The International Olympic Committee released the competition schedules for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games earlier this week.
Instead of archery’s traditional starting day on the morning of the opening ceremony, the sport will get underway one day before the official start of the Games. Archers will shoot their qualifying round on Thursday 25 July 2024.
This is because the opening ceremony in Paris is taking place on the river Seine in the centre of the city and not in a stadium. Archery’s venue, Invalides, is right next to the river.
Archery competition resumes two days later, on day two of the Olympics.
At recent Games, there has been no gap between archery’s qualifying and matchplay phases – but the change for Paris will allow far more archers, many of whom had to previously skip the celebrations to compete, to attend the opening ceremony.
The order of events has changed too.
The first medal awarded at Tokyo 2020 was for the mixed team, which was making its Games debut in Japan. That was followed by the two team finals days, then three days of early individual eliminations before the men’s and women’s individual Olympic Champions were crowned on the last two days.
There will still be eight days of consecutive competition at Paris 2024, but the women’s and men’s team medals will be the first to be awarded, on Sunday 28 and Monday 29 July. They will then be followed by the three days of individual eliminations.
The mixed team title will be the third medal won, on Friday 2 August, and then the Olympic archery competition will conclude as normal with the women’s and men’s individual finals days on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 August 2024.
As well as sharing its location with the opening ceremony, parts of the archery venue are also being used to host other sports, including road cycling and marathon, and these small schedule adjustments were made so that the sport fits better with the overall programme of the Games.
Schedule: Paris 2024 Olympic Games
- Thursday 25 July – qualifying
- Sunday 28 July – women’s team finals
- Monday 29 July – men’s team finals
- Tuesday 30 July-Thursday 1 August – individual eliminations
- Friday 2 August – mixed team finals
- Saturday 3 August – women’s finals
- Sunday 4 August – men’s finals
