Sports and Activities

The Center of World Archery Moves to Gwangju

Gwangju News

From September 5 to 12, the World Archery Championships will take place over eight days in Gwangju, the city of human rights.

Outside of the Olympic Games and the Asian Games, this tournament is the largest single- discipline international archery event. Organized by World Archery every two years in rotation across continents, the championships boast a long history dating back to the inaugural event in Lviv, Poland, in 1931. This year marks the 53rd edition of the tournament. For Korea, this will be the third time hosting – after Seoul in 1985 and Ulsan in 2009 – and the first in 16 years, now in Gwangju.

Notably, from September 22 to 28, the World Para Archery Championships will also be held in succession. Hosting both championships in the same city is rare, with Gwangju becoming only the third city to do so following Turin, Italy, and ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. This year’s events will feature 737 athletes from 77 countries for the World Archery Championships and 426 athletes from 43 countries for the World Para Archery Championships.

Archery, while popular worldwide, does not require large permanent facilities, making the competition to host extremely fierce. Gwangju’s successful bid was backed by several factors:

  • The international-standard archery stadium built for the 2015 Summer Universiade
  • A structured athlete training system spanning elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, universities, and professional teams
  • Its symbolic status as the home of Korean Olympic gold medalists

To date, Gwangju has produced six Olympic gold medalists, including Seo Hyang-soon (1984 LA Olympics), Ki Bo-bae (double gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics), and An San (triple gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics). Thanks to this infrastructure and tradition, Gwangju overwhelmingly beat Madrid, Spain, by a margin of 10 to 1 in the host city vote.

The championships are divided into two disciplines: recurve and compound.

  • Recurve is the official event for the Olympics, World Championships, and Asian Games. Athletes draw the bowstring with their fingers without mechanical assistance and shoot at a 122 cm target from 70 meters away, without using aiming aids.
  • Compound uses modern bows with pulleys, cables, and a lever system, combined with a magnifying sight lens, shooting at an 80 cm target from 50 meters. The para archery events also include categories for W1 (severe impairment) and VI (vision impairment).

Until now, only recurve has been an Olympic discipline, but with compound added for the LA 2028 Olympics, the competition this year is expected to be even fiercer.

Preliminary and main rounds will take place at the Gwangju International Archery Stadium, while finals will be held at the May 18 Democracy Square. The Gwangju International Archery Stadium, the only urban international-standard venue of its kind in Korea, covers a total floor area of 3,201 m2 on a 45,396 m2 site, with 1,077 spectator seats. Hosting in the city center offers strong advantages in terms of accommodation, transportation convenience, and local economic impact.

The May 18 Democracy Square will host matches from the quarterfinals to the finals of the individual events. Known as the city of democracy, human rights, and peace, Gwangju has been recognized as a “Global Human Rights City” in AI search results. Just as Paris showcases the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River during the Olympics, Gwangju plans to highlight its human rights image by presenting the May 18 Democracy Square to the world through this event.

The slogan of the championships is “The Echo of Peace.” This represents the idea that the sound of an arrow hitting its target will resonate around the world as an echo for peace. Many around the world, having read Han Kang’s novel Human Acts – which recounts the tragic 1980 May Uprising when countless citizens were sacrificed in the fight against military dictatorship in this very square – remember those scenes. By holding the finals here, the organizers aim to showcase the historical site, leaving a lasting impression on both domestic and international visitors and encouraging them to visit Gwangju.

This September, a special festival will unite the world through archery. In Gwangju, the city of human rights, the golden arrows of the world’s top athletes, the moving moments of surpassing limits, and the fierce echoes of peace will unfold anew.

Text and graphic provided by the Gwangju 2025 Hyundai World Archery Championships Organizing Committee.