Teams of three with no drop score will remain the formula for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games following a 70-30 secret ballot in favour at the FEI General Assembly in Antwerp today (Wednesday).
On Monday, Steve Guerdat, the London 2012 jumping champion, gave an impassioned speech to delegates from the European Equestrian Federation (EEF) urging a return to four with drop score on welfare grounds, to no avail.
National federations have been nervous about upsetting the IOC by demanding reinstatement. Only a handful participated in the recent FEI consultation over three or four to a team, mostly influential European countries plus the US. Ultimately the FEI jumping, dressage and eventing committees all expressed preference to retain three to a team in recent responses to the countries requesting a return to drop score.
However, the Tokyo format has been unpopular with riders, team managers and welfare advocates, especially with the jumpers. Guerdat and other prominent members of the International Jumping Riders Club have been at the forefront of campaigning ever since no drop score was proposed in 2016.
On Monday, Guerdat accused the FEI of lying to riders over procedural matters. The word “welfare” did not appear in a letter to the FEI from the IOC dated November 3, regarding any revision to format. To Guerdat this gave a clear indication of the IOC’s priorities.
He also said he had nearly given up lobbying because of the lack of transparency by decision-makers, and because riders were “treated like idiots.” The jumpers’ well-reported fears about how no drop score would pan out were even worse than Guerdat anticipated, with some riders at Tokyo clearly not up to the task.
Guerdat’s address to the EEF can be seen here:
The three-to-a-team format was introduced to enable more countries to participate at the Olympics within the overall cap on 200 horses across the three disciplines. However, as Horsesport.com reported, it fell short of the FEI’s 55-flag target. Fifty-four nations qualified a rider, but with some last minute no-shows there were only 50 flags at the Tokyo horse park.
Some first-timers who were over-faced in the early stages of the jumping contest gained most of their qualifications at 2* level, as allowed in the developing regions. One such controversy saw the FEI overturn some results only to be knocked back by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Separately, the FEI General Assembly today resolved to tighten up Olympic eligibility requirements.
It is likely that some of the 70 votes in favour of teams of three came from countries that will never qualify even an individual for the Olympic Games. Some FEI member countries have no registered horses or riders at all.
Because of unrest about inactive nations’ rights to participate in the rule-making process the FEI approved today a new statute introducing a new “Associate” membership that has limited voting rights . Even when an Associate country becomes a full member, it will enjoy no voting rights over Olympic matters until it has qualified a single rider for the Olympics.
Nepal – whose activity levels cannot be gauged from its website – is the first new FEI member country to fall under the new Associate category. The new tier and reduction in voting rights will not be applied retroactively.
The EEF, the most powerful bloc in the FEI family, intends to take this further in its own strategic plan through 2026. EEF aims to award voting rights related to participation levels. That could give most influence to strong equestrian nations such as Britain, Germany, France and Italy which have the largest number of registered horses and riders.
A EEF spokesman told HorseSport.com: “The FEI president, Ingmar de Vos, has explicitly encouraged the EEF to find a solution for their own body in relation to the voting system when the point got raised in the context of the FEI. Then, once the issue and practice has advanced accordingly in the EEF, the discussion could be continued with the FEI.
“The smaller NFs of the EEF have supported with the approval of the strategic plan that respective modifications shall be considered.”
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