From 5 riders and horses to ................... ??
This year’s FEI Sports Forum will take place in Lausanne (SUI) on 8 and 9 April and the documents which will serve as a basis for the discussions at this year’s FEI Sports Forum are now available online
The documents include a proposed qualification system for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, a road map for change regarding the international movement of competition horses, amendments to the FEI Rules for International Combined Driving Events, draft rules for the FEI Nations Cup™ Dressage, review of the Dressage Freestyle judging format, a report on the pilot project for the FEI Jumping Event Classification System, summaries of the modifications to the FEI Jumping Rules and Invitation System, and an update on matters raised in connection with the Longines Rankings.
As a part of the Rio 2016 qualification changes, there are significant implications for Eventing and Dressage regarding a change in the number of riders. In the introduction to the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Qualification System Proposal document, Ingmar de Vos, Secretary General /Chief Executive Officer says,
“In the first section we will discuss the proposal to harmonise the composition of teams and to review as a result of this the distribution of quota over the 3 Olympic Disciplines. The goal is to maintain the same number of qualification possibilities for our NFs in the 3 disciplines. In a second section we want to submit some general principles with the goal to harmonise the rules between the 3 disciplines but also to address new situations that occurred during the last Games and which need to be solved. And last but not least, we will also look at the specific qualification system of each discipline”
One of the results of this for eventing is the proposal that eventing competitors would be reduced from 75 in 2012 to 65 in 2016 i.e. a reduction from 5 riders per team to 4 but with the introduction of a reserve horse
In the General Principles document it states;
1. NUMBER OF RIDERS PER TEAM:
To line up the 3 Olympic Disciplines, the teams for the Olympic Games would include a maximum of 4 riders per team with the 3 best riders’ result to count for the 3 Olympic Disciplines (from 5 riders to 4 in Eventing; from 3 riders to 4 in Dressage).
For Eventing, this includes the introduction of reserve horses (1 per team), same as for the other Disciplines.
2. QUOTA SHIFT:
Given the harmonisation of the number of riders per team (4 with 3 to count) in all 3 Olympic disciplines, a quota shift is necessary to ensure the same number of nations can qualify for the Olympic Games. For this reason the following quota shift is proposed:
Jumping: 75 riders (as current)
Dressage: 60 riders (10 additional athletes from 50 in 2012)
Eventing: 65 riders (from 75 in 2012)
It is highlighted that for Eventing the simulation based on the 2012 Olympic Games of the new quota distribution did not influence the number of nations qualified taking into account the reduction from 5 to 4 riders per team.
CLICK HERE to view the full FEI Sports Forum Supporting Documents
