The women's individual at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the archery programme were held at the Panathinaiko Stadium.

In the 72 arrow ranking round, the Korean women dominated the field, taking the top three spots and setting a world record with Park Sung-hyun's score of 682.

Yuan Shu Chi and Wu Hui Ju of Chinese Taipei finished 6th and 10th.

The first big surprise of the round came when Tshering Chhoden of Bhutan, who had been ranked 54th, defeated 11th-ranked Lin Sang of China.

One archer from the top ten, Natalia Valeeva of Italy, lost in the first round, to 56th-ranked Jasmin Figueroa of the Philippines.

Held on 17 August, the second round of elimination, like the first, was a head-to-head competition in which each archer fired six ends of three arrows.

52nd-ranked Kirstin Jean Lewis pulled off her second upset of the tournament, defeating 20th-ranked Sumangala Sharma to become the lowest ranked archer to advance.

4th-ranked He Ying, however, nearly became the third upset victim and the only top ten archer of the day to fall when Melissa Jennison forced a tie-breaker that He won 9–8.

Winners advanced to the quarterfinals, while the losers received final rankings between 9 and 16 depending on their score in the round.

Lee Sung Jin, however, was able to come from behind to defeat Wu Hui Ju to keep Korea in contention for two medals.

In each of the third and fourth ends, Lee increased his lead, finishing with a safe 6-point victory to advance to the final.

With the score tied and one arrow remaining, Williamson shot an 8 to Yuan's 7, claiming the bronze medal.

Park continued to build on her scores with a 28 in the third end, bringing the match to 2 points when Lee shot a 27.