Team, Women

As the top ranked team in the world, the Republic of Korea was expected to dominate this event, and they started in dramatic fashion when the team of Im Si-Hyeon, Nam Su-Hyeon, and Jeon Hun-Young, with a score of 2,046 (out of a possible 2160), set an Olympic Record in the ranking round, breaking Korea’s previous score of 2,032 at the 2020 Olympics. With the top two archers from the ranking round, the Korean’s were favorites to win the gold medal quite comfortably, but as the elimination rounds progressed this was not to be the case.

In the round of 16, the only surprise was the elimination of France, world-ranked third coming into the Games, with a comprehensive 6-0 defeat by the Netherlands, who had finished 12th in the ranking round. The Netherlands continued their run in the quarter-finals, defeating India by 6-0. Chinese Taipei pushed the Republic of Korea hard in their match, but the Koreans eventually won 6-2, despite both teams shooting a total of 214 points. World Champions Germany were then defeated 5-1 by Mexico in the next quarter-final. Finally, second seed China won their quarter-final comfortably defeating Indonesia 5-1.

The first semi-final was expected to be a formality for the Republic of Korea, but the Netherlands took the game to a shoot-off, the score being 4-4 after the regulatory 4 sets. However, in the shoot-off, the Koreans were successful, winning 26-23. China won the second semi-final 5-3 after the match was evenly poised at the half-way stage.

In the match for the bronze medal match, the scores were tied after two sets, following which Mexico won the final two sets to win 6-2. In a high-quality match where the lowest score with a single arrow was 8, the Republic of Korea seemed on course to win the final easily when they won the first two sets against China. However, China responded by winning the next two sets to level the scores at 4-4, thus requiring a shoot-off. Korea held their nerve to win a high-quality shoot-out 29-27, and so winning their 10th consecutive gold medal in this event.