On Friday we brought you the then-current standings for U.S. men’s archery. The men’s team won silver in the August 6 event, then the three archers—Brady Ellison, Zach Garrett, and Jake Kaminski—split up for the individual meets.
Kaminski entered the first round, the Round of 64, to boos from the crowd—no slight to the American; he was simply facing local favorite Marcus D’Almeida of Brazil. Kaminski didn’t let it bother him, though; he defeated D’Almeida with a final score of 6-2. Meanwhile, Ellison defeated Libya’s Ali El Ghari 6-0, and Garrett beat Malaysia’s Kamaruddin Haziq 6-0.
The second round, the Round of 32, saw former teammates battling against each other for a place at the podium. Ellison eliminated Kaminski to advance, putting six arrows in the 10-ring for a final of 6-2. Garrett defeated Canada’s Crispin Duenas 7-3.
The next round, the Round of 16, took place Friday morning. Ellison and Garrett squared off against each other to determine who would advance, with Ellison winning 6-4 and advancing to the quarterfinals. There he faced Japan’s Takaharu Furukawa, beating him 6-2.
Ellison advanced to the semifinals as one of the last four shooters in the event. He shot against South Korea’s Ku Bon-chan, whom he lost to with a final score of 6-5. This knocked him out of contention for gold and into a bronze medal match with the loser of the other semifinal match, the Netherlands’ Sjef van den Berg. Ellison rallied to medal with a winning score of 6-2 against van den Berg, ending the 2016 Olympics for American male archers. In total, the U.S. netted a silver and a bronze medal across the events.
Ellison is from Globe, Arizona; Garrett is from Wellington, Missouri; and Kaminski is from Gainesville, Florida.
While archery pre-dated firearms by several millennia, shooting was actually included in the modern Olympic Games before archery. The 1896 Games, the first in modern history, had five firearm events. Archery didn’t enter until 1900; was contested in 1904, 1908, and 1920; was absent from the Games for 52 years; returned in 1972; and has been a constant Olympic presence ever since. The team matches were added to the Olympics in 1988.