At the 2022 FEI General Assembly in Cape Town, South Africa, Frederico Pinteus (POR) and Yvonne Losos de Muniz (DOM) have been appointed new members of the FEI Dressage Committee.
The FEI Board held its first meeting of the FEI Hybrid General Assembly 2022. FEI Board meetings are held twice a year, once at the Headquarters in Lausanne (standalone) and once within the FEI General Assembly week. The attendance to the FEI Hybrid General Assembly is restricted to National Federations, stakeholders and special guests and is by invitation only.
FEI Dressage Committee Member: Pinteus Gets Elected
Portuguese dressage judge Frederico Pinteus has been appointed to the FEI Dressage Committee by the FEI Board.
There were five candidates for the seat on the FEI Dressage Committee, which Russian judge Irina Maknami had to vacate after a four-year term. The candidates were four judges - Trond Asmyr (NOR), Minako Furuoka (JPN), Frederico Pinteus (POR), Gary Rockwell (USA) - and one athlete, Diana al Shaer (PLE).
Eurodressage already posted in August that Pinteus had received the vote of confidence from the current FEI Dressage Committee (DC) and this was now ratified by the FEI Board in Cape Town.
FEI Athletes' Representative: Only 15 Dressage Riders Voted!
For dressage the position of FEI Athletes' Representative was up for renewal with Beatriz Ferrer-Salat (ESP) being the outgoing member.
Yvonne Losos de Muniz (DOM) was the only (!) candidate for the position of FEI Athletes' Representative for the term 2022 - 2026.
Of the 354 international dressage athletes that were eligible to vote for the new representative only 15 (!!!) bothered to do so. This means that she obtained 100% of the votes but the voters' participation was a poor 4.24%.
For the eventing representative, the voters' turn-out was even less with Bettina Hoy getting the job with 5 votes out of 337 for her position.
"The FEI Athlete Representatives play a vital role and provide a voice to the Athlete community within the global FEI decision making process," the FEI stated. "There is one Representative per discipline. They sit for a four year term (non-renewable) on their respective discipline’s FEI Technical Committee and are also a member of the FEI Athletes Committee with all the other Athlete Representatives."
The Board noted the limited participation from the Athletes Community in terms of candidatures received, with only three disciplines receiving multiple candidates, as well the limited participation in the voting process in spite of targeted communications to National Federations, Official Stakeholders and eligible athletes.
New Dressage Committee Going into 2023
The FEI Dressage Committee is constituted by a Chair (Maribel Alonso - MEX), deputy chair (Irina Maknami - RUS), the FEI Athletes Representative (Beatriz Ferrer-Salat - ESP), a show organizers' representative (Patrik Kittel - SWE), as well as by members (Monica Theodorescu - GER) and (Peter Storr - GBR) who represent their national federations.
Maknami's spot will now be taken by Pinteus and Ferrer-Salat's spot by Yvonne Losos de Muniz.
Related Links
Five Candidates for Irina Maknami's Seat on the FEI Dressage Committee
Yvonne Losos de Muniz, Only Candidate for FEI Athletes' Representative Position