At the FEI General Assembly in London, Great Britain, April 9, 2005, the FEI Dressage Committee decided to propose to the IOC that Olympic Dressage Teams will consist of only three riders instead of four in the future. According to the committee, this rule change will allow more nations to participate in the Games and thus enhance the universality of the sport.
Right after the announcement of the rule change, the federations of Germany, The Netherlands, The United States and Great Britain -- power house dressage nations who benefit the most from having four riders in a team -- objected to the decision and mentioned procedural mistakes, because the rule change had been decided before the planned Dressage Committee Meeting on May 20, 2005.
The rule change of three riders per nation was made on request of the IOC, which sent a report to the FEI on dressage at the Olympic Games. "The IOC was very pleased with how dressage did in Athens, but their one comment was that we needed to have more nations represented in the sport," FEI Dressage Committee chairwoman Mariette Withages told Eurodressage, calling the rule change "a logical deduction."
Eurodressage considers it a good idea that it takes three to tango in the team competition at the Olympic Games. In a team competition, the performance of every rider of the team is to count. Why should we allow a fourth, joker rider per team, who can have a bad ride without it affecting the total team score? Take gymnastics, for instance. There are six members per team and the marks of every team member counts for the total of the team; no mess-up and no drop score allowed. This makes team competition true as team effort and team spirit will prevail to individual performance and glory.
The rule change will allow more nations at the Olympic Games. "Tentatively, we talk about 12 nations and 14 individual riders from the World Ranking, but if there aren't enough riders to make a team, the national federations will be able to send 2 individual riders," Withages explained, stressing that the qualification rules will be exactly defined at the meeting on May 20, 2005. In principal and ideally, the rule change should allow 16 nations and two individual riders to compete at the Games. At the 2004 Games 10 nations and 12 individual combinations were there.
Allowing more nations to compete, National Federations and Sport Funds and Committees in the smaller dressage countries will get a more promising perspective on the future of their sport. This means that more money will flow to the dressage sport, as more riders will get the chance to qualify for the Olympics. More money into the sport means more money towards training and the acquisition of good horses. It is a spiral upwards in which the quality of the sport will automatically rise.
Finnish dressage rider Kyra Kyrklund, winner of the silver medal at the 1990 World Equestrian Games in Stockholm, is a strong proponent of the three per team rule. "I saw what it did for dressage in Finland when I competed at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul," Kyrklund said, explaining that the simple fact of a rider going to the Olympics has such a tremendous effect on the sport in the country that more nations should get this opportunity.
It only takes one awesome rider for a team to rise. Spain, for instance, made their general break through at the 1996 Olympic Games, but it wasn't until Beatriz Ferrer-Salat and Beauvalais were topping the leader board that Spain became a medal contender. Ferrer-Salat's auratic achievements have driven riders such as Rafael Soto and Ignacio Rambla to excel. It has stimulated the breeding of the Andalusian horse into a direction in which the PRE horses have become more athletic and competitive amongst warmbloods.
With three riders counting for a team score, a reserve combination will be necessary in case one of the horses gets injured at the Games. The old rule said that in case of injury to one of the four team horses, the reserve (fifth) horse had to be declared one hour before the vet check and could no longer become a part of the team after the jog. The new rule, which will be discussed at the meeting this weekend, will propose that a fourth (reserve) horse can travel to the Olympics and will be vet checked along with the three team horses. In case one of the three other team horses gets ill or injured before the Grand Prix the reserve horse can be instated.
The International Dressage Riders Club (IDRC), International Dressage Trainers Club (IDTC) and Association of International Dressage Event Organizers (AIDEO) strongly opposed the rule change fearing that "the greater universality will sacrifice quality." Though accepting the three per team rule, the IDRC, IDTC and AIDEO has created a joint proposal which aims at being "a successful blend of universality and quality which takes into account the needs and aspirations of both developed and developing nations."
The joint proposal suggests that 11 teams of three riders can qualify at the European Championships, World Equestrian Games and by selection of the national federations (for Asia, Pacific and North/South America) and that 17 individuals are selected, based on the World Riders' Ranking and who not yet qualified for the team. According to the proposal, these 17 individuals include the 5 best riders from the world ranking list, whose country has already formed a team (one per nation, meaning that the big dressage nations such as Holland, Germany, U.S.A, GBR and Denmark will be able to send a fourth rider for the individual competition). It also includes the top 11 ranked riders from nations not previously qualified for a team placing. The final individual rider will come from the host nation if not otherwise qualified.
The joint proposal also recommends the option that the fourth individual rider can serve as a reserve rider in case any of the three team qualified team horses gets injured. At the time of writing the proposal, the IDRC/IDTC/AIDEO was not yet aware that a fourth reserve horse would be allowed for the vet check as mentioned above.
The joint proposal indeed looks like the ideal marriage between universality and quality, but it has forgotten that only three riders per nation are allowed to compete in the Grand Prix Special. All its efforts to get a fourth rider sent to the Olympics will be useless as only three per nation go to the Special and get to challenge for an individual medal. The fourth individual rider -- no matter what nation he comes from -- can end up riding only one test, the Grand Prix, if he doesn't rank in the top 25.
Mrs Withages is certain that the quality of competition will not go down by allowing only three riders per country. "The joint proposal is a very good proposal," Mariette Withages told Eurodressage, "but it's not well thought through. Only three riders can go to the Special. If you look at the results from the 2004 Olympics, you'll see that only two riders from all the teams of four didn't make it to the Special and they were Heike Kemmer and Lisa Wilcox. Is that overall such a loss in quality?"
Margit Otto-Crepin, chairwoman of the International Dressage Riders Club, is mainly concerned about fulfilling the quota of 50 riders for the Olympics without having to go down too far the World Ranking List. "If we can't fulfil the quota, we'll have less riders for the 2012 Olympic Games," Otto-Crepin said. "We are searching for a solution that embraces fairness and sportsmanship."
The FEI Dressage Committee gathers May 20-22, 2005, in London. Their decisions concerning the future of dressage for the Olympic Games will be announced soon.
by Astrid Appels
info@eurodressage.com