Team, Recurve, Women

Since team events were reintroduced into the Olympics in 1988 South Korea had won every Olympic title and had only failed to win 3 of the last 18 global championships before the London Olympics. One of these failures had been via a semi-final defeat to India at the 2011 World Championships but neither India nor Italy, the two finalists at those championships, could negotiate the first round at London. A major factor in the event was the weather which switched from bright and still to torrential rain showers and swirling wind more than once throughout the day.

The South Koreans coped better than any other team with the conditions and seemed unbeatable as they made their way to a gold medal showdown with China. In contrast China had scored single point victories over Italy and Russia on their way to the final. Both teams started nervously and neither could pull out a decisive lead over the other. With their last 3 arrows China needed 29 to win or 28 to force a shoot-off but all three scored nine and South Korean maintained their unbeaten Olympic record by a single point. With victory in the bronze medal match Japan ensured an all Asian Olympic podium.