Not recognizing the authorities: how Osipova created a sensation and won silver in archery at the Tokyo Games

Russian athletes at the Tokyo Olympics managed to teach fans that they are rewriting history.

The long-awaited, first in many years, victories were won by gymnasts, taekwondo players, and swimmers.

After them came the turn of the archers.

In the team tournament, the Russian women's team took silver at the last two Games, but there has not been a medal in personal podiums since 1992 - then Natalya Valeeva won bronze as part of the combined team.

Almost 30 years later, Elena Osipova eliminated this gap.

Earlier in Tokyo, the 28-year-old athlete won the team championship.

However, on a personal level, she was not seen as the country's main hope.

Rather, they relied on the experienced Ksenia Perova, who, following the results of the qualifying round, took the high eighth place and got the opportunity to fight with not the strongest opponents.

Osipova is only on the 22nd line.

Both athletes reached the 1/8 finals, while another medalist of the team tournament Svetlana Gomboeva flew out in the first round.

As a result, Perova quickly finished her performances on Thursday, too, who offendedly lost to the representative of India Deepika Kumari in the joke-off.

Osipova, who entered the competition quite hard and experienced problems in the early stages, on the contrary, scored an excellent move to the decisive ones and acted as confidently as possible.

At first, she did not leave the slightest chance for Briony Pitman from Great Britain - 6: 0.

Moreover, the Russian woman managed to get into the top ten six times out of nine - an excellent result.

But in the quarterfinals, Osipova received a really serious contender - the third seeded Kang Chae Young, a multiple world champion and holder of the planet record for the number of points scored in the rating round of 72 shots (692).

For comparison, the best result in Tokyo is 680.

It seemed that Elena had no chance, and she would go home.

But Osipova got a taste and demonstrated that Korean women are not at all as invincible as many think.

After the first set, the score was equal - 28:28.

Later, however, Kahn wavered.

She first scored 25 points, hitting the "eight" twice, and then - 26. The Russian woman used her opponent's marks in full and methodically increased the gap.

The final score of 7: 1 spoke for itself.

After the sensational victory, there was simply nothing to be afraid of Osipova.

It was felt that she got a taste and was ready to fight for medals.

In the semifinals, Elena did not even notice the 24-year-old Italian Lucilla Boari, the winner of the gold in the junior world championship.

The rivals recently met at the World Cup in Paris, and then the Russian woman was also stronger - 6: 0.

With a similar score, she won in Tokyo.

The two-time medalist of the Games managed to get into the top ten four times.

She was especially successful in the second set, when she scored 29 points out of 30 possible.

The Italian woman had nothing to oppose to her.

So Osipova brought the country the first access to the final in the individual tournament of the Games in 41 years - the previous one was at the 1980 Olympics.

But, of course, she did not want to stop at reaching the final.

And there the most dangerous rival, An San, was already waiting for her.

The first number according to the results of the qualification did not need to be introduced.

At the age of 20, the unstoppable Korean won two gold medals in the team competition at the Tokyo Olympics and set out to score a hat-trick.

At the same time, the Asian woman did not look invincible at all.

In the playoffs, she more than once gave chances to her rivals.

In the semifinals, Sun almost lost to American Mackenzie Brown.

The US representative would have gained the upper hand if she had hit the top ten with the last shot, but missed a little.

So the domestic athlete did not have enough to win a historic victory.

Already in the first set, the Korean made a mistake, knocking out only the "eight" with the first arrow, but Osipova was unable to use it and scored the same number of points - 28.

The second set remained for the favorite - 30:29, and the third - for Osipova - 28:27.

After the fourth, the Russian woman finally managed to get ahead.

The Korean woman knocked out the "nine" three times, and Elena collected 29 points.

Thus, in the decisive segment, a draw was enough for her, but the finalists mirrored the set - 27:29.

As a result, the fate of gold was decided in a tie-break, where each archer was given only one shot.

Unfortunately, at this tense moment, Osipova wavered.

She sent an arrow to the "eight", while the Korean woman - to the "ten".

Later, the athlete admitted that her nerves were corny at the crucial moment.

“In our form, the result is always fair.

We have no points and no judges.

The athlete makes history himself.

Hit the target - won, missed - lost.

It's simple.

I am very glad that I won two silver medals here.

Initially, she did not set any tasks for herself - she just did her job.

There was a chance not to bring the matter to a tie-break, but it almost did not work out.

And in the decisive shootout, my heart skipped a beat - and the arrow hit the top eight, ”the official website of the ROC quotes the athlete as saying.