Archery – who will we see at the European Games?
In the III European Games, many of the disciplines from previous editions will be coming back to sports programme. One of these will be archery – which has already appeared in the 2015 and 2018.
Kraków-Małopolska 2023 will be hosting the sport in the form of 8 different events. There will be a chance for the archers to win a medal in the recurve men’s individual, recurve women’s individual, recurve men’s team, recurve women’s team, recurve and compound mixed team events, also, men’s and women’s individual compound.
Between the 23rd and the 29th of June, we will have the pleasure of watching 128 athletes from 30 different European countries – representing the elite and best archers in the continent – who will compete at the beautiful Płaszowianka Archery Park in Kraków.
EG2023 – the road to Paris 2024
The Kraków-Małopolska 2023 European Games will possibly mark a life-changing moment for many archers. This is because this summer’s event will serve as one of the key steps in the European archers’ qualifying journey for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The European Games will bring many of the athletes one step closer to living the dream of so many, that only a few are lucky enough to live out.
In fact, the European Games this year will be marking a turning point in the history of archery. The Kraków-Małopolska 2023 Games will be the first-ever world (and continental) competition – or qualifier event, to assign spots for the Olympic Games in Archery.
That is, they are a crucial event in the qualifying rounds since this year, and the teams can secure their spots in Paris 2024 directly. In the recurve mixed team discipline, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the highest placed team will earn one women’s and one men’s quota place for a total of two quota places. And in the recurve individual men and women’s discipline, the Olympic committees of the two highest-placed athletes from different NOCs will each earn one quota place in the relevant gender.
How do the archers qualify for the 2023 European Games?
There are 128 total quota places available for this edition of the European Games. The fact that the qualifying system is organised as a quota system implies that the Olympic committees must win their right to send athletes to compete at this multisport event through their success at other competitions/qualifying rounds.
The first of these events in which the quota places were won was the 2022 European Championships in Munich, Germany – in June last year. At this event, 74 of the 128 quota places were won by different teams.
Who will we see at the European Games?
The next and last event in the qualification process – in which the remaining quota were assigned, was European Grand Prix in Lilleshall, Great Britain. This event took place from the 3rd to the 8th of April, 2023 and around 300 recurve and compound archers from all over Europe attended it.
In the individual recurve men, 7 passes were won for European Games, by the representatives from: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, Ireland and Latvia. In recurve women 7 available places went to: Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Romania, Sweden, and Switzerland.
In the individual compound men, 5 passes for European Games were won by: Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Sweden. In compound women, we’ll see at the European Games best athletes from: Estonia, Germany, Nederland, Spain, and Ukraine.
Thus, 118 places have already been distributed, and EMAU will choose 10 more, according to its assessment.
European Games Kraków-Małopolska 2023 is just around the corner. We can’t wait to see what the elite of the current archery scene has to offer.
To find out more information about archery, and see the complete list of participants, head to:
