his insights. He describes the making of the compact bow that reached an effective range of 2000 feet. The Mughal composite bow was lethal within 300 feet. It could shoot an arrow every 5 seconds. And its small size made horseback archery possible. The weapon shaped empires in Asia, such as the Mongol and the Mughal empires.
References
Fast Facts
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National Archery Association's first tournament
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Common Form
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First Olympic event
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Olympic medal count
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National Field Archery Association
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Trivia
Arrows in Olympic events can travel over 150 mphWashington Post: Interesting Archery Facts
