Equiratings posted the attached graphic on the top 10 Olympic eventing finishing scores.
The top 5 finishers from this morning all made the top 10 overall scores. Jung, Burton, and Collett have the top 3, McEwen has the 5th, and Tomoto has the 10th. Kind of crazy that half of the all time best scores are now from this Olympics.
My understanding was the whole reason they switched to 3 person teams was to open up more slots to include an increased number of countries. Not only more spots, but also helps to include countries that could field a team of 3 but not 4.
Is this really the reason? I thought it was a time issue.
Overall:
This was probably the best Olympic Games for eventing I’ve ever seen. So much fan enthusiasm, so much quality riding, really good pictures overall… it worked. Some really great stories too, particularly Japan and France.
U.S.:
Agree with many upthread that I still feel like this was a very good U.S. team with a very good performance - by far the best team we’ve fielded in a long time. The games were really just one year too early for our two young horses, but I’m still incredibly impressed with the entire team.
I hated the little ditch on cross-country. It was a total trap and every issue there was caused by horses not reading the question correctly. It seemed like the vast majority didn’t notice it at all and it came to blind luck on whether your stride pattern just happened to go over, or into, the ditch. For me, it didn’t test anything and was just used as a wild card to shake things up.
We didn’t see it, but I do feel like Caroline’s 20 was one of those that was just unlucky. I do slightly criticize someone (Caroline and/or team management) for not realizing that she couldn’t reroute to the the option and for her additional time penalties. Who knows if we had been later in the rotation if we would have had the same result there.
They all three did excellent in the showjumping and that made a huge difference. I don’t remember the last major championship where we haven’t had a mediocre at best day, with many being real disasters. It’s coming together, especially considering all the headline U.S. horses that weren’t here and the fact that we were missing Will.
That being said, Liz & Cooley Nutcracker are pretty cemented on future teams baring some huge reversal in form after this weekend, IMO. That horse is incredible already and there’s a lot more to improve in there. To have a 10 year-old preform that well across the entire weekend… by the World’s he should be in for a shot at an individual medal. Back that up with Commando, Blake, Diabolo/Chin Tonic, 2026 could be the year.
Maybe we should ditch the team format altogether and just proceed with the individual event with whoever qualifies . .
I don’t hate this type of format for the Olympics only, really seemed like it worked, lots of moving parts.
I think a lot more of the later riders chose the left hand option at the 16 complex. If you chose the left hand option, there was no ditch, and the time difference was minor. Most of the riders who chose the right hand option made it through, but there were some scares, and that is where Christoph Wahler came to grief. I tend to think Caroline’s R was not as much unlucky as a lack of anticipation of how the light/shadow and the relative insignificance of the ditch might be influential.
As you said in regard to understanding the options, that is not just on Caroline. Would Caroline/the US have done something different if we had more intel sooner? 
My only complaint is being able to sub in a fresh SJ horse for a paltry 20 penalties. 
Make all substitutions mid-competition an equally hefty penalty (instead of 100 v. 200 v. 20) and I really like how everything went.
agreed, it should cost more like 100
I assume what happened to Caroline was pretty much exactly what happened to the first French rider. The horse tripped through the ditch, but he essentially threw him over the C element.
From Caroline’s’ interviews I’ve read, it sounds like she maybe could have made the C, but she pulled left and jumped the final element of the alternative (B/C). I really wish we had seen it on the live stream.
ETA: agree with you about the light + the ground for the first group of team riders
I have a question coming from dressage land…the first rider in the show jumping riding for Japan (Alex) had a really loose chin strap. I mean yiouy could fit your hand between the strap and his chin. Being a ring steward at dressage shows I would have had to tell him to tighten that thing up and if the TD or judge saw it they would have a word with him.
Not so in jumpers?
So the Japanese rider who completed 2/3 of the competition goes home with nothing? If this is the case, this is even dumber than those sitting on the bench getting nothing.
Just catching up on the replay of individual show jumping, and Alex Hua Tian is making this look like an equitation course haha
When the team came out the three who rode SJ were on their horses and the 4th was walking (no other reserve rider walked with the GB or French teams) and all four received medals during the prize giving.
ETA_ But, I don’t think this “counts” on the reserve horse/rider’s FEI records.
Thank you! I haven’t been able to watch anything today so obviously didn’t see the medal ceremony. Makes me very happy all four got a medal. I still think it’s dumb that all reserve riders don’t get an associated team medal if applicable. C’est la vie.
Didn’t Boyd still go the right handed route even after Caroline’s issue? I can’t remember if Liz did now but pretty sure Boyd did.
I’m ok with it. Still exciting and demands skill but kinder to the horses.
PXL_20240728_120715970
idk if I agree with the canter work in that test being kinder to the horses…it seemed to frazzle quite a few.
It looked like they had it figured out by the end of the day. If you dropped off the right hand side of the bank they seemed to read the ditch. The ones that jumped straight down the bank early in the day were the ones that had issues or near misses.
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