Ann Bakken

Ann Bakken likes that it is both a solitary and collegial sport.Bakken is both an athlete and coach, ranking 12th in the nation in target archery.She teaches archery at Valkyrie Archery Lanes in Mount Horeb, which she owns with her parents.President of the Wisconsin Archers Association, she has tried for the Olympics but, she says, "it's quite an elusive thing."

Matches to watch: After ranking rounds, when 64 men and 64 women compete to be ranked from 1 to 64 from highest to lowest score, they'll be pitted head to head -- meaning that No. 1 competes with No. 64, No. 2 with No. 63, and so on.Things get interesting as archers are eliminated and winners in each round advance to the next. (An arrow is scored based on how close it is to the center of the target, which has 10 concentric circles.The bull's-eye center carries a high score of 10.)

Who to watch: "On the men's side," Bakken says, "I would be watching Richard (Butch) Johnson from Connecticut.
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"As far as form goes, you'll be wanting to watch how the fingers leave the string, and that will be indicative of a well-shot arrow," Bakken says.

"If they fumble and they get hung up on the string, that would not be a well-shot arrow.It should be a smooth release.The hand is generally beside the face or underneath the chin.And a smooth release will end up back toward the shoulder or near the archer's ear."

Strategies: "Hit the center," Bakken says."That's the only strategy."

You probably didn't know: Archery is an original Olympic sport, included in the first modern games in 1896.It was one of the few sports in which women were allowed to compete from the beginning, since archery didn't involve running or other strenuous activity.

Says Bakken, "Archery apparently was considered ladylike enough."