With less than two weeks to go, we take a look at the venue, how the weather may play a role and a peek at the cross country course in the start of our essential eventing guide for Rio
The Deodoro Olympic Park as photographed in May Photo: Andre Motta, courtesy Brasil2016
The venue
32 venues in Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Olympic Games with equestrian taking part at the Deodoro Olympic Park, the venue for the second largest concentration of competitions scheduled during the Games. Deodoro not only hosts the Olympic Equestrian Centre where dressage, show jumping and eventing will take place but is also the venue for the canoe slalom, cycling (BMX and mountain bike), field hockey, shooting sport, modern pentathlon, women’s basketball and the Olympic debut of the rugby sevens.
Located in the west of Rio and originally built for the 2007 Pan-American Games, the Olympic Equestrian Centre has been modernised and expanded for the Rio 2016 Games to create a compound of approximately 1,000,000m². This area contains the jumping and dressage arena, cross-country course plus horse and groom accommodation while the riders will be based approximately 40 minutes away in the Athletes Village. A new veterinary clinic and the lodgings during the Games for grooms and vets (72 three bedroom apartments) will remain as legacy after the Games.
The Olympic Equestrian Centre stadium where the eventing dressage and show jumping phases will take place can seat 32,500 (the temporary stadium erected for London 2012 in Greenwich Park seated 23,000) while the stables will cater for approximately 300 horses during the Games.
The Olympic Equestrian Centre as photographed in May Photo: Andre Motta, courtesy Brasil2016
The competition
Eventing is the first of the equestrian competitions, starting on the very first day of Olympic competition, Saturday 6th August with two days of dressage on Saturday and Sunday 7th, the cross country on Monday 8th and show jumping on Tuesday 9th.
Before the actual competition commences there will be the Draw of Nations to determine the running order by country, from which the individual nations decide the order in which their athletes compete, and the First Horse Inspection on Friday 5th August. With competition looming the next day many of the eventing athletes won’t to participate in the Opening Ceremony at in the Maracanã Stadium on Friday evening
Michael Jung in the show jumping phase at London 2012 Photo: Kit Houghton/FEI
The format follows pretty much that of any major FEI eventing championship with the exception of the second round of show jumping to determine the Individual medallists. In the first round of show jumping the Team medals are decided in the usual way whereby the winning team is the one with the lowest total of penalty points of the three highest placed athletes from each nation.
Following the completion of the first round of show jumping the top 25 athletes qualify for the second round however only three riders per nation may compete for individual medals. Following a second round of jumping any penalties are added to their score from the first round to give the final Individual score. The Individual winner is the horse and rider combination with the lowest overall penalty score from dressage, cross country and both show jumping rounds
The weather
Rio de Janeiro is a coastal city located on the western shore of Guanabara Bay and each of the Olympic areas within Rio have been given separate meteorological identifiers; the weather station Vila Militar, which relates to the Deodoro Olympic Park, gives the average temperature in August as 21.3 (although in 2011 it reached 37.7 and there has been a sudden warm spell recently) with an average low of 16.5
According to some meteorologists, the Olympic Games period may be subject to some warmer than usual weather. AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller is forecasting that temperatures will likely run in the middle 80s to near 90 F (29 to 32 C) throughout the Olympic Games
"The added warmth combined with the normal humidity levels could cause some issues for outdoor events, especially running," says Miller in the one month outlook leading up to the Games (Never mind the running, this will have quite an impact on the eventing!)
However it is unlikely that a significant rain event will impact the outdoor events with predictions of "Much of the time should be dry, with any isolated rain event limited to a tenth or two [of an inch of rain] at worst"
The hot weather will probably means firmer going on cross country although course designer Pierre Michelet has said that turf specialists have been working on the ground for some time and irrigation pipes have been laid the length of the track. A high temperature combined with Rio’s normal humidity could certainly have a big impact on the outcome of cross country day
The weather may be hotter than for the Rio test event in 2015 Photo: Raphael Macek/FEI
The cross country
Pierre Michelet, the French course designer that built the very influential CCI4* cross country course at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy, is also the course designer for Rio.
Pierre has been busy flying back and forth to Rio but he says that his job has been made slightly easier due to the fact that an eventing Championship was held here previously ‘so we don’t start from a white sheet’ (Listen to the full USEA interview with Pierre Michelet here).
However the new course design includes two new water jumps and several new features highlighting the local flavour of Rio; the new Rio Spectators Guide gives an idea of the layout of the new cross country course
The terrain is ‘Not very hilly’ says Pierre ‘But it’s also never flat. It makes it easy to have a balance of questions during the course and I think it’s a good challenge’
Almost half of the course will feature portable fences and Pierre is joined by the renowned Willis Brothers as the course builders at their first Olympics in 16 years. However they have previously built cross country fences and courses for the Olympic Games in Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and in Sydney (2000) as well as the World Equestrian Games.
Like Pierre Michelet, the Technical Delegate for Eventing at Rio, Alec Lochore has been buzzing back and forth to keep an eye on preparations including a recent visit to check the cross country course with all jumps in place. The Technical Delegate role at an Olympic Games is an expanded one but that can be no better man to handle this than Alec who was the Manager of Equestrian Events at the 2012 London Olympics and the Event Director for the FEI European Championships at Blair Castle last year.
