Archery Trivia
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55 free Archery trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
46 free Archery trivia questions with answers. Archery is one of the oldest human skills and one of the most precise Olympic sports, and this quiz covers both ends of it. It runs from the 60,000-year-old arrowheads of Sibudu Cave and the Scythian composite bow to the English longbow at Crécy and Agincourt, the Mary Rose bows, Roger Ascham's Toxophilus, the 18th-century Toxophilite Society, the York Round, and archery's return to the Olympics in 1972. It also covers the kit and the jargon: recurve versus compound, let-off, fletching and the cock feather, nocks and quivers, bracers and tabs, the clicker, dry firing and the archer's paradox, plus the target face colours, the 70-metre distance, South Korea's medal haul, Kim Woo-jin's five golds, kyudo's asymmetric yumi, Robin Hood, William Tell and Odysseus. Easy questions ask what an archer's container of arrows is called and what colour the centre of the target is. Medium ones cover Olympic history, bow types and famous battles. Hard ones want the man who invented the compound bow, the year FITA was founded and where, the draw weight of a Mary Rose longbow and the name of the arrow-fletching that limits range. Every answer has been checked against reference articles on the sport, its equipment and its history, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 55 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which everyday English word comes from the ancient Greek for poison smeared on arrows?
Toxic
Toxic comes from toxikon pharmakon, poison for arrows, but Latin kept only toxikon, the half that came from toxon, the Greek for bow.
Q 02What is the container that archers have traditionally used to carry their arrows called?
Quiver
Quivers worn on the back are a film habit for medieval archers: European bowmen of the time usually hung theirs from the belt or carried arrow bags.
Q 03Quartz points over 60,000 years old, likely among the oldest arrowheads, were found in which country?
South Africa
South Africa's Sibudu Cave points are read as arrow tips from their wear, and stone tools there were hafted with plant gum and red ochre, a glue taken as a sign of abstract thought.
Q 04Which ancient Iranian horse archers gave their name to a shot fired backwards while retreating?
The Parthians
The Parthians shot backwards while fleeing, and a 'Parthian shot' still means a barbed remark made on the way out.
Q 05Which land did the ancient Egyptians call Ta-Seti, the Land of the Bow?
Nubia
Nubia earned the name, usually read as Land of the Bow, because the Egyptians knew its people as expert archers.
Q 06The English longbow is also named after which neighbouring people?
The Welsh
The Welsh were feared for it: in the twelfth century Gerald of Wales wrote of an arrow that pierced a soldier's armoured thigh and saddle and killed his horse.
Q 07Most surviving Tudor longbows, along with more than 3,500 arrows, were recovered from which shipwreck?
The Mary Rose
The Mary Rose also held many men whose shoulder-blade tips never fused, a quirk researchers link to years of drawing heavy longbows.
Q 08Which wood was preferred for making the English longbow?
Yew
Yew was prized for longbows; Robert the Bruce is said to have had yews at Ardchattan Priory cut for bows used at Bannockburn.
Q 09The Battle of Agincourt was fought on 25 October 1415, the feast day of which saint?
St Crispin
On St Crispin's Day, Henry V's archers fought behind sharpened stakes driven into the ground, so the French cavalry could not overwhelm them.
Q 10Which 1346 longbow victory let Edward III march on to besiege Calais?
Crécy
After Crécy, the French army could not relieve Calais, which fell the following year and stayed English until 1558.
Q 11In which country were the earliest known crossbows invented, in the first millennium BCE?
China
China fielded massed crossbow corps, and Han dynasty writers credited their volleys with winning numerous battles.
Q 12Toxophilus, the first book on archery written in English, was published in 1545 by which scholar?
Roger Ascham
Roger Ascham presented it to Henry VIII at Greenwich and was promptly granted a pension of £10 a year.
Q 13In which Walter Scott novel does the outlaw Locksley, secretly Robin Hood, win the archery contest at Ashby?
Ivanhoe
In Ivanhoe, Locksley splits his rival's arrow in the target, then splits a willow wand set up a hundred yards away.
Q 21The 2012 London Olympic archery competition was held at which famous venue?
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground had just 13 days after the archery ended to get its outfield ready for a Test match.
Q 22On a World Archery target face, what colour are the 9 and 10 rings?
Gold
Gold stays at the heart of indoor faces, which are usually split into three small spots so archers avoid damaging their own arrows.
Q 23In Ovid's Metamorphoses, which nymph did Cupid shoot with a lead-tipped arrow, making her flee love until she became a laurel?
Daphne
Daphne was hit because Cupid, mocked over his bow, took revenge by shooting her pursuer with a golden arrow that filled him with love.
Q 14Which zodiac constellation is usually pictured as a centaur drawing a bow?
Sagittarius
Sagittarius is usually a centaur, but Eratosthenes argued it showed a satyr, Crotus, whom the Greeks credited with inventing archery.
Q 15Hubert Van Innis won Olympic archery golds in 1900 and 1920 for which country?
Belgium
Belgium's Hubert Van Innis won four golds aged 54 on home soil at Antwerp 1920, but archery was never Olympic again in his lifetime.
Q 16Which country won both individual golds when Olympic archery returned at Munich 1972?
United States
United States archers John Williams and Doreen Wilber won; Wilber sat fourth after the first round, then shot the best second round to take gold.
Q 17Which country won 32 of the 44 Olympic archery gold medals awarded from 1984 to 2024?
South Korea
South Korea left the reigning men's individual world champion off its London 2012 Olympic archery team.
Q 18Which ancient mummy, found by hikers in 1991, had been shot with an arrow?
Ötzi the Iceman
Ötzi the Iceman was studied for nearly ten years before a 2001 X-ray revealed the flint arrowhead lodged in his left shoulder.
Q 19Which bow type was the only one used in Olympic archery from 1972 to 2024?
Recurve
Recurve bows lose their Olympic monopoly at LA28, where a compound mixed team event gives that bow type its Olympic debut.
Q 20Neroli Fairhall of New Zealand made Olympic history in archery at Los Angeles 1984 as what?
The first paraplegic competitor
Neroli Fairhall took up archery after a motorbike accident left her paralysed, and she became the first paraplegic competitor at an Olympics.
Q 24The innermost scoring zone on a target, used to break ties, is commonly labelled with which letter?
X
At indoor compound events the X ring becomes the 10 ring itself, so a perfect compound arrow must hit a ring half as wide.
Q 25Who invented the compound bow, filing a US patent in 1966?
Holless Wilbur Allen
Holless Wilbur Allen fitted pulleys to the limbs so a bow of the same pull weight could store more energy and shoot faster, harder-hitting arrows.
Q 26On a compound bow, the drop in holding force at full draw compared with peak draw weight is called what?
Let-off
Let-off gives a compound archer more time to aim, since holding the bow at full draw takes only a fraction of its peak weight.
Q 27Which English king supposedly took an arrow in the eye?
Harold II
Harold II fell at Hastings, and William the Conqueror had Battle Abbey's high altar placed to mark the spot, though accounts of the arrow disagree.
Q 28On a three-feather arrow, the odd-coloured feather set perpendicular to the bow is called what?
The cock feather
The cock feather is set to stay clear of the bow, because placing it against the bow knocks the arrow off line.
Q 29Arrows fitted with oversized fletchings to increase drag and limit their range are called what?
Flu-flus
Flu-flus slow down rapidly after a short flight, which is why archers use them to shoot at birds and other aerial targets.
Q 30The small groove at the rear of an arrow that fits onto the bowstring is called the what?
Nock
A nock holds the arrow on the string during the draw, and one that fits too loosely can let the arrow come off before release.