Lulu Kyriacou Photo
We are getting within sight now of the Olympic Games and the final selections of team managers are starting to appear in the news. Some teams, of course, don’t need to make a selection for the equestrian disciplines, having only qualified one or two riders. Others have a thornier problem – the Irish show jumping manager, for example, of deciding which of their many able riders will take their one place in the line up. However, over shadowing all the build-up is the continuing controversy about Zika virus, it’s spread and whether the Games should even go ahead at all.
But although the idea of the Olympics is pure sport bringing people together, you have to wonder about the ethics behind the scenes.
The Brazilian police are investigating claims of fraud and corruption within the company responsible for building Deodoro where the equestrian events will take part. Is nothing sacred? To be honest, where there are such huge sums of money involved in a country with such poverty, probably almost nothing. And anyway, what are a few greased palms here and there?
But then there is Zika virus and its possible effects, potentially a much more serious matter to a great many more people. A large group of the world’s leading doctors got together recently to petition the World Health Organisation (WHO) to step in and get the Games postponed or moved because they think the risks are so high. At the moment though, WHO is sticking to their ‘travel with caution’ advisory, and saying no more about it.
The thing is though that horse sports are different from everything else. It is not that horses tend to attract flies and mosquitoes, particularly as there are often pools of water lying around from equine beautification and that is not to mention the sweat during work outs, but horses require grooms to look after them. Those people are often young and love their charges almost above all else, but they are not competing themselves. Should they even be asked to travel? Anyone who has ever been a groom knows that they will not for a minute consider their own safety – where their horses go, they go. And it is only one horse per rider. Surely they could look after themselves? “I haven’t really thought about that aspect of it” said one international rider, “but now you mention it, if I get selected, my partner and I have already decided that I will go without her. We don’t think that it is worth the risk, so actually, maybe I do need to have a proper chat with my groom, especially as I can’t plait up!”
Lulu Kyriacou Photo
Another rider, who has experience with hot climates, did not think it was a question at all. “My girl has read everything from my federation, well at least I have provided the information, and the subject has not even come up. We think we are prepared, we are going to follow the guidelines and we will take lots of repellent against the mosquitoes, so we will be fine.”
Hmmm. The WHO guidelines suggested that young women particularly, should not travel unless really necessary while the effects of Zika are not entirely determined. But never mind guidelines and fly spray, I am fairly sure mosquitoes cannot be legislated against. If they could, the world would have beaten malaria many years ago.
The other thing that made me wonder about Olympic ethics this week was the announcement of who would be Ireland’s sole show jumping representative. The place was won for Ireland by Bertram Allen, who, in the same week as this decision, rose to fifth place in the world rankings. It has been a while since the Irish had a rider even in the top ten and Allen has done almost nothing wrong in the last year or two. He has won rounds at World Championships, jumped clear in Nations Cups and beaten the best in the world in 5* Grand Prix and World Cup qualifiers. He has been the highest ranked Irishman for a little while now. Denis Lynch is not far behind him on current form. Nor is Cian O’Connor. But when the press release came out, the name on it was Greg Broderick. Broderick is a decent rider and he has one good horse MHS Going Global, who, to be fair, came out best of the Irish quintet at CSI5* St Gallen, but Broderick is still ranked number 252 in the world. Okay, Lynch and O’Connor have both, in the past, fallen foul of the stewards, so perhaps that is as good a reason as any for their non selection. But Allen’s? How on earth does that work? He won the place, he is the highest ranked Irish rider and his form has been outstanding. Two days after hearing the news, he won classes at a 5* show and jumped clear in the Grand Prix (as did Lynch), so how can he not be selected? Surely the Olympic rules for the individuals should be that the person who won the place should be the one who travels to the Games? Wouldn’t that be the morally and ethically correct way to do it? Allen put his usual professional face on when asked, but for a young man barely in his twenties, it must have been a crushing blow.
It will be interesting to see who ends up on the British eventing team, with this in mind. British selectors are spoilt for choice, but among those choices are two of the riders that represented Britain at the 2015 European Championships, Nicola Wilson and Kitty King, who are responsible for Britain’s Rio qualification. Wilson because she managed to stay on after an awful mistake in the show jumping that gave the British a team score (if she had been eliminated, there would have been no team score, as the Brits were already down to three riders) and King, whose clear round made sure that team score was high enough to get an automatic Rio place. Both have been in excellent form this year, but will that be enough on its own? For the Olympic Games, the shining sporting example of bringing people together through sport, athletes together showing noble spirit and courage though competition, it should be.
