The Archer's Pathway to LA2028: The Qualification Framework

Hello Archery Family. I'm Manisha of the Archery Parent Podcast, what you need to know to best support your Archer.

Today's episode is one that a lot of Archers, Coaches and Parents have been waiting for. I am going to share the breakdown of the newly released Olympic Qualifying Framework by the IOC. I thought that they would wait until the Winter Olympics were done before releasing information about the Summer Olympics, but what do I know? But I did think it was a little weird for timing. Why wouldn't they wait? Let me know what you think.

So getting back to why we're here. We're going to go through the new pathway released for Archery. There's going to be a ton of information, so I encourage you to save this episode so that you can go back and listen to certain parts.

Again, this information admittedly, can be a little bit intimidating, but I'm going to do my best to break it down. We'll do big picture and then we will hone in on the specific events.

What you're going to get out of this episode is what is new for the LA Olympics, specifically the Compound Mixed Team event. We're going to talk about quota spots. We're going to talk about how a country can earn those spots, and we're going to talk about what families of high performance athletes can expect over the next two years and what they should keep an eye out for. Alright. Let's get into it.

Let's start with an overview.

So the LA 2028 Olympics is not Paris 2024, but just in California. There are some significant changes to the 2028 Archery program, and these structural changes are going to be something that really matters to a lot of people. And just to add in, a little birdie is keeping me updated on the organizational side of LA 2028, and I have been told that there are potential budget cuts coming down the pipe.

The information I share will be valid now, but potentially may not be valid when the Olympics actually rolls around. So to start off, there are 128 Archery quota spots available for the program that is 64 Women and 64 Men. That includes Recurve and Compound Archers. And this number is not any different than the Paris 2024 quota spot availability. In other words, the field stays the same.

Alright, this next part, stay with me. We're starting to get into the nitty gritty. If you need to go hydrate, please do.

If you're asking why the IOC or World Archery did not increase that number of 128 from 2024, it's because the Olympic committee athlete count of the core sports, Archery being one of 31 core sports, cannot exceed 10,500. That is an IOC cap.

When Compound was added to the Archery program, the criteria was that the overall number of Archery participants could not change. So of that 10,500, what is not included in the athlete count are the five new sports that are allowed to be in LA 2028. And those sports are baseball, softball, flag football, cricket, squash and lacrosse. Those five sports are allowed to bring in an additional 698 athletes. When added to the 10,500, that is a total of 11,198 athletes in total. So just to clarify, adding Compound to the Archery program does not make it a new sport. It is just an addition to an existing core sport. That is why the number of 128 was not allowed to change.

The addition of the Mixed Team event is not just exclusive to Archery for 2028. Athletics, Golf, Gymnastics, Rowing, and Table tennis are now all adding a Mixed team event. This is one of the ways that the IOC is ensuring full gender parity across all events for 2028, and the LA Olympics will be the first time in Olympic history, there will be more women than men competing with an estimated breakdown of 5,655 women and 5,543 men.

So the next big change with the addition of the Compound Mixed Team, six medals are going to be awarded at the 2028 Olympics. The original five were for Recurved Men Individual, Recurve Women's Individual, Recurve Men's Team, Recurve Women's Team, and then Recurve Mixed Team.

The Compound Mixed Team will allow for a sixth medal. The Compound Mixed Team event will have 12 Mixed teams from 12 different countries consisting of two Archers, one of each gender.

Compound Archers always considered the World Games, their own Olympics, but now with this change, they're finally able to get onto the biggest stage for the first time in history. This is the first cycle of Olympics that are bringing this long-term goal into reality.

What this also means with the introduction of Compound Mixed Team is that there is also a decrease in the number of Recurve Archers that will be eligible to participate at 2028. We are going to talk a lot about this in a little bit.

So let's talk about the quota numbers and who gets these spots. This is where a lot of confusion occurs, and I'm going to try to clear it up the best that I can.

So the Olympic qualifying window begins at the 2027 World Championships that are being held in Medellin, Columbia, and will end at the 2028 FQT or Final Qualifying Tournament, which will occur just weeks before the opening ceremonies of the LA 2028 Olympic Games.

Note that right now some of these dates and locations have not been listed, but as soon as they are, we will be sharing that information with you.

So let's talk about the breakdown of how these 128 spots will be allocated: 116 will be earned through the regular qualification system at the World Championships, Continental Games and FQT; eight spots are reserved for the Host Nation, and in this case it is the USA; and the final four spots are Universality invitations. These invitations are exclusively for smaller or developing Olympic nations to make sure that they can still be represented.

