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Archery is a sport that requires loads of concentration, perseverance and talent. The margin for error is extremely small.
At the Olympics, a knockout tournament, each archery match lasts fewer than 15 minutes. The pressure can get the better of an athlete’s composure. One loss, and the archer is eliminated from the competition, with four years of hard work and dreams going down the drain.
India at Olympics 2020: Full schedule of events
South Korea dominated archery events in Rio de Janeiro, winning all four gold medals on offer. However, much water has flown under the bridge since 2016.
At the Tokyo Olympics 2020, USA’s Brady Ellison (recurve men) and India’s Deepika Kumari (recurve women) are the world number ones.
Read: Recurve event in archery and Indians who can win medals at Tokyo Olympics
Archery is all set to have two firsts in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 – a mixed team event and the usage of biometrics.
Mixed team event in archery
Since its addition to the World Championships in 2011, the mixed team event, where one man and one woman compete together, has become a staple in international competitions. A decade later, it is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo. The mixed team event has the potential to deliver the biggest shocks, with many nations not necessarily having the squad to field talented two-athlete partnerships.
In a mixed team, the target for victory is five set points and the length of each set is different.
Also read - Tokyo Olympics: The sport in which India is likely to win its first-ever Olympic Medal - Archery
Mixed teams shoot four arrows per set, two per athlete. Teams shoot six arrows per set, two per athlete.
Instead of alternating each arrow, mixed team and team sets are split into two rotations, with each archer shooting one arrow in a rotation before alternating to the other team. The order in which the archers shoot can change freely between each rotation, but an archer must not shoot more than one arrow in each rotation.
Usage of biometrics
India’s Deepika Kumari could benefit the most from the use of biometrics in Tokyo. Archery will be the first sport to use live biometric data at the Olympics.
Stress and pressure have gotten the better of Deepika Kumari in the past – particularly at 2012 London and 2016 Rio.
Also read: After missing a medal in two successive Olympics, can archer Deepika Kumari break the jinx in Tokyo?
However, at the Tokyo Olympics, archers would be able to monitor their stress levels and heart beats during the archery elimination rounds at the Yumenoshima Park.
With the heartbeat monitoring innovation, the archer's heart rate will be measured by the cameras and beamed live. Cameras will check for changes in the color and shape of the skin on the face caused by blood pumping, an indicator of heart rate and stress levels of the archer.
Fans will be able to see whether an archer's stress level goes high and their heart beats faster before a deciding shot.
Introduced for the first time, biometrics will only be available for individual matches.
