World Archery board celebrates excellent Paralympic viewing figures

The World Archery executive board’s annual end-of-year meeting took place in Istanbul (Türkiye) on 14-15 December 2024.

As well as appointing hosts for the next four editions of the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final, the 2027 World Archery Para Championships and the 2026 World Archery Field and 3D Championships, the board evaluated the initial assessment reports from the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Both events achieved record viewing figures – with archery at the Paralympics, in particular, sitting among the most-watched events.

World Archery invested in augmenting the production to ensure that coverage of the whole Paralympic event was available live for the very first time, leading to excellent engagement with the public, particularly in the USA, India and Türkiye.

The board commended the progress of the new Mexican archery federation, which opened a training centre in Tlaxcala in October and has presented a clear strategic vision (including major events) towards LA28.

An initial discussion on qualification for the next Youth Olympic Games, with focus on African participation, will be continued with World Archery Africa.

A proposal to rewrite, and simplify, books two (events) and three (target archery) of the World Archery Rulebook was approved in principle. And a discussion on heat safety measures has been referred to the joint committee meeting, which will take place in Lausanne in February.

World Archery president Prof Dr Ugur Erdener said:

“The conclusion from our executive board meeting is that World Archery, and the wider sport, is in a healthy place. Our record broadcast figures at the Olympic and, importantly, Paralympic Games are the deserved return from years of investment in building reliability and quality across our event portfolio.”

“Meanwhile, our major events have never been so in-demand. With the appointment of hosts for the next four editions of the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final, the international calendar in the lead-up to LA28 is all but settled.”

“My thanks go to all the cities who expressed interest with bids, to our organisers in 2024, not least among the  the team in Paris, to the national and continental associations for an exceptional year, and to my fellow board members for their continued commitment to growing the sport of archery.”