Portugal and Finland Confirmed to Have Qualified Team for 2024 Olympics

Dressage

FEI

Although not officially posted on the FEI website, the Portuguese Olympic Committee and Finnish Equestrian Federation have officially received the message that they have qualified a team for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

As Eurodressage already posted at the start of January, Portugal and Finland received their team slot as two countries were unable to fulfil the criteria.

Brazil and South Africa

Brazil failed to present the Certificate of Capability (three combinations that scored 67% two times between the 2022 World Championships and 31 December 2023). For the second time in a row Brazil qualified a team via the Pan American Games but then could not field one at the Games of Tokyo and now Paris.

South Africa was unable to field a team for Group F, as well as qualify an individual as Grethe Ferreira's horse is sidelined with an injury.

Portugal and Finland

Not the FEI but the national federations confirmed they got the team slot. These countries earned the ticket to Paris through a composite team. Three of their riders ranked the highest on the FEI Olympic Rider Ranking and could therefore form a "composite" team.

Portuguese Maria Caetano rode her first
Olympics in Tokyo, Paris next?

The Portuguese Olympic Committee posted: "Team Portugal's qualification follows the reallocation of vacancies operated by the FEI, one that was not used and another that Brazil was unable to occupy, as it did not meet the minimum eligibility requirements. (...) The qualification of the Dressage team means that Portugal will take three riders to Paris 2024, who will participate in both the team competition and the individual event."

The Finnish Equestrian Federation posted: "This is a really happy surprise! In recent years, our dressage team has achieved good results in major competitions, even though our riders did not reach their best level in last summer's European Championship. Fortunately, however, there were so many good results in the other competitions of the season that the points were enough for an Olympic place," stated Jutta Koivula, sports director of the Finnish Equestrian Federation.

Koivula continued, "the last time we had an Olympic dressage team in dressage was in Seoul in 1988. It's great that the level has risen in dressage and we can participate with a whole team. We now have a dozen international-level riders who have set their sights on a team place in Paris."