The eight Host Nation spots, that's one Recurve Women's Team, which is three spots; one Recurve Men's Team, which is another three spots; the last two spots are for the Compound Mixed Team Archers.

So to review, we've got 128 spots, 116 are earned at qualifying events, eight go to the Host Nation, and four are Universality.

A really important point for Archers and parents to understand is that these spots, although one by Archers actually belong to the country or your NOC or National Olympic Committee. In Canada, for us, that is the COC or the Canadian Olympic Committee.

In the sport of Archery, I know this sounds odd, and unlike many other sports, you shoot for your country first and then you shoot for your spot. There is no guarantee that if you win the spot that you will be selected to go.

For example, when a team wins an Olympic quota, it does not necessarily mean that those three Archers that won that team spot will go automatically to the Olympics. Each country has their own selection, nomination, and approval processes to decide who actually gets to go and use those, as we call them, "Golden Tickets".

I know it may not be fair. But that's just how Archery rolls. We do know people who won spots, but actually were not selected to go.

So let's talk about what spots Recurve can earn. Those categories again, are Women's Team and Men's Team. For a country that qualifies individuals, they can only send one per gender, and those categories are Men's Individual and Women's Individual.

If a country is able to send two individuals, those two individuals will automatically make up the Recurve Mixed Team.

To throw a wrench into this whole explanation, it is extremely important to understand that a country can qualify a team or individuals. You cannot qualify both. Multiple individuals cannot qualify and make up a team, and this distinction actually will determine how a country sets up their entire calendar going forward and which events they're going to attend.

Now let's focus specifically on the Recurve Team. This is the biggest change from Paris, and honestly, it has elicited a lot of emotional response, both positive and negative.

In LA, only eight Recurve Team spots are available, which is actually down from 12. That means eight Men's Teams and eight Women's Teams for a total of 24 Archers each.

So yes, qualifying a team is actually going to get a whole lot harder. On the flip side, what the IOC also did was they ensured that individual spots were protected so that the field can stay diverse and that we don't end up with the same small group of powerhouse nations that will take up a huge percentage of the quota spots available.

Those eight team quota spots per gender will be handed out like this: the top three teams at the 2027 Hyundai World Archery Championships in Columbia. Three teams per gender at the Continental Games from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The top team at the Final World Team FQT will be provided one spot, and of course the Host Nation, the USA, permitting that they meet, all participation requirements will be provided the last team spot.

What are these participation criteria you may ask? A Host Nation cannot just say, well, you know what? Because we have these team spots anyways, we are just not going to participate in the events leading up to the 2028 Olympics. They must still participate. They still must hit the qualifying scores.

So what does this all mean? It means that the big team qualification push is going to centre around the World Championships and Continental events.

One question that I've been asked: what happens if the same nation wins multiple events? Do they actually win these multiple spots? The answer is no. That quota spot will actually get bumped down to the next country on the ranking list that has yet to qualify for the Olympics. If, say the second place team has already won a quota spot, that original winning quota spot will go down to the third place winner and so on.

What is really cool leading up to the Olympics is that World Archery does a really great job with tallying up the available quota spots, sharing which countries have won which quota spots and team spots, and they are constantly updating that across the whole qualification window after each event. And I really hope that they do the same thing leading up to LA.

If you're asking what a Continental Games is, for us in Canada, it is the Pan Am Games. For 2027, the Pan Am Games will be held in Lima, Peru. This is not to be confused with the Pan Am Championships, which occur every year. The Pan Am Games are held every four years, always the year before the Olympics.

It is estimated that 41 countries available to compete will be at the Games. Over 7,000 athletes will participate in 38 different sports. The Pan Am Games for 2027 will run from July 23rd to August 8th, and this won't be just a qualifying event for the Olympics for Archery. It will be a qualifying Olympic event for many sports that will be taking place at these Pan Am Games.

The other Games will be the European Games, there are the Asia Games, Oceania Games, and Africa Games, and these Games will all typically take place in 2027, as well, with their own number of athletes and their own number of participating countries.

Next up, let's talk about the Individual Recurve quota spots and the pathways for them to attend the LA 2028 Olympics. How does a Recurve Archer qualify?

So per gender, for the Individual Recurve Archer, there are 28 available spots. So 28 Men's spots and 28 Women's spots. This is exactly the same as in Paris and those 28 spots per gender are spread out over the course of the qualifying window over several events, and that's good news for countries that cannot put a team together, but do still have individual Archers that are hoping to attend LA.

