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by Mary Beth Vorwerk – USA Archery
ATHENS, Greece – Archery competition at the 2004 Olympic Games was held August 15-21 at Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896, and it is built on top of the ancient Stadium dating from 329 B.C.
Competing for the U.S. Women’s team were top-ranked Jennifer Nichols (Cheyenne, Wyo.), three-time Olympian Janet Dykman (El Monte, Calif.) and Stephanie Arnold (Portland, Ind.).
On the men’s side, top-ranked Butch Johnson (Woodstock, Conn.) was back for his fourth straight Olympic Games appearance having already won a team gold in 1996 and a team bronze in 2000, along with 2000 silver and bronze medalist Vic Wunderle (Mason City, Ill.) and John Magera (Carterville, Ill.).
Archery competition kicked off with the ranking round on Thursday, August 12 at the Dekelia Archery Training Complex. The total scores of the ranking round placed the athletes in their brackets from one to 64 for the start of the round of 32 elimination.
Nichols finished in 19th place for the women with a score of 638. Arnold finished in the 36th spot with 623 and Dykman finished in 44th place with 619.
On the men’s side, Johnson led the way for the U.S. in the ranking round with a 16th place finish after shooting a score of 660. Finishing in 43rd place with a score of 639 was Wunderle and Magera finished close behind Wunderle in 47th place with 637.
The first Olympic competitor to walk out of the tunnel into Panathinaiko Stadium for the official start of archery competition at the 2004 Olympic Games was 19th ranked Nichols who was set to face 46th ranked Rina Dewi Puspitasari (INA) on Sunday, August 15. Nichols won the match easily 160-151.
Ranked 36th coming into her round of 32 elimination match, Arnold faced 29th ranked Melissa Jennison (AUS) under extremely windy conditions. Arnold led 44-39 after the first six arrows, but Jennison came back to win the match 132-121.
Fifty-year-old three-time Olympian Dykman was ranked 44th and faced 21st ranked Alison Williamson (GBR). Like Arnold, Dykman started off with a strong lead, but was unable to hold on and lost the match to Williamson 147-121.
Dykman finished 60th overall in the individual event, while Arnold finished right behind her in the 61st spot.
The men’s round of 32 took place Monday, August 16 and extremely windy conditions made shooting very difficult for the second day in a row at Panathinaiko Stadium. Vic Wunderle was the only U.S. man to win his match, advancing to the round of 16.
Forty-third ranked Wunderle faced India’s Majhi Sawaiyan, who was ranked 22nd going in, and won the match easily 145-128.
Ranked 47th coming into his match, thirty-four-year old Magera faced 18th ranked Cheng Pang Wang (TPE). Magera shot five 10’s in the match, and led Wang 28-26 after the first three arrows, but was unable to hold on to the lead and Wang came back and led the rest of the match, winning with a score of 159-144.
Forty-eight-year-old four-time Olympian Johnson, the oldest U.S. male competitor in the 2004 Olympic Games, was ranked 16th and faced 49th ranked Ron Van der Hoff (NED). Johnson got off to a strong start and led 24-21 after the first three arrows, but due to the wind, shot a one on his seventh arrow and a three on his eighth arrow and was unable to come back. Van der Hoff won the match 145-135.
Magera ended up finishing 41st in the individual competition and Johnson finished in 52nd place.
The only two remaining U.S. competitors in the individual event, Nichols and Wunderle won their round of 16 matches on Tuesday, August 17, advancing to the 1/8 elimination round.
Nichols faced 14th ranked Tetyana Berezhna (UKR) in a very close and exciting match. After six arrows, Nichols was behind by one point with a score of 52-51 and the match was tied at 108 after 12 arrows. Nichols was again down by one point going into the last three arrows, and came back to win the match after shooting two tens and an eight to Berezhna’s eight, nine and ten, taking the match with a score of 163-160.
Wunderle faced 11th ranked Ming Huang Liu (TPE) in his round of 16 match. After shooting an eight, nine and seven on the first three arrows for a score of 24 to Liu’s 27, Wunderle came back strong after six arrows and led the rest of the match to beat Liu 164-160.
