Women make up one-third of professional archers, and there are four million—yes, four million—women who participate in archery. That’s a very astonishing figure! Although the term archeress appears in several dictionaries, we simply refer to them as the world’s greatest archers. Here is a list of the top ten best female archers that will leave you speechless.
Top 10 Best Female Archers in the world [2024 Ranking]
10. An San – South Korea
An San is a female recurve archer from South Korea. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won two gold medals in the women’s team and mixed team competitions.
During the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, An also established a new Olympic Record of 680 points in the Women’s Individual Archery Ranking Round.
The young and one of the best female archers has also competed in the 2019 World Archery Cup in Berlin.
9. Elena Osipova Elena – Russia
Aleksandrovna Osipova is one of the best female archers from Russia. At the 2021 European Archery Championships in Antalya, Turkey, she won gold in both the women’s team recurve and mixed team recurve categories. She also competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics in the women’s individual event.
Elena earned bronze in the women’s team recurve event at the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei, Taiwan, 2017. One of the Top female archers took silver in the women’s team event at the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan, China.
8. Zheng Yichai – China
A Chinese archer named Zheng Yichai is one of the top-rated female archers in the world. At the 2019 Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, she earned silver medals in both individual and team events.
In 2019, she and Feng Hao earned a silver medal in the mixed team event at the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan, China.
7. Ksenia Perova – Russia
Ksenia Vitalyevna Perova is a female archer from Russia. She represented her nation in the Women’s team event at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and she continued on to partake in the 2016 Summer Olympics as well.
Ksenia placed 5th in the individual competition and 4th with the Russian women’s team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She ended 17th in the individual event at the 2016 Olympics, but earned a silver medal in the team event, with Russia defeated by South Korea in the final.
At the 2021 European Archery Championships in Antalya, Turkey, one of the best female archers, won gold in the women’s team recurve event.
6. Lei Chien-Ying – Taiwan
Taiwanese archer Lei Chien-Ying is considered one of the finest female archers. She competed for her nation in the women’s team event and the women’s solo event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Lei also competed for Chinese Taipei in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she and Tan Ya-Ting won bronze in the women’s team event. She earned a gold medal in the 2019 World Championships in’s-Hertogenbosch.
In the women’s individual and team events, Lei Chein has qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
5. Lisa Barbelin – France
In the 2021 European archer’s, Lisa Barbelin won a recurving event and became the number one competitor in the world in June 2021.
She has won several medals at the World Youth Archery Championships before and earned bronze in a world cup archery tournament in 2019. Barbelin won the French women’s Olympic selection test event in February 2020.
Since Bérengère Schuh in 2008, she was the first French woman to win a European Archery Championship. Lisa is regarded as one of the best female archers in the world.
4. Deepika Kumari – India
Deepika Kumari is a professional archeress from India. She participates in archery and is now rated No. 1 in the world. She earned a gold medal in the women’s individual recurve event at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
In the same competition, she and Dola Banerjee, and Bombayala Devi won gold in the women’s team recurve event. Deepika has won gold in two of the three World Cup stages, one in Guatemala and the other in Paris. In the process, she recovered the top spot in the Paris World Cup after nine years.
Individual gold medals were won by Deepika Kumari at Stage 1 of the Archery World Cup. Deepika’s matchless achievements have earned her 4th place on the list of the top 10 best female archers in the world.
3. Lisa Unruh – Germany
Lisa Unruh began competing internationally in 2006 when she led the German team to 4th position at the European Championships. Unruh has won team medals and individual medals in European and World Indoor Championships and World Cup stages, as well as a silver medal at the 2012 Indoor World Cup.
For the first time, she qualified for the World Cup Final in Lausanne in 2014. Unruh, one of the greatest female archers, won a silver medal for Germany at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Her silver medal was the first time her country had ever won an individual medal in an Olympic Games.
Unruh took home the gold medal in the 2017 World Games in Wroclaw, Poland. She won a bronze medal in the team archery event at the 2020 Summer Olympics for Germany.
2. Chae-young – South Korea
Chae-young is one of South Korea’s best female archers, and her dominance of the sport over the past many years has earned her the moniker “The Destroyer.” While she is presently ranked third in the world by the World Archery Federation, many believe her to be the best female archer in the world.
Young won 3 gold medals at the 2017 and 2019 Archery World Championships in Mexico City and Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, respectively, as well as one gold medal each in the 2018 Asian Games, the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup, and the 2018 games in Jakarta.
Chae-young also holds the world record for the 70m round score with a score of 692 at the 2019 World Archery Championships.
1. Kim Soo-nyung – South Korea
Kim Soo-nyung competed in 1988, 1992, and 2000 Olympic archery teams for South Korea. Soo-Nyang is widely regarded as the best female archer of all time. She made her Olympic debut in 1988 and quickly became a hometown hero, capturing individual and team gold medals at the tender age of 17.
Kim won four Olympic gold medals, one for the individual event in 1988 and three for the team event in 1988, 1992, and 2000. She earned a silver medal in the individual events in 1992 and a bronze in the individual events in 2000.
One of the best female archers of all time won a gold medal in the team event and a bronze medal in the individual event at the 1986 Asian Games.
In 1989 and 1991, she also claimed two consecutive world titles as a solo and as a team. The International Archery Federation named Kim the Female Archer of the 20th Century in 2011.
Summary
The top 10 best female archers in the world are:
- Kim Soo-nyung – South Korea
- Chae-young – South Korea
- Lisa Unruh – Germany
- Deepika Kumari – India
- Lisa Barbelin – France
- Lei Chien-Ying – Taiwan
- Ksenia Perova – Russia
- Zheng Yichai – China
- Elena Osipova Elena – Russia
- An San – South Korea
