It was an exciting start to the day when I got a text asking if I had heard anything about a media bus being shot at! Nothing like the news of more bullets flying to get the adrenaline pumping first thing. I pulled out my computer and a colleague had already emailed me a link to the relevant report.
There was no gunfire yesterday during the last day of Eventing so I had relaxed a little, but this news brought back all my anxiety. I spent some time wondering if I should go home, but decided that the bus was shot at on a highway – not on the base where I’m staying and where the venue is located – so I should be ok. I’m not sure how many more excuses I’ll be able to come up with to justify my decision to stay.
The first horse in the ring got to dance to the fabulous acoustic music that typifies a day of Grand Prix Dressage, but this time with the addition of the less than soothing sound of gun fire. Different from the rapid machine gun fire we are now used to, these were single shots. I quickly checked and confirmed that the nearby shooting venue had events on today. Phew.
Watching Megan Lane and Caravella made me forget to be worried. They had a great test and got a personal best score to prove it! I was sitting next to a photog with a high powered zoom lens who told me that she was smiling during her test. Of course, Cealy caught a picture of her with a huge smile as she cantered down the center line – see it here in today’s slideshow. Good luck to Belinda, who kicks things off first thing tomorrow, 10am local time, 9am EST.
The top of the leaderboard certainly reflects today’s standouts. I was waiting in the media area so only got to see snippits of Rothenberger and Cosmo, but what I saw was very nice. I did get to see Schneider and Showtime, which was really magical. I’m very much looking forward to watching their freestyle.
The total shock of the day came when Adelinde and Parzival stopped mid-test and left the ring. Everybody was quite confused until Cornelissen explained that Parzival had been bitten by something which led to an infection that had passed but was clearly still affecting him. She was gutted; clearly this is not the way she wanted her horse of a lifetime to go out.
News spread around the media stand at lunch that there was a “security incident” in the stable, but what actually happened was unclear. After the competition, we waited for another security press conference. The last two had been held by Mario Andrade, Rio’s Communications Director, but today he was joined by General Ramos, the Chief Commander for the first division of the Brazilian Army. Ramos told us that:
1) This morning, the military police arrested a man with a rifle that they suspect might have had something to do with the stray bullet that landed in the media tent on Saturday. The operation was executed at about the same time that the bullet was found at the venue today, so it’s possible that the two bullets are connected, but that has not yet been confirmed.
2) The machine gunfire we’ve heard at night was just the military doing training exercises which they have suspended for the remainder of the Olympics.
3) The windows that were shattered on the media bus last night were a result of a rock thrown, not a bullet.
I suppose it’s possible that they’ve located the gunman, and presumably now I won’t hear any more gunfire at night. The third point, however, is simply not plausible and brings into question everything else that he said. Based on the size of the hole seen in the images reported in the story linked above, there is simply NO WAY anybody could throw a rock that small and break a bus window travelling down a highway. Even if the bus was sitting still in traffic, it’s just not conceivable and I’m calling horse $&!#.
