One hundred twenty-eight archers from forty-three nations competed in the four gold medal events—individual and team events for men and for women—that were contested at these games.

Fifteen of the remaining eighteen spots were divided equally among the five Olympic continents for allocation in continental tournaments.

[4] For the sixth Olympics in a row, the South Korean team came out as the clear victor, taking three out of the four gold medals in Athens.

[6] Olympic records were broken in both the men's and women's 36-arrow 1/16 and 1/8 rounds combined (by Chen Szu Yuan of Chinese Taipei and Yun of Korea), as well as in the men's 18-arrow match (by Park Kyung Mo of Korea) and 36-arrow finals rounds combined (by Tim Cuddihy of Australia).

[6] This historic stadium has given me strength, because it is a great feeling to see the Acropolis next to you.In the men's events, the Korean team shot 12 maximum scores of 10 to win the gold medal against Chinese Taipei 251–245.

Defending champion Simon Fairweather was ousted from the competition in a first round loss due to blustery weather conditions.

[2] The final matches of this event also saw competitors coming close in score, with Italian Marco Galiazzo beating the Japanese Hiroshi Yamamoto by only two points to win gold.

Even closer still was the bronze medal match, in which Britain's Laurence Godfrey was outshot 112–113 by seventeen-year-old Australian Tim Cuddihy,[9] who himself only managed to get into the semifinals by one point.