Your 2016 Summer Olympics Archery Guide

Posted by Wayne G. Barber
The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro begin this coming weekend, and the Archery's Wire's associate and go-to-guy on the subject of Olympic Archery, blogger P.J Reilly from Lancaster Archery Supply, offers this run down on what to watch for during the archery portion of the games, Aug. 6-12. - JRA
Archery is one of the first sports to feature competition, and so you need to be ready to follow the action.

Here are some things you need to know.

Opening ceremonies are scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug. 5, Eastern Time. Rio is one hour ahead of the U.S. Eastern Time Zone, so it will be 8 p.m. there.

The Olympic archery competition actually is scheduled to begin on the morning of Aug. 5, before the opening ceremonies, with the men's individual ranking round starting at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, and the women's ranking round at noon.

NBC is the lead sponsoring network for televising the Olympics, although several others also will provide some coverage. CNBC is the only network to specifically mention that it will be televising archery coverage, although it doesn't specify when that coverage will air, or what events it will include.

Zach Garrett (Photo by World Archery)

It's probably safe to bet that NBC will only feature archery coverage in its prime time broadcasts if something extraordinary happens, or if an American individual or team wins a gold medal.

NBC plans to live stream the archery competition at nbcolympics.com. At the site, click on "All Sports" to find "Archery." Then click on "Schedule" and click the forward arrow until you get to Aug. 5-12.

Additionally, you can check Lancaster Archery Supply's Facebook page, blog and other social media channels for regular updates as the competition progresses. (https://www.facebook.com/lancasterarchery)

After the men's and women's individual ranking rounds Aug. 5, the rest of the archery competition schedule is as follows, with all times being Eastern Times:

SATURDAY, AUG. 6 – Men's team round of 16 begins at 8 a.m.; Men's team quarterfinals begin at 1 p.m., with semifinals and medal matches following.

SUNDAY, AUG. 7 – Women's team round of 16 begins at 8 a.m.; Women's team quarterfinals begin at 1 p.m., with semifinals and medal matches following.

MONDAY, AUG. 8 – Men's and women's individual elimination rounds of 64 and 32 begin at 8 a.m.; Those rounds continue at 2 p.m.

TUESDAY, AUG. 9 – Men's and women's individual elimination rounds of 64 and 32 begin at 8 a.m.; Those rounds continue at 2 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 10 – Men's and women's individual elimination rounds of 64 and 32 begin at 8 a.m.; Those rounds continue at 2 p.m.

THURSDAY, AUG. 11 – Women's individual round of 16 begins at 8 a.m.; Women's individual quarterfinals begin at 2 p.m., with semifinals and medal matches following.

FRIDAY, AUG. 12 – Men's individual round of 16 begins at 8 a.m.; Men's individual quarterfinals begin at 2 p.m., with semifinals and medal matches following.

WHO TO WATCH

The American team will feature Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski and Zach Garrett on the men's side, and Mackenzie Brown on the women's side. The U.S. did not qualify to send a full women's team. Ellison is the veteran of the group, competing in his third Olympics. Kaminski is returning for the second time.

World No. 1 and 2 archers, Kim Woojin, center, and Ku Bonchan, right, both of Korea, finished first and third respectively in the Rio test event for archery last fall. (Photo by World Archery)

In the U.S. Olympic trials this year, Ellison qualified first, but Garrett is currently ranked higher by World Archery. Garrett is listed as third in the world, compared to Ellison's 7th-place ranking. Kaminski is ranked 26th.

Brown heads to Rio as the fourth-ranked female archer in the world, and the top American.

The world No. 1 and 2 men's archers both hail from Korea – Kim Woojin and Ku Bonchan. They'll be shooting in Rio, along with teammate Lee Seungyun, the world No. 6 archer.

Takaharu Furukawa of Japan, who won the silver medal in 2012, is the only men's individual medal winner at London to compete in Rio. Gold medal winner Oh Jin-Hyek of South Korea didn't qualify, nor did bronze medalist Dai Xiaoxiang of China.

On the women's side, 2012 individual and team gold medalist Ki Bo Bae of Korea will be in Rio. She is currently ranked third in the world. Her teammate, Choi Misun, holds the world No. 1 ranking. The world No. 2 archer is Tan Ya-ting, who will compete for Chinese Taipei. London silver medalist Aida Roman of Mexico also will compete in Rio. Bronze medal winner Mariana Avitia of Mexico will not be in this year's Games.

In the team competition, the top two men's teams from the 2012 Olympics both are returning two-thirds of their squads.

The Korean women's team, from left, Chang Hye Jin, Ki Bo Bae, and, far left, Choi Misun, is sure to be in the hunt for a medal. (Photo by World Archery)

London gold-medal winner Italy returns Marco Galiazzo – the 2004 individual Olympic champion – and Mauro Nespoli, who will shoot with David Pasqualucci. Absent is Michele Frangilli, who released one of the clutch arrows of all time in London, scoring a 10 with the final arrow of the match, which sealed the gold medal for Italy. A 9 would have sent the match into a shoot-off. Galiazzo and Nespoli also shot together in Beijing in 2008, along with teammate Ilario Di Buo, where they won the team silver medal.

The silver-medal-winning U.S. team is sending Ellison and Kaminski back to the Games, where they will team up with Garrett. Garrett replaces 2012 Olympian Jacob Wukie, who did not make the cut this year.