World Archery facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
World Archery

Abbreviation	WA (formerly FITA)
Formation	4 September 1931; 93 years ago (1931-09-04)
Founded at	Lwow, Poland (today Lviv, Ukraine)
Type	Federation of national associations
Headquarters	Lausanne, Switzerland
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	159 national and other associations
Official language	English
President	Uğur Erdener
First Vice-president	Mario Scarzella
Affiliations	International Olympic Committee, International World Games Association

World Archery (WA) is the main organization that manages the sport of archery around the world. It used to be called FITA. World Archery is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It includes 159 national archery groups and is recognized by the International Olympic Committee, which runs the Olympic Games.

History of World Archery

FITA was started on September 4, 1931, in Lwow, Poland. This city is now called Lviv and is in Ukraine. Seven countries helped create the organization. These were France, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Poland, the United States, Hungary, and Italy.

The main goal of FITA was to create regular archery competitions. They also wanted to bring archery back to the Olympic Games. Archery had not been part of the Olympics since 1920. FITA successfully brought archery back to the Olympic program for the 1972 Summer Olympics.

In July 2011, FITA celebrated its 80th birthday. Most members voted to change the name from FITA to World Archery, or WA.

In March 2022, World Archery announced some rules for athletes from Russia and Belarus. No athletes or officials from these countries were allowed to join international archery events. Their flags and anthems were also banned. No archery events were held in Russia or Belarus.

In July 2023, World Archery looked into allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete as neutral athletes. This meant they would not represent their countries. However, the national archery groups did not provide the needed information. So, it was unlikely that these athletes would be allowed to compete.

In December 2023, World Archery started its own online video service. This service lets people watch live archery events and other videos by subscribing.

World Archery's Flag

World Archery

Use	Sport
Proportion	3:5
Adopted	1 April 2012
Design	White field with a WA logo

The World Archery flag has a white background. The organization's logo is placed right in the middle of the flag.

Member Countries and Groups

As of April 2019, World Archery has 159 national groups and other associations as members. These members come from all over the world.

Archery Rankings

World Archery keeps track of world rankings for different types of outdoor archery. These rankings are for men and women, and for different bow types like recurve and compound. They also rank individual archers, teams, and mixed teams. The rankings are updated after every official competition.

Archers get a score for each competition they enter. This score depends on how important the tournament is and how well they did. The archer's four best scores are added together to create their total ranking score. This score is used to decide their place on the ranking list.

Top Ranked Archers

Current number one ranked archers

Outdoor
Discipline	Men	Women	Men's Team	Women's Team	Mixed Team
Recurve	Brady Ellison (USA)	Lim Si-hyeon (KOR)	South Korea	China	South Korea
Compound	Mike Schloesser (NED)	Andrea Becerra (MEX)	Italy	India	India
Last Updated: 15 May 2025
Outdoor
Discipline	Men	Women	Men's Team	Women's Team	Mixed Team
Recurve	Brady Ellison (USA)	Lim Si-hyeon (KOR)	South Korea	China	South Korea
Compound	Mike Schloesser (NED)	Andrea Becerra (MEX)	Italy	India	India
Last Updated: 15 May 2025

Archery Championships

The table below shows where some of the World Championships have been held. The yellow highlight means it was the first time that type of event was held.

Year	World Championships
	Outdoor	Indoor	Youth	Para	Field	University	3D
1931	Lwów
1932	Warsaw
1933	London
1934	Båstad
1935	Brussels
1936	Prague
1937	Paris
1938	London
1939	Oslo
1946	Stockholm
1947	Prague
1948	London
1949	Paris
1950	Copenhagen
1952	Brussels
1953	Oslo
1955	Helsinki
1957	Prague
1958	Brussels
1959	Stockholm
1960
1961	Oslo
1962
1963	Helsinki
1965	Västerås
1966
1967	Amersfoort
1968
1969	Valley Forge				Valley Forge
1970
1971	York				Cardiff
1973	Grenoble
1974					Zagreb
1975	Interlaken
1977	Canberra
1979	Berlin
1981	Punta Ala
1982					Kingsclere
1983	Los Angeles
1984					Hyvinkää
1985	Seoul
1986					Radstadt
1987	Adelaide
1989	Lausanne
1990					Loen
1991	Kraków	Oulu	Sandefjord
1992					Margraten
1993	Antalya	Perpignan	Moliets-et-Maa
1994			Roncegno		Vertus
1995	Jakarta	Birmingham
1996			Chula Vista		Kranjska Gora	Vaulx-en-Velin
1997	Victoria	Istanbul
1998			Sunne	Stoke Mandeville	Obergurgl	Taoyuan
1999	Riom	Havana		Christchurch
2000			Belfort		Cortina d'Ampezzo	Madrid
2001	Beijing	Florence		Nymburk
2002			Nymburk		Canberra	Chonburi
2003	New York	Nîmes		Madrid			Sully-sur-Loire
2004			Lilleshall		Plitvice	Madrid
2005	Madrid	Aalborg		Massa Carrara			Genoa
2006			Mérida		Gothenburg	Viničné
2007	Leipzig	İzmir		Cheongju			Sopron
2008			Antalya		Llwynypia	Tainan
2009	Ulsan	Rzeszów	Ogden	Nymburk			Latina
2010					Visegrád	Shenzhen
2011	Turin		Legnica	Turin			Donnersbach
2012		Las Vegas
2013	Belek		Wuxi	Bangkok			Sassari
2014		Nîmes
2015	Copenhagen		Yankton	Donaueschingen			Terni
2016		Ankara
2017	Mexico City		Rosario	Beijing			Wrocław
2018		Yankton
2019	's-Hertogenbosch		Madrid	's-Hertogenbosch			Lac La Biche
2021	Yankton		Wrocław		Yankton
2022				Dubai			Terni
2023	Berlin		Limerick	Plzeň

