2024 brought the Summer Olympics back to Europe. Numerous European archers took the opportunity to “Go for Gold” in Paris (FRA) – and some of them achieved it. Therefore, “European Women on the Podium” is World Archery Europe´s motto to celebrate the International Women´s Day on March 8 th , 2025.
Only the Recurve division is included at the Olympic Games so all focus is on this bow class. For some countries, Recurve archery is one of the main national sports. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to win Olympic medals.This makes the three medals out of fifteen won by European archers at the Paris Olympics 2024 more special and extraordinary. The Silver Medal in the Men´s Team event went to Baptiste ADDIS,Thomas CHIRAULT, and Jean-Charles VALLADONT of FRA, the host country and Michelle KROPPEN and her Mixed Team partner Florian UNRUH (GER) won Silver. Winning the only European individualOlympic medal, Lisa BARBELIN (FRA) made the hosting city proud.
This article focuses on the two female European Olympic medalists, Michelle KROPPEN and Lisa BARBELIN.
Michelle KROPPEN (GER; aged 28) ranked 7 th after qualification, where she shot a season’s best score of 670 and then achieved a tied 9 th place in the individual eliminations. She went to Paris as member of the GER Women´s Team who were the reigning Women´s Team World champions of Berlin 2023. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics the GER Women´s Team had won Bronze. Therefore, expectations were very high.
However, a medal was not to be and Michelle, with her teammates Katharina BAUER and Charline SCHWARZ (the latter also having been member of the GER Tokyo Bronze Team), ranked 6 th in the Women´s Team event. The GER team were the second-highest European team, as Quinty ROEFFEN, Gaby SCHLOESSER, and Laura van der WINKEL (NED) lost the Bronze Medal match against MEX to finish 4 th , just short of the podium.
As the focus had been on the Women’s Team where results were not as hoped for, Michelle had to move on quickly to focus on the Mixed Team. The GER Mixed Team (Michelle KROPPEN and Florian UNRUH), World Mixed Team Silver medalists of Berlin 2023, were second seeds in Paris behind KOR after the qualification round, with a total score of 1351. Their first elimination match, went to a shoot-off against Ana RENDON MARTINEZ and Santiago ARCILA (COL), which they won. They also won the quarter final 5:1 against MEX (Alejandra VALENCIA and Matias GRANDE), and then faced the USA (Casey KAUFHOLD and Brady ELLISON) in the semifinal, whom they beat 5:3. In the Gold medal match shot in swirling wind, KOR (LIM Sihyeon and KIM Woojin) had the edge winning 0:6. However, GER went home with an Olympic medal once again, this time Silver.
As the home nation, there was a lot of pressure on the French archery team and expectations were high. The French Women´s Team of Lisa BARBELIN (aged 24), Amelie CORDEAU and Caroline LOPEZ, was ranked 5 th after the qualification round, the highest ranked European team. But they lost 0:6 in their first elimination match against Quinty ROEFFEN, Gaby SCHLOESSER, and Laura van der WINKEL (NED). That made the shared 9 th place in the results list at the end.
The same happened in the Mixed Team, where Lisa together with Baptiste ADDIS (FRA), ranked 8 th after the qualification, but lost their first match against Chiara REBAGLIATI and Mauro NESPOLI (ITA, 9 th after the qualification) with 6:0. That meant another shared 9 th place for Lisa at her home Olympics.
So, the individual competition was the only possibility left where the French women could earn Olympic honours. Amelie CORDEAU (17 th after the qualification), Caroline LOPEZ (21 st ) and Lisa (as 30 th ) started with victories in the 1/32 elimination round. Amelie and Caroline did not succeed in the 1/16 elimination but Lisa beat Ana Luiza SLIACHTICAS CAETANO (BRA) 6:2 and then Diananda CHOIRUNISA (INA) 6:5 (with a 10 in the shoot-off) on the way to the semifinals. This was against NAM Suhyeon (KOR) who proved too strong for Lisa. So, the Women´s Gold final was again in the hands of KOR.
What followed was one of the most emotional matches of the Paris 2024 Olympics as Lisa had to shoot against JEON Hunyoung, the third Korean female archer. Lisa had to fight hard, starting with 2:0, her opponent and she taking turns winning the sets to 4:4. By scoring one point more than her opponent in the fifth set, Lisa won Bronze and the second medal for FRA. In doing so, Lisa made history and became her country’s first ever female archer to win an individual Olympic medal.
Michelle and Lisa both overcame disappointments in earlier matches and came out again to win their medals. Congratulations to our European Women on the Podium!
Bettina KRATZMUELLER
WAE Gender Equity Liaison
Vienna, March 8 th , 2025