Member of the FEI Jumping Committee (JC), Pedro Veniss, has broken ranks to declare he opposes the rest of the committee’s support for three to a team and no drop score at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
It is extremely rare for FEI committee members to go against a committee decision in public.
On November 3 the IOC sent the FEI a letter saying how much it liked the Tokyo format. After that, the FEI jumping, dressage and eventing committees all stated that it was their preference, too.
Last week at the FEI General Assembly in Antwerp, the no drop score format was approved by the FEI’s member nations by 70 votes to 30.
Unfortunately, only a handful of nations responded to the FEI’s post-Tokyo consultation, and Steve Guerdat’s lobbying during the General Assembly in Antwerp made little impression.
In a statement, Veniss, the riders’ representative, says he “would like to underline that he is against the decision of 3 riders per team competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics, although the IOC letter has been accepted by the FEI JC. This is in spite of the fact that it is not task of the IOC to define qualification and format of the different Sport disciplines.
“Veniss regrets about the position assumed by JC President Stephan Ellenbruch, at the FEI General Assembly in Antwerp, in support of the qualifications system for the Paris 2024 Olympics based on teams of 3 riders. Pedro Veniss (BRA) (Worldwide Athletes’ Representative) supports and shares the athletes’ position and wishes to disassociate himself from support of both the qualification system and of teams composed of only 3 riders with no drop score.”
More solutions will be presented at the International Jumping Riders Club (IJRC) General Assembly in Geneva on December 10.
While the no drop score format has been widely disliked by riders and team managers in all three disciplines primarily for horse welfare reasons, the jumpers seem to be battling this matter on their own. Isabell Werth, president of the International Dressage Riders Club, gave some support but there has been no public declaration by the eventers over a policy which is meant to apply uniformly to all three sports.
In a separate vote at Antwerp, three to a team was also approved for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Editor’s note: The original version of this article reported that Veniss and another member of the FEI jumping committee, Daniela Garcia, had disagreed with 3 to a team. Today (November 27) the IJRC issued a revised statement removing Garcia’s name, with no explanation. This error is the fault of IJRC, not the media who used their press release in good faith.
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