Equestrian Qualification to Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024

[dcro 10,210]

9 minutes ago, EupenM said:

@dcro the qualification system will be finally approved in February 2022?

Yes. Some changes will likely happen next month, but I don't think it will be anything substantial.

[dcro 10,210]

Three-member team formats got approved, once again. But there is a controversy around it.

 

Apparently, out of the NFs who voted for 3-member teams, less than 10% have actually competed at the Olympics, while out of the NFs who voted for 4-member teams, 90% have competed at the Olympics.

 

So you have a situation where an Olympic competition format is being decided by small federations, and they are pretty unanimously voting to have smaller teams (and thus more nations). Smaller nations overruling the big ones sounds fun in theory, but the thing is, most of those federations are not even putting a serious effort to build their teams. I guess they are just kind of hoping some individual from their nation would pop-up and benefit from this decision?

Here is one detailed opinion on it. https://www.worldofshowjumping.com/en/News/FEI-General-Assembly-Food-for-thought.html

[NearPup 3,052]

5 minutes ago, dcro said:

Three-member team formats got approved, once again. But there is a controversy around it.

 

Apparently, out of the NFs who voted for 3-member teams, less than 10% have actually competed at the Olympics, while out of the NFs who voted for 4-member teams, 90% have competed at the Olympics.

 

So you have a situation where an Olympic competition format is being decided by small federations, and they are pretty unanimously voting to have smaller teams (and thus more nations). Smaller nations overruling the big ones sounds fun in theory, but the thing is, most of those federations are not even putting a serious effort to build their teams. I guess they are just kind of hoping some individual from their nation would pop-up and benefit from this decision?

Here is one detailed opinion on it. https://www.worldofshowjumping.com/en/News/FEI-General-Assembly-Food-for-thought.html

I think it would be a fair trade-off to have less teams, maintain four member teams (except maybe in dressage?) and keep the same number of nations overall.

[Dunadan 1,103]

Well, this is what always happens when one nation=one vote (see the FIFA biennal World Cup idea).

[JoshMartini007 2,538]

5 hours ago, NearPup said:

I think it would be a fair trade-off to have less teams, maintain four member teams (except maybe in dressage?) and keep the same number of nations overall.

I agree, I would go with 4 member teams in eventing and jumping and have 12 and 15 teams respectively.

[dcro 10,210]

Earlier on it was announced that New Zealand would only send two individuals instead of a team for the World Dressage Championships in Herning. However that changed today, as their shooting star Gaylene Lennard, who previously removed herself from consideration due to limited experience, has changed her mind and will be going to Denmark after all.

 

Therefore the Group G qualification is set to be much more interesting than usual, with  battling it out. New Zealand has a fair chance of upsetting Australia.

 

Group F spot will once again be left unclaimed, since nobody will habe a team in Herning. Special qualifier will be staged later.

[Benolympique 2,398]

https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Paris-2024/Paris2024-QS-Equestrian-Dressage.pdf?_ga=2.147858679.1344924408.1656524450-1494378278.1656072868

 

 

https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Paris-2024/Paris2024-QS-Equestrian-Jumping.pdf?_ga=2.120072008.1344924408.1656524450-1494378278.1656072868

 

https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Paris-2024/Paris2024-QS-Equestrian-Eventing.pdf?_ga=2.182897638.1344924408.1656524450-1494378278.1656072868

 

 

update 30 June ???

[Mkbw50 438]

I'm not sure it's actually any different

[dcro 10,210]

General assembly is scheduled for early November. Outlines for the Olympic regulations and minimum requirements have appeared on the website. In my experience, these are effectivelly final. Very rarely something changes at the assembly itself.

 

https://inside.fei.org/fei/general-assembly/2022#fei-hybrid-ordinary-general-assembly

 

And yeah... It's bad. For stupid reasons, the FEI keeps insisting on raising the minimum eligibility score in dressage.

 

For Tokyo, it was raised from 64% to 66%. 64% was used for Beijing, London and Rio. Now they have raised it *again* to 67%. And that's despite the proposal to keep it at 66%, which was dismissed by saying the "increase was correct in relation to the current competition level". Hilarious thing to say after two years of an umprecedented pandemic.

 

Of the top of my head, this rule would have kept  Virginia Yarur out of Tokyo. First Chilean rider to have competed since 1968. Admittedly, I remember expecting them to finish last based on some fairly low scores posted in 2021 (she collected the required qualifying scores in early 2020). But guess what? She arrived to Tokyo prepared and posted 66%+ to finish 46th, defeating more than a dozen other athletes. Highlight reels after the ride showed her coach in tears. It was a heartwarming ride to watch.

 

But I guess FEI sees removing such athletes and stories as a win for them.

[dcro 10,210]

On the bright side, there are some positive changes. 10 teams will advance to the team final in dreassage as opposed to 8. Grand Prix Special to music nonsense (music here was not judged but required for youth and urban reasons only) has been removed. Team scores have been reverted back to percentages instead of total points.

 

Team final in jumping is back ahead of the individual final. Team USA winning a team silver after none of their riders made the individual final (=rest day) caused unhappines to some.

Edited October 18, 2022 by dcro