So the breakdown for qualifying Individual Recurve Archers the highest ranked individuals from countries that did not qualify a team at the 2027 World Archery Championships will qualify individuals. The five winners of the Mixed Team events from the various Continental games, as I mentioned, Europe, Africa, the Americas, Oceania, and Asia will win spots to the Olympics. The top two individuals at the Continental Games of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In total, there are six spots. There are standalone continental qualification tournaments for a total of 10 spots: three for Europe, two for Asia, two for the Americas, two for Africa, and one for Oceania. And the top two athletes in the rankings at the FQT just before the Games will have two spots. There are two spots available for the highest top ranked athletes at the FQT just before the Olympics. And of course there are two spots per gender for Universality.

So what does this all mean from an Archer's perspective? It means that if you want to be at the LA Olympics. You do not necessarily have to qualify as a Team. There is still an option for you to qualify as an individual. However, you are going to need a strategically planned competition schedule, and you're going to have to hit just the right events that will allow you to qualify within the window.

Now let's turn to the Compound Mixed Team. For the first time in history, Compound will be at the Olympics. However, the only event allowed is the Compound Mixed team, which is two Archers, one per gender, but there will be 12 Mixed teams from 12 different countries. That is a total of 24 Archers.

So how will these all be doled out? The top three Compound Mixed teams at the 2027 World Archery Championships again in Columbia. The top three will be given quota spots. Next, the Mixed Team champions at the Continental Games of Europe, Africa, the Americas, Oceania, and Asia. That will be five teams in total will get spots, and then the next highest teams on the Continental Mixed Team World Ranking list will be given two spots. Of course, the Host Nation, the USA, will get one spot again, permitting that they meet all participation criteria.

And then the very last team spot will be given to the winner of the Compound Mixed Team at the FQT. And again, remember, Compound Archers are only vying for Mixed team spots. There are no individual spots for Compound Archers, and this all makes the World Championships and Continental Games crucial for performance results.

If your Archer is on the Compound pathway. The inclusion in the Olympic Games definitely adds a whole new layer to training and planning for the future.

Know that Mixed Team chemistry makes a huge difference. Countries actually started planning their Mixed Team combos as soon as the announcement was made, and that was made in April of 2025.

You cannot just throw together a pair and assume that they're going to perform well. Chemistry absolutely matters when it comes to Team, both three-person Team and the Mixed Team. And, selection policies within the country become even more important because only two Archers from each country can stand on the Olympic stage.

What is really interesting and a point that came up as soon as Compound was named was what happens when a country has one significantly strong Archer, however, that Archer does not have an equally strong counterpart within their country.

There were some theories that some countries would actually ask Archers to move from one country to another to make that pairing. But if a - an Archer moves from one country to another, there is a one-year mandatory no-competition policy. If someone did decide to move, it would be 2026 that they would actually take their no-compete or potentially part of 2025, into 2026, so that they could work on these pairings.

A lot is going to happen and we won't actually know until the Mixed pairings are shared by the countries when it comes to the Olympics.

Next, let's talk about the Minimum Qualification Scores or the MQS. This is another area where the LA 2028 Olympics looks a little bit different than Paris.

To be eligible for the Games, Archers must shoot a minimum score at a World Archery registered event during the qualification period, which again starts in 2027 and goes into 2028 right before the Olympics in July.

This is true for Recurve Archers and Compound Archers for LA. The MQS has actually been increased for Recurve Archers and defined for Compound Archers for the first time.

These scores are based on a 720 round during the qualification window at 70 meters for Recurve Archers, and 50 meters for Compound Archers.

And, the MQS for each category: the Recurve Men is 650; Recurve Women, 620; Compound Men, 690; Compound Women, 670. Just because an Archer achieves the MQS, it does not guarantee anybody a place.

Consider achieving the MQS as an opening of a door, which the Archer is allowed to walk through. A National Olympic Committee, again, of which every Olympic nation has, can only accept Archers who have achieved this MQS within the set timeframe for their names to even go forward in the nomination process.

For families: what does this mean? It means that this has been outlined as a benchmark that your Archer can actually work towards. If your Archer's long-term goal is Brisbane '32 or the Olympics for 2036, which has yet to be named, stick this MQS number on the fridge. Have them write it down in their Archery journal. You have to be aware of this score.

