US Archery Aims for the Olympic Gold that has been Eluding the Team

I was walking down the street the other day and one of my neighbors was loading his kids into their car, which was not unusual, but what caught my eye was that he was also loading in a couple of bows along with arrows.

I know that the sport has seen a renewed interest of late, apparently fueled by the popularity of the movie “The Hunger Games.” I have not seen the movie but I have seen all of the promotions featuring the bow carrying heroine.

Even without the assist from Hollywood it looks like the US is fielding a very strong team, from all reports. The most a nation is allowed is three men and three woman participants, and each has to earn their way to the games. The US has not won a medal in more than a decade.

The men’s team features Brady Ellison, currently the top ranked archer in the world and a participant in the 2008 Olympics, where he finished 27th. He has also won gold at the 2011 Pan American games and for three years running, starting in 2010 has been an Archery World Cup gold medalist. Also on the men’s team are two other highly regarded shooters in Jake Kaminiski and Jacob Wukie.

The women’s team is lead by Miranda Leek, who is also the top ranked US women’s archer but the most interesting might be Khatuna Loring, who will be participating in her 5th Olympics, and for her third country, having been on the Unified Team in 1992, Georgia in 1996 and 200 and the US in 2008. She was also the trainer for Jennifer Lawrence in “The Hunger Games.” Jennifer Nichols fills out the team as she also heads back to the Olympics, having participated four years ago and finishing 24th.

Archery has been part of the Olympics since 1900 but has not been an event every four years, with it dropping in and out until 1972, and the format that is used today, head-to-head, was established in 1992. The first paraplegic, Neroli Fairhair competed for New Zealand in 1984.

The sport is governed by the International Archery Federation and recurve archery is the only discipline allowed. The current version of the game consists of four medal events: men’s individual, women’s individual, men’s team, and women’s team. In all four events, the distance from the archer to the target is 70 metres.

It is interesting to note the steady increase in its popularity over time (pre- Hunger Games). In 1908 only the US entered athletes, pretty much ensuring success but there are now 83 nations that have competed. It is tough getting a spot as only a limited number of slots are available for continents along with a number of other positions based on ranking, host nation privilege etc… All time South Korea has the most Gold Medals with 16 followed by the US with 14, but the US has an edge in total medals, 31-30 over Korea.

P.S. If you are wondering of the movie has had an actual impact on the sport the answer seems to be a solid yes. According to this piece. US Archery’s website unique visitors have nearly doubled the past three months, Facebook fans have more than tripled and Twitter followers have more than quadrupled since the movie.