The FEI has announced the ground jury that will be officiating at the 2025 World Cup Finals in Basel, Switzerland.
The Finals take place in the St. Jakobshalle exhibition centre in Basel on 1 - 6 April 2025.
Panel of Five Instead of Seven
In order to reduce costs for the organizers, the World Cup Finals will be judged with a panel of five instead of seven.
Suggestions were made to drop the Judging Supervisory Panel (3 members) and retain a panel of 7 as a seven-seated ground jury decreases the impact of the individual judge. The FEI went with a panel of 5 and a JSP.
The role and efficiency of having a JSP got questioned after two major incidents in the sport in the past two years. At the 2023 European Junior Riders Championships in Kronberg it became a logistical mess when a judge at C did not spot an error of course. The technical delegate and two JSP members present were in a predicament and in the end of medal podium "by agreement" was made. More blatantly at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris the panel of 7 judges, nor the JSP with three members, did not spot an "illegal" 2.5 pirouette in Cathrine Dufour's freestyle test. The rider got away with it.
The JSP was founded in 2011 and first officiated at the World Cup Finals in Leipzig. At the time it was said that the JSP is "allowed to correct the judges’ marks for factual errors, such as definite technical mistakes. One of the benefits of the JSP is to provide a “back-up” for the judges in order to protect both judges and athletes by preventing unfair marks."
The JSP also evaluates "the quality of judges in general, makes a proposal for assessment of judges and their status" (star/level). It provides a "general overview of the “judges’ world” to the FEI Dressage Committee and FEI Headquarters."
No public information of updates are ever given of how many scores were altered by the JSP at Championships.
Ground Jury for Basel
The ground jury includes:
- Ulrike Nivelle (Ger) - president
- Maria Colliander (Fin)
- Christof Umbach (Lux)
- Michael Osinski (Usa)
- Hans Voser (Sui)
Kurt Christensen (DEN) is the travelling reserve and Alice Schwab (AUT) is the non-travelling reserve.
The Foreign Technical Delegate is Gotthilf Riexinger (GER) while Diana Münnich (GER) serves as Chief Steward.
The JSP includes David Hunt (GBR), Evi Eisenhardt (GER), Lilo Fore (USA).
Photo © Astrid Appels
Related Links
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2025 World Cup Finals and Qualifiers
2025 and 2026 World Cup Finals Allocated to Basel and Fort Worth