Park Sung-hyun tried to defend her Olympic Gold Medal won in Athens, along with British Alison Williamson, winner of the bronze medal in 2004.

64 archers from 37 countries qualified for the event at the Beijing Olympics.

The 44th Outdoor Archery World championship, held in Leipzig, Germany, plus 5 continental qualification tournaments and a Final World Qualification Tournament selected 61 slots for the event, along with 3 Tripartite Commission Invitations.

This round was done entirely to seed the elimination brackets; all archers moved on to them.

The Chinese archer Zhang Juanjuan defeated South Korean Park Sung-hyun by a margin of 1 point, ending the Koreans' dominance in the women's individual archery event, which dated back to the 1984 Summer Olympics.