Live by the shoot-off, die by the shoot-off.
U.S. archer Mackenzie Brown smashed her way to the women's quarterfinals Wednesday and Friday, winning her first three matches 6-2, 6-0 and 6-2.
In the quarterfinal, Brown had to dig deep. She fell behind 4-2 when Mexico's Alejandra Valencia hit a perfect 30 in the third set. The other three of the first four sets were 27-27 ties. If Brown had continued her streak of 27s in the final set, she would have been out. But she found one more point to win the set and force a 5-5 tie.
She was perfect in the shoot-off, putting her arrow in the inner ring. Valencia scored a 10 but saw her Olympic run come to an end.
In the semifinal, Brown went up against one of the favorites, South Korea's 20-year-old phenom An San, who had already won gold in the women's team and mixed team events. Brown raised her game, notching scores of 29, 28 and 28 in the first three sets, but she lost the latter two when An scored a perfect 30. Brown came up with a 30 of her own in the fourth set to tied the match, then equaled An's 28 in the fifth set to force the shoot-off. Brown's opponent once again scored a 10, but instead of the inner ring, Brown's arrow found the 9 ring, and she was sent to the bronze medal match.
Brown finally cooled off in the battle for bronze, fading from two early 28s to score 25 and 26 to lose to Lucilla Boari, who became the first Italian woman to win an archery medal.
An had another shoot-off in the gold medal game after winning the fifth set 29-27. An again scored a 10. ROC archer Elena Osipova hit an 8.
Brown repeated her fourth-place finish from the 2017 World Championships. She was ousted in the Round of 32 in the 2016 Olympics.
