The Olympic Games should be the high mass of sport, where the Olympic spirit and sportsmanship should be central. I repeat: 'should be'. As I sit and watch the team qualification of the show jumping event, I wonder where the human and animal love has gone.
Recap: It has been decided to change the format of the Olympic Games this year, especially that of the Nations Cup. One of the ideas behind this is that it will give more countries the opportunity to participate in the equestrian Games. A nice thought, as far as I am concerned. A small note: with this new Olympic format, all countries will lose their scrap results. Only three riders are allowed to start, so every result counts for a lot.
While there was a lot of media hype earlier this week about Kilkenny's horse starting with a bloody nose (admittedly it shouldn't have happened), I think it's more important to focus on what happened today in Tokyo. Hats off to riders from less fortunate jumping countries who dared to jump a course like this. It takes guts and very strong morals. The question I ask myself, however, is whether it is necessary to let combinations enter the ring when you can actually predict in advance that they will come out with an average of 15 penalty points or even fail to finish at all. Is this representative of our sport?
Even worse: the loss of the eliminating result forced several combinations to finish their rounds at all costs. For Irish rider Shane Sweetnam this resulted in a fall of his horse while it was already clear from the start that his horse Alejandro (v. Acorado's Ass) was not really capable of jumping this course today for whatever reason. However, determined to defend his country's honour, Sweetnam persevered, whereas in a normal situation he would have given up. The same happened to Teddy Vlock. His horse Amsterdam 27 (by Catoki) was not in his normal condition today and would have been best to leave the arena after the fourth fence. Determined not to be the cause of his team's elimination, however, Vlock persevered, resulting in another fall for both horse and rider.
Our sport already has so much trouble getting into the media in a positive way. Stories about nosebleeds and blood rules are magnified. Is it really necessary to use a different format to have our sport broadcasted all over the world in this way? Is it really necessary to manifest the difference in level so clearly that a layman thinks that these horses are 'forced and abused'? Food for thought...
Photo: Libby Law