Why Compound Archery is not part of Paris Olympics 2024?

New Delhi: Archery was one of the three sports that was in action before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics 2024. On Thursday, the men’s and women’s individual ranking events took place at the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris.

South Korea topped the qualification round in both men’s and women’s individual events with aggregate scores of 2049 and 2046 (Olympic record for women), respectively. The Indian teams finished third in men’s event and fourth in women’s event to book berths in the quarterfinals of both.

Debutants Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara finished on top (from Indian contingents) in their respective events with a phenomenal display of bow and arrow, returning with individual scores of 666 and 681, respectively. The duo received support from other members of the team with Tarundeep Rai (674) and Pravin Jadhav (658) in men’s team, and Bhajan Kaur (659) and Deepika Kumari (658) pushing the team to better positions.

Unsurprisingly, compound archery was brought into the picture with India’s utter dominance in the discipline once the archery events commenced. For the uninitiated, compound archery is another format of the ancient sport which simultaneously exists with recurve archery. However, recurve is the only archery event included as a discipline at the Olympics.

How does recurve archery differ from compound archery?

The difference between recurve archery and compound archery is the components of type of bows, the manner in which archers release the arrows, and technicality difference. In recurve archery, the archers manually release the arrow relying upon their muscle strength coupled with the relaxation of fingers.

Meanwhile, the compound bow is more of a featurish designed with the presence of pulleys, cables, a magnifying lense, a release switch. All these make a compound bow a lot heavier, according to Olympics.com.

Why Compound Archery not in Olympics but Recurve included?

Recurve archery has been part of the Olympics game since archery returned to the Munich Olympics edition in 1972. Although Compound Archery’s birth took place in the USA in the 1960s, the discipline came to the competitive level at the World Archery Championships in 1995. It has also been part of Archery World Cup since the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2006.

The technical aspect of compound archery is believed to be one of the reasons for its exclusion from the Olympics Games. A report from The Bridge said the discipline has gradually lost its relevance historically because of the use of technology involved in it. Apart from that, compound archery lacks inclusivity with regions like Asia and Africa finding it expensive to buy the equipment for the sport.

In the recent years, Indian compound archers has won numerous gold medals in World Cups, World Championships and Asian Games. The Asian Games, considered to be highest multi-sporting event for compound archers, saw India sweep all five gold medals in compound archery in the latest edition held in Hangzhou last year in October.

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 Recurve archery has been part of the Olympics game since archery returned to the Munich Olympics edition in 1972. Although Compound Archery’s birth took place in the USA in the 1960s, the discipline came to the competitive level at the World Archery Championships in 1995.  Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today