No one likes a smart-arse. Riders who argued against no-drop-score before Tokyo 2020, especially in show jumping, have been relatively restrained in the “we told you so” stakes.
Of course, the new three-to-a-team format has been universally panned, but critics have reined-in their anger and frustration, aware the non-equestrian world is looking on. Unwanted negative attention from way beyond our community has come off the back of the modern pentathlon debacle, association with which we cannot control.
I’ve reported regularly on the no-drop-score controversy since it was mooted in spring of 2016. As for what actually unravelled two weeks ago, the most forthright critique comes from Rodrigo Pessoa in worldofshowjumping.com. He was one of only two members of the FEI jumping committee to oppose no drop score back in 2016. It was approved in 2017. Other top riders were still trying to get the decision reversed at the end of 2019, before Covid struck.
We more or less got away with no drop score in the Tokyo dressage and eventing. But the pressure in show jumping to keep going when a horse was upset or flagging was an entirely predictable gift for PETA to call for a ban on all equestrian sports. Lawsuits have been lodged against the IOC and FEI by other animal rights groups, unfairly picking on distinguished riders who were put in an impossible position by the format.
The IOC allegedly told the FEI to “change or be changed” for Tokyo 2020. The IOC also cannot have been happy to see high-calibre teams withdraw as soon as a podium finish became impossible. Well, you reap what you sow.
The rationale for flipping team and individual contests in jumping (though not dressage) has never been fully explained. All are in awe of the triumphant Swedes who kept their horses fresh and focussed despite jumping more rounds than the US (team silver medallists) as a direct consequence of the individual being staged first.
The jumping overall was redeemed by two thrilling jump-offs, the genius of course designer Santiago Varela and the brilliant riding of those who genuinely deserved to be there. But the opening day at up to 1.65m was patently too much for others. To me, over-facing any horse is just as loathsome as the more visible abuses that upset non-equestrians, i.e. over-use of the whip. Over-facing totally undermines all the trust we instill in the horse during years of training. The horse tries more than any being to please. Most of us don’t really earn such unwavering loyalty.
Two riders who obtained their Olympic qualifying points at controversial two-star shows in Villeneuve Loubet and Damascus over the winter of 2019-2020 barely got halfway round the opening Tokyo track. In a another provocative read, former Equestrian Australia CEO Denzil O Brien points out that two nations in Tokyo had never qualified jumping teams before (Israel and Morocco), one last qualified in 2008 because it was the host (China), one last qualified at Rome 1960 (Egypt), and one at Los Angeles 1932 (Czech Republic). Their 15 riders accrued 166 faults, three withdrawals and one elimination between them.
At an Olympic format debate in Lausanne in April 2016, the FEI announced a target of 55 flags for 2020. The Turkish delegate asked if there were actually 55 countries with any riders at all of Olympic capability. He wasn’t far off; 54 countries managed to qualify one or more riders for Tokyo, after some chopping and changing following the postponement to 2021. But on the day 50 flags were flown. Some countries had to hand back their places because only one or two riders had made the grade, initial “qualification” within their regional group having been so overtly a shoo-in.
To enable certain flags not to fly over the equestrian park, other leading equestrian nations had to miss out. On Discovery+, the commentator expressed great surprise at the absence of Canadian teams in jumping and eventing.
We can blame Covid for the difficulty some riders faced in renewing their Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MERs) after Tokyo was postponed. But many are based in continental Europe, where there has been no shortage of CSI opportunities since sport opened up again last summer. For those repeatedly failing to obtain their MERs, the FEI bolted a “special” 4* class onto a 2* fixture at Hagen, Germany, in April. There was no published schedule, and its results are not on the FEI database. Pessoa and others quite reasonably believe Hagen was not a true test.
There were 43 flags in Rio. They and the 50 in Tokyo have included a handful of riders who changed nationality in recent years.
The FEI ought to revisit qualification standards, too. Behind the scenes, people worry that an eventer will be killed. But if we continue to raise expectations ahead of ability in show jumping, we could see loss of human life there, too.
The arguments for three to a team were: a) making the competitions easier to understand; and b) to admit more countries within the overall cap of 200 starters (75 jumping, 70 eventing, 65 dressage).
But when the “alternate” rider system was cobbled up precisely because the core trio might not complete the organizers had, after all, to provide stables for extra horses, and accredited their riders and support personnel. So why not let them run? It would have added an hour or so to the schedule at venues not needed for anything else. I am sure riders would have happily started earlier (sunrise in Tokyo on cross-country day was 4:49 a.m) or jumped/ridden dressage later into the night under floodlights to avoid the heat.
Initially, ‘change or be changed’ appeared to be an unavoidable poisoned chalice – possible ejection from the Olympic Games if we do nothing versus “bad” pictures if any new format backfired. I now wonder if the FEI dared to ask the IOC why other sports didn’t have to simplify their scoring or recruit new flags?
Followers of decathlon manage to keep abreast of 10 sets of scores per athlete. Gymnastics, diving and the winter Olympics sport of figure skating still discard worst AND best scores. Skating also applies coefficients to different movements without spectators needing to stick a wet towel over their heads.
Tokyo staged baseball for just six countries and field hockey for 12. To be fair, that type of team sport has pre-Olympic knock-out tournaments elsewhere. But there are ample other sports based around an individual’s skill that flew fewer national flags than equestrian. We don’t hear much about their struggle to survive within the IOC (apart from the beleaguered modern pentathlon, of course.)
Others with moderate participation levels in Tokyo included archery with 50 flags, artistic swimming 22, badminton 49, diving 30, fencing 42, golf 42, karate 37, modern pentathlon 30, tennis 45, skateboarding 25 and triathlon 38. For context, boxing and cycling, each with far more subdivisions and medal opportunities than any of the aforementioned, attracted 75 and 73 nations respectively.
I’m afraid I have no solutions other than for the FEI to call the IOC’s bluff and reinstate four-to-a-team plus drop score, limited to 40-something skilled nations at Paris 2024. This puts the horse first and “universality” second, lest we skew our priorities again.
The worst that can happen is that the horsey folks’ perceived stubbornness will bring forward their inevitable ejection from the Olympic movement by four or eight years. The next two Games are being staged in countries with keen equestrian traditions (France and the US) but we cannot ignore where the 21st century Games are heading – towards “cool” and new urban sports and a clear mission to attract a much younger demographic.
Mexico 1968 was the last time three-to-a-team, no drop score and the individual staged before the teams all applied to jumping at an Olympic Games. Marion Coakes and her wonder pony Stroller won individual silver, beating team-mates David Broome and Mister Softee into bronze. Two days later, as last to go for Britain in the Nations Cup, Stroller was eliminated at a notorious oxer which only one rider (Kevin Bacon) had cleared all day. In the lead after two riders, Broome and Harvey Smith, Britain was suddenly nowhere.
Earlier this year I had the privilege of reminiscing about Mexico with Broomey. He recalled that newspapers were full of the Stroller catastrophe, the Brits’ individual achievements a mere postscript. We are meant to learn from history, but never do.
