In the first modern archery competition at the Olympics, Sweden entered three men and two women. Gunnar Jervill won a silver medal in the men's competition.
In a very tight division for the first round, Sweden came out in first place after a tie-breaker with the Soviet Union. Both teams had tied twice (Sweden had tied Poland and the Soviet Union) and won once. Sweden's victory was over Denmark. Both teams advanced to the second round with a 0-0-1 record to start, already behind East Germany which had defeated Czechoslovakia to enter with a 1-0-0 record. Sweden lost its games to those two opponents while the Soviet Union split its pair, dropping the Swedes to fourth place in the division. They played against Hungary for seventh and eighth places, winning 19-18.