Can somebody please explain how the show jumping phases work? For example, today was a qualifier - how many riders go on, do the penalties go forward with the riders, are all riders able to try for individual and team medals, etc. The announcer keeps saying that rails don’t count today since it’s just a qualifier - that confuses me. Does everybody go on regardless of how many rails they drop? If it’s too complicated to explain here I’ll be happy to go to a site that explains it, I just haven’t found one yet. I’m an eventer and just don’t know how this works. Thanks.
The announcer is driving me up a wall- I have him on mute.
My understanding is that there are 5 rounds.
Round 1 (today) determines the order that the teams jump in for the next round (winner goes last) AND counts as one of three rounds that determines who goes on to the individual competition.
Round 2 and 3 - Nation’s Cup. Scores from these two rounds (not 1) determine team winner. Rounds 1, 2, and 3 determine who goes on to 4 and 5 for individual medals.
Round 4 and 5 determine individual medals. I think 45 go on to these rounds, but I’m not sure of that number.
ETA: I forgot to mention that individuals start with a clean slate after they qualify for rounds 4 and 5.
After round 3 and round 5 there will be jump-offs for all three medals if needed.
Thanks. My head hurts after trying to understand all that but it eventually made sense. :winkgrin:
Remember that individual riders (i.e ones who are there not part of a team) have to jump in rounds 2 and 3 also, though they are obviously not part of the team competition.
I’m glad I’m not the only one. There were like three lines, and they repeated those three lines over and over… you heard the SAME commentary with each horse that went out there… I heard a lot of, “Remember, these faults don’t really matter, it’s just a qualifier” but no explanation of what the point actually was.
Even after your explanation, it still doesn’t make a whole heap of sense to me, but I’ll trust that they’ve got a plan. 
And I’ll trust that 37 faults ain’t gonna cut it in the finals.
All riders, team and those only competing as individuals will jump the first round of the nations cup. The top 8 teams and the top 50 individuals (using faults from today and the first round of the nations cup) go on to the second round of the nations cup. Only the top 35 individuals (using three rounds of scores) move on to the individual final.
So todays score counts for something and determines the order of the teams for the nations cup round one.
Hope that helps.
I was very surprised that both Ken and Melanie kept saying that these scores didn’t count. They most certainly do, cumulatively, as they will be used to determine the top 35 that will advance to the individual rounds. And time faults may very well matter at that time. No, this particular class didn’t have a “winner”, but the faults will be carried forward until after the Nations Cup.
From what they said - it sounded like it might matter because of the order but that the slate would be wiped clean - I think the announcer - whichever one it was I cannot remember (seems it was Melanie) actually SAID that. But is she/he wrong? Sounded like this was a qualifier and those on the top horses did not mind a rail or two but it would put them in an order of which they go.
It should be explained better on TV because I was listening and was like - so the announcing is probably leaving viewers wondering what the point was. Was it a practice round or…? pretty … not smart.
This class, combined with the scores in the two Nations Cup rounds, will determine the top 35 who will advance to the individual competition. When THAT starts, those 35 will have a clean slate going in.
I don’t think this class has anything to do with the Nations Cup order, as Melanie mentioned that the Germans and Dutch are early in the order (first and second???) out of fifteen teams, and USA is fourteenth. And this class was still underway when she said it.
I think the order was predetermined for today (which Melanie said wrong), but the teams jump the first round of the Nation’s Cup in reverse order from their team scores after the round today, so the US is last.
From Beezie’s Blog: “Because the U.S. finished first in the rankings, we will be able to go last in round one of the Nations Cup (the team competition). It’s mostly an advantage for our first rider, who will be McLain Ward, because he will be able to watch others before he goes. If we can finish round one in first place though, we would be able to go last in round two, which can be a huge advantage in the case of a jump-off. Since at the Olympics we jump-off not only for ties for gold, but for silver and bronze as well, it’s likely that there will be some kind of tie-breaker in the team competition. Our coach, George, has kept the order of the riders the same as today for the team competition, so it will be McLain, Laura, Will, then me.”
This is why viewing online is so much better- one commercial at the start, and then you’re on your own, with just some tiny typed stuff off to the side if you want to see it. Admittedly live crashes this old computer over and over again, but if I wait until live is over, the whole four hours plus is available.
By the way, if you look at it that way, Will Simpson’s lovely ride is at 02:55, Pessoa’s elegant ride at 03:29, and that amazing Belgian horse, Bel, at 03:37, rider Lansink.
So the faults from the first round do not carry on to determine team placings, but they do carry on to determine who moves on to individual competition after the team competition (but are dumped thereafter)? Oy. It’s all so confusing. So by saying “the faults aren’t cumulative and don’t go on to the next round” over and over and over, Melanie was only partially right. If I were her, I just wouldn’t have mentioned it, or simplified it down to, “Remember, we’re still early in the competition, and these faults won’t carry into the medal rounds.” Dumb it down for us slow ones!
Regardless, I’m glad our riders were classy and went for the clean rounds. Build the confidence early… especially since a lot of non-horsey viewers probably won’t go on to watch the next rounds.
Can someone explain the scoring to me? For example the USA’s scores were 0,4,8,4 total 16. But their score was 12? I thought you took the top 3 scores, so shouldn’t the USA’s score have been 8?
