On Sept. 4th at the Spruce Meadows Masters, 51-year-old Olympic champion Eric Lamaze expressed his opinions about the changes to the Olympic show jumping team format in 2020. “It’s the worst thing that could have happened to our sport,” he said in a CBC interview. “The Olympics are the biggest thing we have in our sport, any sport. Why screw it up for us?”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had been pressuring the FEI to increase the number of countries participating in equestrian events while not increasing the number of athletes. As a result, in Tokyo, show jumping teams will be made up of three riders and an alternate which can replace a teammate during the competition, instead of the previous system of four plus a reserve rider and no mid-event substitution. The drop score has also been eliminated, and the popular individual final will now be held before the team competition.
Lamaze believes these changes will have a negative impact on team dynamics and take away from the important individual finale. He also feels that the current qualification system for nations has resulted in a lot of countries taking part who are not capable of performing up to Olympic standards. “It will be disastrous if you ask me,” Lamaze said. “Killing our sport, so there are more flags around the stadium. Why? … We don’t want to see somebody get hurt. We don’t want to see somebody make a fool of themselves. It’s not cool.”
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