And, do note that some countries will actually do an Olympic Trials. It is totally up to the country to determine who is allowed to participate in the Trials. Some trials are Open, but some trials will take that MQS provided by the IOC, and they will determine who can attend the trials based on that MQS. And, it is your responsibility as the Archer and as the family of an Archer to know those numbers, know those internal policies, and know how the framework works.

So when does the race to LA actually start? Here's the timing: an Olympic quadrennial or four-year cycle sounds like a long time, but actually it's not. There are no Olympic quota spots available for 2026. However, the major events of this calendar year are going to set the stage and give Archers international experience that will benefit them moving towards the Olympics.

If your Archer is in the high performance pipeline, your federation or your high performance director is already likely mapping out the events that your Archer and the team will need to attend, and what the internal selection policies will look like, and the key dates for LA.

And, if your Archer is a targeted Archer for LA 2028, chances are very high that you already know. They are either part of the national team roster. They are being brought into the fold for services such as mental performance or specific coaching.

The Olympics is coming up quickly. We are in 2026. 2027 is going to be a huge year. Federations are getting their Archers ready this year for next year.

We have actually been through one Olympic cycle where Canada was essentially racing around the world, trying to win an Olympic spot for a Team. I have been an Archery Mom during this process, and my Archer ended up being an alternate for the Canadian Team because Canada did not win a Team spot. So he became an alternate.

If Canada had won a team spot, my Archer would be an Olympian. But because again, of everything that I've already explained, that a country can either qualify a team or an individual, that's just the way essentially the chips fell.

So if you are a parent of an Archer who is part of your national team, who will be competing in events, in an attempt to win quota spots, know that it's going to be stressful for what feels like a very, very long time.

Maybe I'll actually do an episode on that. There are a lot of emotions that go into supporting your Archer during an Olympic qualification window, which is essentially 13 months, 12 months, I can't remember exactly, but that's a long time to be in a stressful situation with a lot of hopes and dreams on the line.

Uh, yeah, actually that is definitely an episode I'm going to do and I might actually bring in some other parents that have experienced this. So here I am formulating a new episode for the future while I'm recording this one.

Let's talk about some big takeaways from this IOC framework, but also from this episode.

The dream of attending an Olympic Games is actually very, very structured and your Archer needs to participate in that. This is not optional. Every country will have a very streamlined mandatory program that those that want to attend an Olympic Games must go through.

The pathway can be complex. Actually, because Compound has been added there are more routes to the Games than ever before. For Recurve, qualifying a team is actually still the most powerful way a country has to bring multiple Archers to the Games. On the other side of that, there are fewer spots making it even more difficult.

So again, that MQS, for whatever category your Archer is in, it is a performance target that your Archer must work towards.

Most importantly, make sure that you acknowledge that the selection of an Archer is National. It is not personal. Please do not take it personally when a specific Archer or Team wins a quota spot. The National Olympic Committee decides which Archer actually goes. So domestic trials, rankings, internal criteria will remain just as important as results for these international events that I've mentioned previously.

Your responsibility as a parent is to get familiarized with this document that I'm summarizing, but don't just take my word for it. Make sure that you find this document and you learn what is expected of your own Archer.

Go to the official document, talk to the High Performance Director of your country's program, and make sure that you know what events they need to go to. And, support them the best way you can.

Yes, it'll be emotionally, but you know what? It is also potentially going to be financially.

So with all this high performance talk, I do want to also speak with the families who have Archers that are not yet at the point where they are competing internationally.

Maybe your Archer is just moving into the senior U 21 categories. Maybe they're just getting into shooting 70 meters or 50 meters. Let me just reassure you that the Olympic qualification system for LA is a snapshot. That is what the very top looks like, but know what your Archer is doing right now are actually the building blocks for whatever is to come down the road.

Things like consistent form, competition experience at every level, learning to manage their nerves, being self-sufficient, learning how to fletch their own arrows even, and do their own repairs, and gradually achieving higher and higher personal bests. These are all important things that your Archer must go through.

And if your Archer is still considered a Youth Archer, under the age of 21, there are Youth events that are very, very important for Youth development and actually should be considered before they actually begin the World Cup Series or even Olympic Trials.

These include the Youth Olympic Games and the World Archery Youth Championships. These two events are actually a benchmark for a significant number of Archers that you're seeing now standing on the podiums at World Cups and on the podiums of the Olympics.

One thing I want to just add is if your country is holding an open Olympic Trials, do not push your Archer to participate if they are not familiar with 70 meters. And do not push them if they are not scoring in and around the MQS.

