Sports Then and Now

The USA women's archery team will be heading to London for the 2012 Olympics after surviving the recent qualifier.

The USA Archery Team will aiming to defy the betting odds and win a medal at London 2012, after the women’s team successfully qualified by beating Mexico at the recent Archery World Cup competition at the Golden Spikes Event Centre in Ogden.

It was a close call as to who would eventually be on the plane to London, as both teams had regulation scores of 213, and then in the shoot-off, they each posted identical scores of 127.

Up stepped Jennifer Nichols, whose arrow went closest to the dead-center of the bull’s-eye to knock the Mexicans out and ensure that the USA women’s team would return to the Olympic Games, having missed out in Beijing.

For Nichols herself, it will be a third visit to the Games, and she will be joined by the exciting 19-year-old Miranda Leek who is already ranked number one in the USA and 9th in the world.

Making up the trio for London 2012 is the vastly experienced Khatuna Lorig who will make her fifth appearance at the Olympics. She has a team bronze medal to her name, and was responsible for training actress Jennifer Lawrence for her role as Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games.”

There will be 66 teams from around the world competing at Lord’s Cricket Ground when the competition gets under way on 27th June, a far cry from 1904 in St Louis when women were allowed to compete for the first time, and only the USA were involved.

The sport faded out of Olympic popularity after 1920, and it was not until Munich 1972 that it re-emerged, since when 20 different countries have won medals. These days it has a small but dedicated section of supporters, who lead lively discussions among the Betfair London 2012 online community.

However, the team they all have to beat is South Korea, who have amassed no less than 30 podium medals since Munich, and who will be the targets for the USA to aim at (not literally!) when strings are drawn.

Anticipation ahead of the games is quickly reaching fever-pitch and over the coming months the teams from around the world will set up base in London and surrounding British regions ahead of the showpiece event.

England has already experienced a jubilee and a dramatic Euro 2012 football tournament, but nothing captures the imagination quite like an Olympic Games.