Game Rules for Archery

The international group, Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc (FITA) oversees Olympic archery rules and regulations. When the sport returned in 1972 to the Olympics, FITA issued international rules for archery. These rules are still used today in men's and women's individual competition as well as men and women's team competition.

  1. Points

    • Archers shoot at a 10-ring target with a bow and arrow. Each ring is worth a certain point value. The furthest ring from the center is worth one point and the closest ring to the center is worth 10 points. Arrows that pass through the target or bounce off the target are also counted.

    Distances and Dimensions

    • According to FITA, the target should be placed 229 feet, 8 inches from the shooter. The center of the target ishould be placed 4 feet, 3 inches above the ground. The target is 4 feet in diameter and is made of paper.

    Ranking Round

    • In Olympic archery, during the ranking round, archers shoot 72 arrows in succession of six arrows each for 12 rounds. A perfect score during this round is 720.

    Elimination Round

    • The elimination round has 64 competitors and is a head-to-head competition with single elimination. Three arrows are shot at the same time over six rounds. Each archer has a time limit of 40 seconds for each arrow. Winners from the head-to-head competition move on to the next round until there are eight shooters left. There are three rounds total in the elimination round.

    Finals

    • During semifinals, archers shoot three arrows at a time in four rounds for a total of 12 arrows. Each archer arrow has a 40-second time limit for each arrow. Competition is head-to-head and single elimination. The losers from the semifinals shoot in the bronze medal match. The winners of the finals shoot in the gold medal match.

    Sudden Death

    • If a tie occurs, each archer shoots one arrow at the target. The shooter that gets the higher score is the winner of sudden death. If a tie occurs after the first shot, archers shoot another arrow. If they are still tied by this point, measurements are taken to see which arrow is closest to the target. This determines the winner. Archers are allotted 50 seconds for each arrow.