Jennifer Nichols was eliminated from individual competition during the women’s 1/8 elimination on Wednesday after losing a close match to Korea’s Yun Mi Jin. Nichols stayed within one point of number three ranked Jin after the first six arrows, shooting a 54 to Jin’s 55. On her 12th arrow, Nichols shot a seven and was unable to come back after Jin shot three four tens in a row on arrows 10-13. The final match score was 168-162, in Jin’s favor. Nichols finished in ninth place overall in the women’s individual event.
In a very close round of eight match, Wunderle and 27th ranked Haifeng Xue (CHN) nearly matched each other shot for shot throughout the entire match. The two competitors stayed within one to two points of each other and after the first six, then nine arrows, the score was tied.
After 12 arrows, Wunderle was down 110-108, but came back to tie the score after 15 at 137. It came down to the final arrow and first Xue shot a nine, then Wunderle ended with a perfect 10 to take the match 165-164 and advance to the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals, Wunderle faced third ranked Marco Galiazzo (ITA) for the 12-arrow match. It was once again a close match, with the score tied at 25 after three arrows and Wunderle ahead 55-53 after six arrows. Wunderle fell behind 81-80 after nine arrows and Galiazzo took the match 109-108. Galiazzo went on to win the gold medal.
Wunderle was the highest individual finisher for the U.S. archery team, ending the tournament in eighth place.
Olympic Competition came to a close for the U.S. women’s archery team on Friday after they were defeated by the women’s team from Greece in the first round of the team event.
The U.S. team consisting of Nichols, Arnold and Dykman were ranked ninth going into their 27-arrow match against eighth ranked Greece. Nichols was first up for the U.S. and started out strong, shooting two tens and a nine on her first three arrows.
After six arrows, the U.S. team was ahead by four points with a score of 55-51. After nine arrows, the two teams were tied at 76, but after 12, the U.S. fell behind 104-101 and Greece stayed in the lead until the U.S. tied it up at 204 going into the last three arrows. Dykman was last up for the U.S. and shot two seven point arrows and one nine to Greece’s eight and two nines. Greece won the match 230-227.
The U.S. women’s team finished the team round in 13th place.
After knocking off Sweden and number one ranked Italy, the U.S. men lost to Chinese Taipei in the semifinals of the team round on Saturday, then to Ukraine in the bronze medal match. The U.S. finished in fourth place, closing out archery competition at the 2004 Olympic Games.
In the first round of the team event, the number 11 ranked U.S. team of Wunderle, Johnson and John faced sixth ranked Sweden in the 27-arrow match.
The U.S. was down two points after the first three arrows, but jumped ahead after six and led the rest of the match, winning with a score of 246 points to Sweden’s 242 points, advancing to the quarterfinals to face the number one ranked men’s team from Italy.
First up for the U.S. team in their quarterfinal match against Italy, who had a first round bye, was Johnson who shot a ten and two nines in his first three arrows, to Italy’s three nines, putting the U.S. in the lead 28-27.
After six arrows, the score was tied at 55 and the U.S. was ahead by six points after nine arrows. They held on and lead the rest of the way, taking the match and upsetting the number one ranked team 243-240, advancing to the semifinals.
Next, the U.S. was set to face second ranked Chinese Taipei, who had a first round bye and then beat seventh ranked Australia 250-247 in the quarterfinals.
In their semifinal match against Chinese Taipei, the U.S. was on top the entire match until Chinese Taipei came back to tie the score at 189 going into the last six arrows and ended up taking the match 242-239 to shoot for the gold and sending the U.S. to the bronze medal match.
The U.S. faced fourth ranked Ukraine for the bronze and the two teams stayed within one to three points of each other until Ukraine came back and tied the score at 185 going into the last six arrows. Ukraine jumped ahead 211-210 with three arrows to go and won the match, taking the bronze medal by a close score of 237-235 after shooting two eights and a ten to the U.S.’s nine and two eights.
The number one ranked men’s team from Korea won the gold medal, beating Chinese Taipei 251-245 in the finals.
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