Archery? What’s that?

A sport. You use a bow, an shoot and arrow. You try to hit the target with the arrow.

Didn’t people do that 10,000 years ago?

Yes. People had bows and arrows then in Japan, the Middle East and many other parts of the world. But it wasn’t a sport. Soldiers used them in wars, and hunters used them to shoot animals for food.

Then what happened?

In the 12th century people started making guns, which were much better than bows and arrows. So archery almost disappeared.

‘Almost’? What do you mean ‘almost’?

In the 1700’s in England, medieval things became fashionable. Archery became popular again.

Is this when archery became a sport?

That’s right. Archery competitions were a great social network then. Men and women used them to meet, flirt and fall in love.

So if someone wanted to get married, it was a good idea to take up archery?

Exactly. Apparently some people thought that women looked very beautiful when they were holding a bow!

How exciting! So I suppose it was a very popular Olympic sport then?

Not really. In the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, only three countries sent archers. And they were all men. And then there were no Olympic archery competitions for many years.

Oh dear. So did archery go out of fashion again?

Well, the real problem was that every country had its own rules about archery. Archery couldn’t be an Olympic sport without international rules.

And are there international rules now?

Yes, there are. Archery became an Olympic sport again in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

So who are the best archers in the world nowadays?

The South Koreans have dominated the sport for several years now. The current Olympic Men’s Champion is Viktor Ruban from Ukraine. And China and Britain won several gold medals in the Paralympic archery events in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

射箭：

用弓把箭射出并射中预定目标，打在靶上的技艺。助弓的弹力将箭射出，在一定的距离内比赛准确性的体育运动项目，为射箭运动。

远在1万年前的中石器时代，人类就发明了弓箭来狩猎捕鱼。以后很长时间，弓箭又是用于战争的武器之一，现在弓箭作为人们喜欢的体育运动项目得以存在下来。现代射箭运动于14世纪起源于英国，它由武士的军事需要演变成娱乐运动。

[key words]

bow 弓
bowstring 弓弦 
arrow 箭
target 靶子
fletching 上翎
nock 箭尾端搭弦处
shooting an arrow 射箭