Archery at 2024 Paris Olympics: How it works, Team USA stars, what else to know

Here's what you need to know about archery at the 2024 Paris Olympics .

When did archery become an Olympic sport?

Archery first appeared in the 1900 Olympics and was contested through 1920. After a lengthy absence, it returned in Munich in 1972.

How does Olympic archery work?

Individual and team events are held for men and women, and a mixed team event was introduced recently.

A preliminary ranking round seeds archers into a single-elimination brackets, and each individual bracket has 64 contestants. The head-to-head format produces some of the most compelling and pressure-packed competition of all Olympic sports.

Each individual match includes as many as five sets, while the team competitions have a maximum of four. In each set during individual competition, an archer shoots three arrows, aiming for a possible perfect score of 30. Bulls-eyes are worth 10 points. Winning a set is worth two points, and a tie means each side earns one point. Six points clinches an individual match (five points wins a team match).

Who are the top Team USA athletes in archery?

WOMEN

• Casey Kaufhold: Only 20 years old, she'll arrive at her second Olympics as a serious medal contender. She attained a No. 1 world ranking in the past year, making her the first American to do so in her classification – women’s recurve – since 2001, when rankings were established, per Team USA.

MEN

• Brady Ellison: A three-time medalist – but never a gold-medalist – he has represented Team USA in the past four Olympics and has long been considered one of the world's best.

What's the international landscape in Olympic archery?

South Korea is the powerhouse for both men's and women's archery, having won eight of nine gold medals in archery in the past two Olympics. The Korean squads are so deep that An San, winner of three gold medals in Tokyo, missed qualifying for the women's national team this year.

Lim Si-hyeon, ranked No. 2 in the world behind Team USA's Kaufhold as of April, leads a young South Korean women's team. Kim Je-deok and Kim Woo-jin return on the men's side after winning team gold for South Korea. Brazil's Marcus D'Almedia is viewed as a favorite in the men's competition, along with Turkey’s Mete Gazoz and Italy's Mauro Nespoli, the individual gold and silver medalists from Tokyo.

South Korea is the powerhouse for both men's and women's archery, having won eight of nine gold medals in archery in the past two Olympics. The Korean squads are so deep that An San, winner of three gold medals in Tokyo, missed qualifying for the women's national team this year. Lim Si-hyeon, ranked No. 2 in the world behind Team USA's Kaufhold as of April, leads the South Korean women's team.

Kim Je-deok, Kim Woo-jin and Oh Jin-hyek return for the South Korea men's side after winning team gold. Brazil's Marcus D'Almedia is viewed as a favorite for the men's individual competition, along with Turkey’s Mete Gazoz and Italy's Mauro Nespoli – the individual gold and silver medalists from Tokyo.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Archery at 2024 Paris Olympics: How it works, Team USA stars, what else to know