Four Austrians Head to Head at Olympic Team Trial at 2021 CDI Achleiten

Dressage

Austria

Four Austrian combinations are in the running for the team spot for the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo and are heading to next weeks final selection trial at Sissy Max-Theurer's CDI Achleiten on 10 - 13 June 2021.

The Austrian Equestrian Federation, chaired by Max-Theurer, has set a double 72% as national minimum eligibility criterium to be considered for Austrian Olympic team selection. Three riders can get selected on the team and one travelling reserve.

Next week's Olympic selection trial follows last weekend CDI Achleiten, where nineteen riders in total competed in the big tour, thirteen of them Austrians.

Four in the Running

This past 2021 show season, four Austrian riders have been able so far to get the 2x 72% NMER.

The first one to achieve this goal was Victoria Max-Theyrer aboard the 11-year old Abegglen (by Ampere). Their high score is 75.804% achieved at the CDI Hagen.

Florian Bacher and Christian Schumach achieved their NMER at the CDI Ornago followed by Achleiten last weekend. Bacher and Fidertraum have 73.043% as high score, Schumach and Te Quiero SF 72.609%.

The fourth rider is Astrid Neumayer with Zap Zap (by Zack). She achieved 72.609% at the CDI Munich.

Highest Scoring Austrian Goes German

Interestingly, by far the highest scoring Austrian Grand Prix rider of the moment is German based Sandra Nuxoll. She has been denied to compete internationally for Austria as she did not ride a mandatory national CDI selection event in Austria in February.

Remarkably the Austrian Equestrian Federation does have a by-law in its rule book that the Dressage Committee can decide - at their discretion - to allow a rider to compete internationally without having ridden the selection event. For Nuxoll the federation decided not to apply it.

Nuxoll and her top rider, Bonheur de la Vie (by Bordeaux x Tuschinski), won at the end of December the 2020 Louisdor Cup Finals with a 77.140% from an international panel of 5* judges in the Grand Prix. With her second horse Hanami (by Dante Weltino x His Highness) she also ranked fifth with 72.860%.

Frustrated with the lack of support from her national federation, Nuxoll decided to declare for Germany. Just days after her announcement, she scored 80.10% in the Grand Prix at the CDN Redefin.

Eurodressage inquired with Nuxoll if the Austrian federation ever reached out a hand or olive branch to retain her as a valuable rider for the team. She replied that not after her winning the 2020 Louisdor Cup, nor after her announcing she would declare for Germany, that she has received a phone call from the federation.

Knocking at the Door

Just short of the NMER is Timna Zach with Farant, who got stuck at 71.783% in Munich and 71.87% in Achleiten. Belinda Weinbauer and Fustanella got 70.543% in Ornago.

Ulrike Prunthaller, whose horse owners Edda and Wenzel Schmidt have been in a year-long legal battle about favouritism against Sissy Max-Theurer, did not produce any results in 2021. She was entered for Mannheim and Ornago but withdrew each time before the show. She opted not to ride in Achleiten. In 2019 Prunthaller collected the most points for Austria on the Olympic Ranking List so that the country qualified a composite team for Tokyo.

London Olympic rider Renate Voglsang is currently campaigning Furst Ferdinand zur Fasenenhöhe (by Furst Hohenstein x Pitango) and got 71.217%, but the rider opted to focus on the 2021 European Championships as the ownership details of this horse (a part of the horse needs to be Austrian owned) were not in order before the Olympic deadline of 15 January 2021.

The Austrian Olympic team selection trial in Achleiten takes place on 10 - 13 June 2021.