Great Britain’s Olympic Archery Medal Winners
The Great Britain archery team participated all archery events at the Olympic Games with the exception of the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1904 and 1920 winning 9 medals – 2 golden, 2 silver and 3 bronze. This places Great Britain on the rank 5 according to medals won all times and rank 17 from the beginning of the modern archery at the Olympics in 1972. Archers who won an Olympic medal for Great Britain were:
William Dod (1867 - 1954). The gold medal winner in the men’s double York round at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London is a descendant of Sir Anthony Dod of Edge who was the commander of the English archers at the famous Battle of Agincourt. In 1909 and 1911, he also won the national championship. He retired from competitive archery after 1911 and focused on golf.
Reginald Brooks-King (1861 - 1938). Welsh archer won silver medal in the men’s double York round at the 1908 Olympics lagging behind William Dod for 47 points and 8 points ahead of the American archer Henry B. Richardson.
Queenie Newall (1854 - 1929). The winner of gold medal in the women’s double National Round also went into history as the oldest female gold medal winner at the Olympics. At the time of the 1908 London Summer Olympic Games, she was 53 years old.
Lottie Dod (1871 – 1960). The sister of William Dod is best known as five time Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles Champion winning the first Wimbledon at the age of only 15 years. However, she also competed in a number of other sports including field hockey, golf and archery. At the 1908 London Olympics, she lagged behind only Queenie Newall and won Great Britain a silver medal in the women’s double National Round.
Beatrice Hill-Lowe (1868 - 1951). Irish archer who competed for GB archery team at the 1908 Olympics made sure that the last – bronze medal in the women’s double National Round went to Great Britain although she also went in history as the first Irishwoman to win an Olympic medal.
Steven Hallard (1965), Richard Priestman (1955) and Leroy Watson (1965). Great Britain’s 6th archery Olympic medal and the first since the beginning of the modern archery at the Olympics was won only in 1988 in the men’s team. Steven Hallard, Richard Priestman and Leroy Watson took bronze medal.
Simon Terry (1974). The first men’s individual archery Olympic medal was won by Simon Terry in 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Together with Steven Hallard and Richard Priestman, he won the second bronze medal for Great Britain at the 1992 Olympics. Two years later, he retired from archery but he returned in 2007 and won bronze medal at the World Championship in Dover and gold World Championship medal in teams in Varese. He will also be competing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Alison Williamson (1971). The last Olympic medal in archery for Great Britain was won Alison Williamson who was bronze at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. She will also compete at the 2012 Olympics which will be her sixth Olympic Games.