There have been a number of parents who have pushed their Archers to attend certain trials for the Olympics and Continental Games. And, I'm going to sigh here for a minute. These parents thought that these trials would be "good experience", and I'm putting "good experience" in quotation marks for their Archer, when actually their Archer really had no business being there.

Their Archer actually had just started 70 meters. She actually didn't have any scores, but because this trials was kind of later in the season, they thought, "Hey, why not? Let's give it a shot."

I'm going to tell you what that does. Your Archer all of a sudden realizes that they are against the top Archers of that respective country. They realized that they were in way over their head, but because the 720 had already started, they couldn't back out, and they kind of felt guilty that they participated. And potentially, what happens is your Archer is going to rank the lowest out of all participants because they just don't score as high as the top athletes of your country.

The next thing that happens often at a trials, is there is a series of matches that take place. It is usually a Round Robin. And, when you have an Archer who is not as strong as the other Archers or not on the National team, going up against National team Archers, these matches are going to be so misshaped.

And what ends up happening is Archers involved in the matches will not actually have good competition. So you will have Archers that will win competitions because a weaker Archer has entered and they are automatically going to lose. So then you've got a skewed finish and a skewed ranking for everybody else.

What that does is that potentially puts Archers that are not ready to be at an Olympics or at Continental Games in those events. What I have seen, and this is not just what I've seen, but this is actually talking to the coaches of these teams, is that certain people should not be at certain events because it becomes so overwhelming.

Especially if they have never done another international event, it will actually break the Archer. That Archer will never achieve anything of substance again. And I know this is super, super hard to hear for some parents.

So these people are actually earning points within this event and qualifying for a major World event and then being at the bottom of the whole ranking and then losing every one of their matches that they've qualified for.

So it actually was a super, super detrimental thing by one person saying, "Oh, let my Archer do this because it's 'good experience'", it can actually screw another Archer permanently.

And again, I'm thinking this is going to be another episode.

Okay, let's get back to the Olympics after my little diatribe there.

For an Archer who might want to attend an Olympics, whether it be '28, '32 or '36, you don't need to make every single event coming up an Olympic rehearsal, if you will, but you can pick events that will test and stretch your Archer. You can attend events that they know they can do well, and that will build their confidence. And, they're learning. They can take part in big events that will allow them to understand how international events feel and how they're run, because they are definitely run differently than your regular, regional or local club tournament.

You can talk about these goals in concrete terms rather than, "yeah, maybe", or "someday". You can put that on the calendar or to change the way they speak about that goal.

You can start learning about your country's development pathway to international competition. Each country will have one. You just have to figure out who to talk to, which events they recommend for your Archer specifically, and learn about the various teams that your country has in place for international travel and international competition.

With everything that I've talked about, this is a summary of the official document. If you're looking for the official document or more details about the pathway, the first place to look will be the Olympic website.

The next place that you can get information is at World Archery. World Archery is continually releasing news articles all the way up to and through the Olympics. And the third place that you can go to is your National federation. They will also include their internal selection policies and what you need to know for your Archer to represent your country.

But make sure that if you hear something that is contradictory, that you're going directly to the official Olympic pathway document and your most up to date policy for your country.

Alright, that was a lot. If you're still with me, you're still hydrated, you now have a big picture understanding of what Archers need to do to qualify for the Olympic Games in LA.

We've got six medal events: five Recurve, one Compound. We've got 128 total spots, 116 are earned through competition, eight for the host, and four Universality. There are fewer Team Recurve spots, but there are protected individual quotas to ensure that the field stays diverse. There are clear pathways to LA via the World Championships, Continental Games, Continental qualifiers, and the Final Qualification Tournament. We have MQS benchmarks for consideration for the Olympics.

In future episodes, I will continue to break down these rules, events, and what it means as certain countries qualify and as World Archery plans out the next couple of years for the LA cycle.

If you have any questions, be sure to contact me or leave it in the comments and let me know where you are listening from. The Archery Parent Podcast is listened to in 43 different countries.

If this episode helped make the Olympic pathway seem just a little less intimidating, I would love if you shared it with one other Archery parent.

Until next time, I am Manisha of the Archery Parent Podcast. We are doing this one arrow at a time.

The Archery Parent Podcast is hosted and produced by me, Manisha. Reece Wilson-Poyton and Elissa Foley are our Archery consultants and Fact Checkers.

Make sure that you check out all of our episodes available@archeryparentpodcast.ca, or on your favourite podcast platform.

I will see you again soon.