World Archery

Abbreviation	WA (formerly FITA)
Formation	4 September 1931; 93 years ago (1931-09-04)
Founded at	Lwow, Poland (today Lviv, Ukraine)
Type	Federation of national associations
Headquarters	Lausanne, Switzerland
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	159 national and other associations
Official language	English
President	Uğur Erdener
First Vice-president	Mario Scarzella
Affiliations	International Olympic Committee, International World Games Association
Website	worldarchery.sport

World Archery (WA, formerly Fédération Internationale de Tir à l'Arc (FITA)) 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.

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.^[1] 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 or WA.^[2]

In March 2022, in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the federation announced that no athlete, team official, or technical official from Russia or Belarus will be permitted to participate in any international archery event, their flags and anthems are banned, and no archery events would be held in the two countries.^[3]

In July 2023, on the question that whether or not to re-allow athletics with Russian and/or Belarusian passports to participant international archery competitions under neutral identities, World Archery asked both national archery federations to submit personal datas for investigations, as both federations denied to complete such requirements, WA said that it's unlikely to allow neutral athletes unless once procedure can be completely followed.^[4]

In December 2023, World Archery launched its own OTT Service with a subscription video on demand model and live streaming of main events.^[5]

World Archery

Use	Sport
Proportion	3:5
Adopted	1 April 2012
Design	White field with a WA logo

The WA flag has a white background, with the organization's logo in the middle.^[6][7]

As of April 2019, 159 national federations and other associations are members of World Archery.^[8]

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.^[9]

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.^[10]

Current number one ranked archers

• Updated: October 2024

Discipline	Men	Women	Men's Team	Women's Team	Mixed Team
Recurve	Kim Woo-jin (KOR)	Lim Si-hyeon (KOR)	South Korea	South Korea	South Korea
Compound	Mike Schloesser (NED)	Ella Gibson (GBR)	India	India	United States

^[11]

The following table shows the venue of all World Championships on the current World Archery programme:

Year	World Championships
	Outdoor	Indoor	Youth	Para	Field	University	3D
1931	Lwów
1932	Warsaw
1933	London
1934	Båstad
1935	Brussels
1936	Prague
1937	Paris
1938	London
1939	Oslo
1946	Stockholm
1947	Prague
1948	London
1949	Paris
1950	Copenhagen
1952	Brussels
1953	Oslo
1955	Helsinki
1957	Prague
1958	Brussels
1959	Stockholm
1960
1961	Oslo
1962
1963	Helsinki
1965	Västerås
1966
1967	Amersfoort
1968
1969	Valley Forge				Valley Forge
1970
1971	York				Cardiff
1973	Grenoble
1974					Zagreb
1975	Interlaken
1977	Canberra
1979	Berlin
1981	Punta Ala
1982					Kingsclere
1983	Los Angeles
1984					Hyvinkää
1985	Seoul
1986					Radstadt
1987	Adelaide
1989	Lausanne
1990					Loen
1991	Kraków	Oulu	Sandefjord
1992					Margraten
1993	Antalya	Perpignan	Moliets-et-Maa
1994			Roncegno		Vertus
1995	Jakarta	Birmingham
1996			Chula Vista		Kranjska Gora	Vaulx-en-Velin
1997	Victoria	Istanbul
1998			Sunne	Stoke Mandeville	Obergurgl	Taoyuan
1999	Riom	Havana		Christchurch
2000			Belfort		Cortina d'Ampezzo	Madrid
2001	Beijing	Florence		Nymburk
2002			Nymburk		Canberra	Chonburi
2003	New York	Nîmes		Madrid			Sully-sur-Loire
2004			Lilleshall		Plitvice	Madrid
2005	Madrid	Aalborg		Massa Carrara			Genoa
2006			Mérida		Gothenburg	Viničné
2007	Leipzig	İzmir		Cheongju			Sopron
2008			Antalya		Llwynypia	Tainan
2009	Ulsan	Rzeszów	Ogden	Nymburk			Latina
2010					Visegrád	Shenzhen
2011	Turin		Legnica	Turin			Donnersbach
2012		Las Vegas
2013	Belek		Wuxi	Bangkok			Sassari
2014		Nîmes
2015	Copenhagen		Yankton	Donaueschingen			Terni
2016		Ankara
2017	Mexico City		Rosario	Beijing			Wrocław
2018		Yankton
2019	's-Hertogenbosch		Madrid	's-Hertogenbosch			Lac La Biche
2021	Yankton		Wrocław		Yankton
2022				Dubai			Terni
2023	Berlin		Limerick	Plzeň

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 Target Championships
  • World Outdoor Archery Championships
  • World Indoor Archery Championships
• World Field Archery Championships
• World 3D Archery Championships
• World Ski Archery Championships
• World Para Archery Championships
• World Youth Archery Championships
• World University Archery 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.^[12]

The Archery World Cup is an annual event that was inaugurated in 2006. It is designed to present archery in 'spectacular' locations.^[13]

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.^[14]

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

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

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

Discipline	Event	Summer Olympics 2024	World Championships 2023	World Cup Series Final 2024
Recurve	Men's Individual	Kim Woo-jin (KOR)	Mete Gazoz (TUR)	Kim Woo-jin (KOR)
	Women's Individual	Lim Si-hyeon (KOR)	Marie Horáčková (CZE)	Li Jiaman (CHN)
	Men's Team	South Korea (KOR) Kim Je-deok Kim Woo-jin Lee Woo-seok	South Korea Kim Je-deok Kim Woo-jin Lee Woo-seok
	Women's Team	South Korea (KOR) Jeon Hun-young Lim Si-hyeon Nam Su-hyeon	Germany Katharina Bauer Michelle Kroppen Charline Schwarz
	Mixed Team	South Korea (KOR) Lim Si-hyeon Kim Woo-jin	South Korea Lim Si-hyeon Kim Woo-jin
Compound	Men's Individual		Ojas Pravin Deotale (IND)	James Lutz (USA)
	Women's Individual		Aditi Gopichand Swami (IND)	Sara López (COL)
	Men's Team		Poland Rafał Dobrowolski Przemysław Konecki Łukasz Przybylski
	Women's Team		India Parneet Kaur Aditi Gopichand Swami Jyothi Surekha Vennam
	Mixed Team		United States Alexis Ruiz Sawyer Sullivan

Period	Name	Country
1931	Mieczysław Fularski	Poland
1931 – 1939	Bronisław Pierzchała	Poland
1946 – 1949	Paul Demare	France
1949 – 1957	Henry Kjellson	Sweden
1957 – 1961	Oscar Kessels	Belgium
1961 – 1977	Inger Kristine Frith	United Kingdom
1977 – 1989	Francesco Gnecchi-Ruscone	Italy
1989 – 2005	James L. Easton	United States
2005 –	Uğur Erdener	Turkey

• List of shooting sports organizations

• Official website
• Archery.tv (Official Streaming Service)
• History of FITA 1931–1961 by Robert Rhode (archived)
• Archery Champions by Robert Rhode (archived)