A sheer test of accuracy and nerve -- that's what makes Archery quite special as a sport. Archery made its debut in Olympic Games way back in 1900 and it is considered to be one of the oldest sports still prevalent.
The Robinhoods and Legolas's of real life will be seen in action at the Rio Olympics 2016 battling out for medals. All the Archery events will be held at Sambódromo venue in Maracana zone starting from August 6. The semi-finals and the finals will be on August 12 at the same venue.
Coming back to the participants, India have arrived at Rio with their largest contingent, consisting of 119 athletes across different sports, to take part in the Olympic Games. Among them four archers will take a shy at the medals in recurve archery events.
Deepika Kumari is one of India's hopes of clinching a medal at the Rio Olympics and break the record of not winning a single medal in this sport. Kumari was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2012 for her achievements. Kumari had won also won two golds at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010. Therefore, a lot of expectations will be riding on the Jharkhand girl, who is also a former junior world champion.
The Indian women's archery team, consisting of Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Bombayla Devi Laishram, is currently ranked third in the world, but has never won a medal at the prestigious Olympic games.
Atanu Das is the only male participant from India at Rio Olympics 2016. He defeated Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar to book his debut place in the Olympic Games in Rio. Das was the only one who gave Korea's Kim Woojin a run for his money in the final of the 2016 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya. Eventually, Woojin held his nerve to win that event. The Indian fans will want more of such grit from the Indian archer at the Olympic Games in Rio.
Moving on to other participants in the Rio Olympics from other continents, there are 128 archers in all, who will be vying for that elusive podium finish. All these participants will compete across the four events: the men's individual, women's individual, men's team and women's team.
The team to beat at the Rio Olympics will of course be Korea. They are ranked the best in the world and the total number of medals they have won in history of Olympic Games so far is 34, which includes 18 golds. The Korean women still remain unbeaten in the team event. They are confident that they will be able to clinch the eighth consecutive team gold at the Rio Games. Ki Ho Bae and Kim Woojin will be the archers to watch out for.
China and Japan can give Korea a run for its money at the Archery events. But they have not won so many medals like Korea have won in the past. The competition is likely to be tough.
Aida Roman from Mexico will also be in line to fight for a podium finish in the women's event. Meanwhile, Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski and Zach Garrett's performances will be crucial for USA's chances of winning a medal at the Archery in Rio Olympics 2016. USA have won 14 medals at this particular sport in the past Olympic Games, including eight golds.
Amongst the Euorpean nations, Italy have a good chance of winning a medal through Marco Galiazzo. This will be the Italian's fourth Olympic appearance and he was won three medals - a gold in the individual event from 2004, team gold from 2012 and team silver from 2008.
The qualification events will begin from August 6 at the Maracana Zone.
