U.S. wins 1st medal of London Games in thrilling men’s team archery finalLONDON — The U.S. men's archery team captured the silver medal on Saturday at Lord's Cricket Grounds, the first medal for the Americans at the London Olympics.
But they were one arrow away from their first archery gold since 1996, which instead went to the Italians.
The team of Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski and Jacob Wukie were the No. 1-ranked team in the world headed into the Games, and survived a close match with Korea in the semifinal. Italy was ranked No. 9, and defeated Mexico.
After the first round, Italy held a 54-52 lead, which wasn't a stellar start for either team, as the breeze picked up at Lord's. They increased the lead to four, as Italy scored two 10's and Kaminski was the lone shooter to fire an eight.
To start the third round, the U.S. made a statement with two 10s, but Ellison could only manage an eight. Italy went 10-9-9; the U.S. responded with 10-10-9, followed by 10-8-9 for Italy. The Americans had closed to two points, with chants of "U-S-A" from the crowd. Six arrows remained for both teams.
In the final round, Kaminski scored a 10, Wukie a 9 and Ellison a 9. The Italians went 9-10-8, giving the U.S. an opening — their lead was one.