Archery Tournaments

Summer Olympics Archery

Sharon Vennard and Yan Huilian at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

Targets and a windsock at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

Archery was first part of the Summer Olympic Games in 1900. After a long break, it became a regular event again starting in 1972. Team events were added in 1988. Currently, only recurve archery is competed at the Olympics.

Archery is also part of the Summer Paralympics. Here, both recurve and compound bows are used. It is also featured at the Youth Olympic Games (recurve only) and the World Games (Field archery only).

World Archery Championships

World Archery holds many different championships. FITA started holding Target World Championships in 1931. These were held every year until 1959. After that, they became events held every two years. In 1959, the first World Field Championship was also held.

Today, there are five main types of World Archery Championships:

• World Target Championships (Outdoor and Indoor)
• World Youth Archery Championships
• World Para Archery Championships (for athletes with disabilities)
• World Field Archery Championships

These championships are held every two years, but on different schedules. World Championships are also held every two years for 3D archery and University sports. A ski archery World Championships was held in 2007, but it has not been repeated since.

Archery World Cup

The Archery World Cup is an annual event that started in 2006. It was created to show archery in exciting places around the world.

The World Cup has four rounds held throughout the year. The best individual archers and mixed teams from these rounds are invited to compete in the World Cup Final at the end of the year.

An indoor World Cup also started in the 2010–11 season. It has three rounds and a final during the winter.

Other Archery Events

Archery is an optional sport at the Universiade (a multi-sport event for university athletes) and the Commonwealth Games.

Current Archery Champions

The archers listed below are the current champions of the main World Archery Federation events:

Discipline	Event	Summer Olympics 2024	World Championships 2023	World Cup Series Final 2024
Recurve	Men's Individual	Kim Woo-jin (KOR)	Mete Gazoz (TUR)	Kim Woo-jin (KOR)
	Women's Individual	Lim Si-hyeon (KOR)	Marie Horáčková (CZE)	Li Jiaman (CHN)
	Men's Team	South Korea (KOR) Kim Je-deok Kim Woo-jin Lee Woo-seok	South Korea Kim Je-deok Kim Woo-jin Lee Woo-seok
	Women's Team	South Korea (KOR) Jeon Hun-young Lim Si-hyeon Nam Su-hyeon	Germany Katharina Bauer Michelle Kroppen Charline Schwarz
	Mixed Team	South Korea (KOR) Lim Si-hyeon Kim Woo-jin	South Korea Lim Si-hyeon Kim Woo-jin
Compound	Men's Individual		Ojas Pravin Deotale (IND)	James Lutz (USA)
	Women's Individual		Aditi Gopichand Swami (IND)	Sara López (COL)
	Men's Team		Poland Rafał Dobrowolski Przemysław Konecki Łukasz Przybylski
	Women's Team		India Parneet Kaur Aditi Gopichand Swami Jyothi Surekha Vennam
	Mixed Team		United States Alexis Ruiz Sawyer Sullivan

Presidents of World Archery

Period	Name	Country
1931	Mieczysław Fularski	Poland
1931 – 1939	Bronisław Pierzchała	Poland
1946 – 1949	Paul Demare	France
1949 – 1957	Henry Kjellson	Sweden
1957 – 1961	Oscar Kessels	Belgium
1961 – 1977	Inger Kristine Frith	United Kingdom
1977 – 1989	Francesco Gnecchi-Ruscone	Italy
1989 – 2005	James L. Easton	United States
2005 –	Uğur Erdener	Turkey

See also

In Spanish: Federación Mundial de Tiro con Arco para niños

• List of shooting sports organizations