Archery at the 2008 Summer Olympics

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Archery competitions were held between August 9 and August 15, at the Olympic Green Archery Field, a temporary venue on the Olympic Green, Beijing's Olympic Park.

Both men and women have the same size targets (1.22 m) and stand the same distance away from their target (70 m). The score for each arrow is determined by how close to the center of the target it hits, with a score of 10 for hitting directly in the center, down to 0 points if the target is missed entirely or the archer fails to shoot within the time limit of 40 seconds per arrow. Medals were awarded in four events: Men's Individual, Women's Individual, Men's Team, and Women's Team.

64 archers compete in both the men's and women's individual competition. A preliminary ranking round is held at 70 m, where each archer shoots 72 arrows (in six ends, or groups, of 12 arrows). The resulting score is used to seed the archers into a single elimination bracket.

Unlike in Athens, the archers who win the first round of the individual competition, will compete immediately in the following round, without waiting for the general conclusion of the eliminations. The order of shooting will be given by the placement of the archers after the ranking round. The archers shoot 12 arrows in ends of 3 arrows.

Each country that has three archers in the individual competition may also compete in the team competition. The scores from the individual ranking round are summed to determine the team score that is used to seed the teams in a single elimination bracket. Matches consist of each team shooting 24 arrows (in Athens they shot 27) in 4 ends of 6 arrows, with each archer on the team shooting 8 arrows.

The athlete quota for archery is 128 athletes, 64 men and 64 women. Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) can have up to a maximum of six athletes, three per gender. NOC's with three athletes of the same gender automatically qualify for the team competition. Athletes do not qualify themselves directly into the Olympics. They can only earn qualification spots for their respective NOC's. The NOC's, in turn, decide which of the athletes who have achieved the MQS (Minimum Qualification Score) they select. The MQS for FITA rounds are 1200 (men) and 1180 (women). For 70m rounds they are 600 (men) and 590 (women). Athletes who wish to qualify for the Olympics need to achieve the MQS in the period starting from 5 July 2007 until 16 July 2008.