Para-archery

A male Australian Para-archer lining up to take a shot to the left of the image

Para-archery has featured at every Paralympic Games since the first in Rome, Italy in 1960.

At the Paralympic Games, Para-archery is open to athletes with a physical impairment and comprises standing and wheelchair events. Athletes shoot from a distance at a target marked with 10 scoring zones. The object of the sport is to shoot arrows as close to the centre of a target as possible from a distance of 70 metres. World Archery provides competition opportunities for athletes with a vision impairment.

For more information on Para-archery Eligibility and How to Get Involved please see the Para-archery Information Sheet (PDF – 99KB) – updated May 2024.

Medal History

1960Rome
110
2
1964Tokyo
021
3
1968Tel Aviv
220
4
1972Heidelberg
011
2
1976Toronto
000
0
1980Arnhem
010
1
1984New York & Stoke Mandeville
021
3
1988Seoul
000
0
1992Barcelona - Madrid
000
0
2000Sydney
000
0
2004Athens
000
0
2016Rio de Janeiro
001
1
2020Tokyo
000
0
2024Paris
000
0

Events and Disciplines

Men’s and women’s individual and mixed pair events for compound and recurve bows are contested at the Paralympic Games.

Classification

At the Paralympic Games, Para-archery is open to athletes with a physical impairment. World Archery also provide competition opportunities for athletes with a vision impairment. Athletes are required to submit medical reports and meet the minimum impairment criteria in order to compete. Eligibility is determined by trained Classifiers.

For more information on Eligible Impairments and Classification please see the Para-archery Information Sheet (PDF – 136KB) – updated August 2024.

Rules and Equipment

To start the competition, athletes take part in a ranking round. They must shoot 72 arrows in 12 phases of six arrows each, with four minutes allocated to each phase. Their combined score from the 72 arrows determines their ranking which, in turn, determines the draw for the individual and team events.

In the individual events, matches are decided over the best-of-five sets, with three arrows per athlete per set.

In the team events, teams of three compete against each other in a best-of-24-arrows format.