Archery

In Olympic archery athletes shoot at a 122 cm target from 70 metres with a recurve bow; points depend on how close the arrow lands to the centre (the "10"). Outside the Olympics there are also world championships for the compound bow.

History

The bow is one of humanity's oldest weapons and sports. For the steppe Turks mounted archery was an art of life and war; in Ottoman times flight-shooting contests were held at Okmeydanı in Istanbul, with records carved on "target stones". Traditional Turkish archery was added to UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2019. World Archery was founded in 1931; archery was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1920 and has been again since 1972.

Major competitions

The Olympic Games, the World Championships and the World Cup series; in traditional archery, the World Nomad Games and horseback archery contests.

Archery in the Turkic world

Mete Gazoz won gold at Tokyo 2020, becoming Türkiye's first Olympic archery champion. In Hungary, horseback archery revived by Lajos Kassai has spread around the world, while the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz keep traditional archery alive at the World Nomad Games.