How Archers Can Qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

The archery events at the Paris 2024 Olympics will be held at the stunning Esplanade des Invalides in the center of France’s capital. The competition is scheduled for July 25 to August 4, 2024, featuring five gold medal events: men’s individual, women’s individual, men’s team, women’s team, and mixed team in recurve archery. As has been the tradition since the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, the archery olympic qualification spots are filled through a qualification and quota system where 128 archers, 64 men and 64 women, compete.

Qualification Period

Table of Contents

The archery olympic qualification period starts at the 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships in Berlin and wraps up with the final qualifier in Antalya in June 2024. Archers can secure spots for their countries by performing well at specific archery competitions during this period.

Key Events for Archery Olympic Qualification

At Continental Championships and Continental Games, athletes can win qualification spots. Additionally, events that offer world ranking points are crucial as they may influence the final qualification standings.

Individual Qualification

Countries can secure either a team quota or an individual quota for each gender in the Olympic archery competitions. It’s not possible to secure multiple individual places. Winning a team quota automatically provides three individual quota places. At various events, single individuals can win spots. It includes continental games and new continental qualifiers held alongside continental championships specifically for distributing quotas. At the continental Games, mixed team champions earn two individual spots—one for men and one for women.

Distribution of Individual Places

Here’s how the individual places are allocated:

3 places: Top 3 athletes at the 2023 World Archery Championships
4 places: Mixed team champions at continental Games in Europe, USA, Oceania, and Asia
1 place: Mixed team champion at the 2023 African Championships
6 places: Top 2 athletes at the continental Games in Europe, Asia, and the USA
10 places: Best athletes at standalone continental qualification tournaments (3 places in Europe, 2 places in USA, Asia, and Africa, 1 place in Oceania)
2 places: Top 2 athletes at the final qualifier in 2024
2 places: Universality invitations

The nation, not the individual athletes, wins the quotas. Countries often have a secondary selection process to decide which archers will compete at the Olympics.

Team Qualification

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, 24 teams competed, consisting of 12 recurve men’s teams and 12 recurve women’s teams. There have been significant changes in the team qualification process since Tokyo 2020, with quotas now spread across continental championships and world rankings to ensure only the best teams compete for the Olympic gold medals.

Distribution of Team Places

The team distributes the places as follows for each gender:

3 teams (9 places): Continental champions in the USA, Europe, and the Asia
3 teams (9 places): Top 3 teams at the 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships
3 teams (9 places): Top 3 teams at the final qualification tournament
2 teams (6 places): Next-highest-ranked teams in the world ranking list from June 24, 2024
1 team (3 places): Host nation (France)

If a team qualifies multiple times, the quota goes to the runner-up at the relevant continental event.

Mixed Team Event

The mixed team event has a different qualification process introduced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Any country that qualifies at least two individual archers (one man and one woman) can participate in the mixed team event without needing a specific mixed team quota.

Fluid Situation

The archery olympic qualification process is dynamic, with some cases where countries may first qualify for an individual place and later upgrade to a team quota. In such cases, the individual quota is reassigned to the next-highest finisher at the event where it was initially won, ensuring fairness in the distribution of spots.

Reassignment of Quotas

The next-highest finisher takes the place of each individual in seventh place. The teams and mixed teams place fourth in the reassignment. If quotas cannot be reassigned within the maximums, they are moved to the final qualifier. After the final qualifier, world rankings determine the awarding of any remaining quotas.

National Selection Process

National teams win all Olympic quota places for archery, not individual athletes. This means the archer who secures the spot does not automatically go to the Games. Countries must accept the quota place and then select the athletes to send to Paris 2024 through secondary selection tournaments or other processes determined by the national archery federation.

Event Schedule

Organizers divide the archery olympic qualification events into several phases:

Phase 1: World Archery Championships

Date	Location	Participants
1-6 August 2023	Berlin, Germany	Top 3 teams and top 3 individuals for each gender

Phase 2A: Continental Games

Date	Continental Games	Location	Participants
23-29 June 2023	European Games	Krakow, Poland	Mixed team champion and 2 individuals for each gender
2-8 October 2023	Asian Games	Hangzhou, China	Mixed team champion and 2 individuals for each gender
1-5 November 2023	Pan American Games	Santiago, Chile	Mixed team champion and 2 individuals for each gender
21-24 November 2023	Pacific Games	Honiara, Solomon Islands	Mixed team champion

As of February 2023, archery is not a part of the African Games. The continental qualifier will take the quota spots for the mixed team champion.

Phase 2B: Continental Qualifiers

For the first time, the continental champions from Asia, Europe, and the Americas will get a direct spot in the Olympics. Each continent will get its own spot at different events. It typically held alongside the continental championships.

Date	Continent	Location	Participants
3-12 November 2023	Asia	Bangkok, Thailand	Team champions and two individuals for each gender
8-12 November 2023	Africa	Nabeul City, Tunisia	Mixed team champions and two individuals for each gender
16-17 March 2024	Oceania	Auckland, New Zealand	One individual for each gender
8-14 April 2024	America	Medellin, Colombia	Team champions and two individuals for each gender
5-12 May 2024	Europe	Essen, Germany	Team champions and three individuals for each gender