World Archery Federation

World Archery Federation

Abbreviation	WA (formerly FITA)
Formation	4 September 1931
Type	Federation of national associations
Headquarters	Lausanne, Switzerland
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	156 national and other associations
Official language	English [1]
President	Uğur Erdener
First Vice-president	Mario Scarzella
Affiliations	International Olympic Committee
Website	www.worldarchery.org

The World Archery Federation (WA, also and formerly known as FITA from the French Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc) is the governing body of the sport of archery. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is composed of 156 national federations and other archery associations, and is recognised by the International Olympic Committee.

History

FITA was founded on 4 September 1931 in Lwow, Poland (today Lviv, Ukraine). Its seven founding member states were France, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Poland, the United States, Hungary, and Italy.^[2] The aim of the organization was to create regular archery championships, and to return archery to the Olympic Games (the sport had not been featured since 1920). FITA was finally successful in returning archery to the Olympic program in the 1972 Summer Olympics.

To celebrate the organization's 80th anniversary in July 2011, a large majority of the FITA Congress voted to change the name from FITA to the World Archery Federation or WA.^[3]

Member associations

As of August 2013, 156 national federations and other associations are members of World Archery.^[4]

Afghanistan Algeria Argentina Armenia American Samoa Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Benin Bermuda Belarus Bhutan Bosnia-Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Cameroon Central African Republic Cambodia Canada Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic DR Congo Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic

Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Eritrea Estonia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Great Britain Greece Guatemala Guinea Haiti Honduras Hong Kong, China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Japan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati North Korea South Korea Kosovo Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Malawi Malaysia Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Moldova Monaco Montenegro Mongolia Morocco Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Norfolk Island Norway Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines

Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Somalia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Tahiti Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) Tajikistan Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands

Rankings

World Archery publishes world rankings for each category of outdoor competitive archery (men / women; recurve / compound; individual / team / mixed team), updated following every official eligible event.^[5]

Each archer earns a ranking score for each competition. The ranking scores are calculated through a combination of the ranking factor of the tournament (as determined by the quality of competition, the number of competitors, and how recently the competition took place) and points based on the competitor's final position in the competition. The archer's four highest ranking scores are then combined to form their 'Added Ranking Score', which forms the basis of the ranking list.^[6]

Current rankings

Current number one ranked archers

• Updated 13 November 2015

Discipline	Men	Men's Team	Women	Women's Team	Mixed Team
Recurve	Kim Woo-jin (KOR)	South Korea	Choi Mi-sun (KOR)	South Korea	South Korea
Compound	Sebastien Peineau (FRA)	Denmark	Sara López (COL)	Russia	South Korea

Events

Summer Olympics

Archery was first competed at the Summer Olympic Games in 1900 and, after a long hiatus from 1924, became a regular event from 1972. Team events were added in 1988. Recurve archery is currently the only discipline competed at the Olympics.

Archery is also competed at the Summer Paralympics (recurve and compound disciplines), the Youth Olympic Games (recurve only), and the World Games (Field archery only).

World Cup

The Archery World Cup is an annual event that was inaugurated in 2006. It is designed to present archery in 'spectacular' locations.^[7]

The format consists of 4 rounds competed across the world during a calendar year. The best individual and mixed team performers across these rounds are then invited to compete in the World Cup Final at the end of the year.^[8]

An indoor World Cup, competed in 3 rounds with a final during the winter season, was inaugurated in the 2010-11 season.

World Championships

FITA began holding Target World Championships in 1931. They were held every year until 1959, when the Championships became biennial events. 1959 was also the first year that FITA held the World Field Championship.

Presently, there are five principal formats of the World Archery Championships: Outdoor, Indoor, Youth, Para-Archery, and Field. Each is held every two years on different rotations. World Championships are also held every two years in 3D archery and University sport. In 2007, a ski archery World Championships was held in Moscow; this is yet to be repeated and is not included in the current rotation.^[9]

Other

Archery is an optional sport at the Universiade and the Commonwealth Games.

Current champions

The following archers are the current champions of the major World Archery Federation events:

Discipline	Event	Summer Olympics 2012	World Championships 2015	World Cup Final 2014
Recurve	Men's Individual	Oh Jin-hyek (KOR)	Kim Woo-jin (KOR)	Brady Ellison (USA)
	Women's Individual	Ki Bo-bae (KOR)	Ki Bo-bae (KOR)	Aída Román (MEX)
	Men's Team	Italy (ITA) Michele Frangilli Marco Galiazzo Mauro Nespoli	South Korea Oh Jin-hyek Ku Bon-chan Kim Woo-jin
	Women's Team	South Korea (KOR) Choi Hyeonju Ki Bo-Bae Lee Sung-Jin	Russia Tuyana Dashidorzhieva Ksenia Perova Inna Stepanova
	Mixed Team		South Korea Ki Bo-Bae Ku Bon-chan	Mexico Aída Román Eduardo Vélez
Compound	Men's Individual		Stephan Hansen (DEN)	Bridger Deaton (USA)
	Women's Individual		Kim Yun-hee (KOR)	Sara López (COL)
	Men's Team		Iran Esmaeil Ebadi Majid Gheidi Amir Kazempour
	Women's Team		Ukraine Olena Borysenko Viktoriya Dyakova Mariya Shkolna
	Mixed Team		South Korea Kim Yun-hee Kim Jong-ho	United States Erika Jones Bridger Deaton

References

1. WA Constitutino see 1.28.1. Other working languages are adopted for Congress
2. "History of World Archery". World Archery Federation. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
3. Mieville, Didier. "Darrell Pace Named Athlete of Century; FITA Becomes World Archery Federation". World Archery Communications. FITA Communication. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
4. Archived 28 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
5. https://web.archive.org/20130831143123/http://www.worldarchery.org:80/en-us/results/worldranking/nationranking.aspx. Archived from the original on 31 August 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
6. (PDF) https://web.archive.org/20131228065232/http://www.archery.org:80/UserFiles/Document/Results/World%20Ranking/WorldRanking_CalculationSystem.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
7. https://web.archive.org/20130613180921/http://www.worldarchery.org:80/en-us/home.aspx. Archived from the original on 13 June 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
8. Archived 8 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
9. https://web.archive.org/20130624022220/http://www.worldarchery.org:80/en-us/worldchampionships/worldchampionshipshome.aspx. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• History of FITA 1931-1961 by Robert Rhode
• Archery Champions by Robert Rhode
• FITA home page