Galway Downs Will Not Host the Olympic Equestrian Events

Huntington Beach would seem the logical choice for Surfing, they handle large crowds and elite level competitions well. Lots of room. Trestles is nestled against the hills, prettier but cramped.

This is a moot point and likely a dumb question but does the potential host venue (city) not have to outlay their plans for where each sport will be held and what infrastructure changes/ improvements will be needed (if any)? It seems like a wild choice to do summer Olympics just outside of the desert (don’t come at me, I’m from the Midwest and all we hear is that LA area is on fire what feels like every summer) in a city that is known to be challenging at the best of times to navigate due to traffic congestion. Which is a long way of saying how were these issues not brought up at the beginning (before even deciding on LA) and addressed then?

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Better waves though.

I think surfing should be at Jaws. None of this World Surfing Championship type of competition. :wink:

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Every event we went to was awesome, Paris truly did an amazing job! Personally I don’t imagine there will be the numbers there were in Paris in LA. No one can control the weather, hopefully there won’t be fires when the Olympics rolls around and no more between now and then :sob:

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Summer is hot, but not necessarily fire season. We get the Santa Ana winds in fall and winter, and the dry conditions are what cause the fires, generally.

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Hopefully there won’t be fires: July is not typically fire season. July is usually not as hot as September. I looked up the average daytime highs for Temecula and Arcadia and they were either the same or within a degree of each other. Temecula certainly seems hotter.

I’m more worried about what @RAyers diplomatically referred to as the world situation , etc.

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Yes, but I think it’s understood during the bidding process that the plan is actually a proposal; e.g. putting equestrian in the Sepulveda Basin.

LA did a fine job with the 84 Olympics which was probably a consideration. IIRC no one wanted to host the 84 Olympics until LA stepped up.

The climate of LA is considered to be Mediterranean, not desert. But there is definitely desert if you go far enough east.

The Pacific Ocean provides a moderating effect on the land temperatures, helped by the fact that it’s not super warm, but that effect falls off with distance and mountain ranges. On a summer drive from Moorpark through the San Fernando Valley to where I live a few miles from the ocean south of LA, the temperature could start in the mid to low 80’s, rise to the 90’s or over 100 in the valley, and then plummet twenty or more degrees in five or so miles as you go down the Sepulveda Pass towards, and be in the mid to low 70’s (or cooler if there’s a marine layer) by the beach. Growing up in Santa Monica we generally could not sit outside comfortably in the summer without a sweater or jacket.

Like many things about LA (and most places) it’s complicated.

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I just think that’s kind of a cop out. LA is an iconic city and if they wanted to they could hold the equestrian events in an iconic location. France literally tore up the grounds of Versailles, probably the most famous palace in the world, to have the Olympics there. In 2012 it was in Greenwich park. 2020(1) the CC was literally in the middle of Tokyo bay.
It’s the Olympics. In my opinion, It should be a spectacle. It should be iconic. It should be a little crazy, and super memorable. It should cause people to say ‘damn, those athletes are so lucky to be able to compete in such an amazing venue’.

If it’s not, it’s just any other show. We might as well hold it in the same venue every 4 years.

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Well the horse venue may not be jaw droppingly gorgeous but if visitors build in some time to spend at the beaches that will make up for it. California has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

I’m curious what venue you’re proposing that also meets the requirements of having existing infrastructure for equestrian, because I’m kind of scratching my head.

I can think of lots of iconic places given sufficient budget: on the beach next to the pier in Santa Monica or Manhattan Beach or Malibu, an old movie back lot in Culver City or Burbank, Grand Park in DTLA, some old Western movie set, or build one someplace in the Santa Monica Mountains, Will Rogers Park (or what’s left of it), Riviera Country Club (site of equestrian for the 1932 Olympics) or another country club, etc. But none of those meets the prerequisite of using existing infrastructure for stabling and a stadium, let alone a cross county course, and some would be blindingly expensive.

They may want to and the chair of the LAOC (Casey Wasserman) has a wife and daughter that ride, but there are still budget constraints.

The Olympic stadium/arena is supposed to be pretty big, 110mx70m (source), which might be too big to make some of my dream sites viable.

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Maybe the real problem is they have restricted themselves too much with the existing facilities regulations. Any of those locations would be iconic and memorable. To me, that’s what the Olympics should be. It should be crazy. It should be ridiculous.
I think at Will Rogers park would be my pick from your list.

Except that a large portion of the Will Rogers estate burned to the ground a few months ago.

I completely agree with you that IOC and/or FEI have imposed a rather stupid restriction that all equestrian events must occur at the same venue. I simply don’t understand how they can move other events (softball, canoeing ) across the country and are seemingly imposing these weird restrictions on equestrian. I can definitely see that show jumping and dressage straight up and the eventing portions could occur Santa Anita, but not the cross country of eventing. I mean, unless they want to just do an endless do loop around the infield for the cross country where is that actually going to go. Someone else suggested Griffith Park, but doesn’t that again counter the one facility and position and then therefore why not Galway?

I posted up thread that surfing is being considered in San Clemente or Huntington Beach, both of which are in Orange County, not LA County.

And someone else asked the question how has this not been figured out long before the venue of the entire Olympics was awarded and I believe they do it eight years in advance?

None of it makes sense

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We are hosting the '32 Olympics (yaaaaay
 said no one). A few sports are being held 1800km away to the north. Equestrian events being held 120km inland of the host city, in a smallish town that - to my knowledge - has no great claim to equestrian fame, let alone 4* eventing facilities. Yaaaay
 more money. It does apparently host a 3* CCI

Toowoomba CCI 3* | CrossCountry App

Oh, I think our rowing events are being held in a river known for crocodile activity.

Hazardous crocodiles a popular attraction at North Rockhampton golf club - ABC News

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It’s fiscally responsible.

Might be more. I think it’s so far in advance that you can’t nail it down. Clearly there were holes in the proposal given that it simultaneously said no new infrastructure and plopped equestrian down in a place where there is none. .

Like maybe all it so it wouldn’t be terribly iconic.The house and the iconic round barn are gone. I was working in an imaginary dream world that assumed infinite money and no fires for the purpose of the exercise. I think they are trying to avoid burned areas: none of the proposed sites are in a burn area.

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Another requirement for facilities is a full care veterinary clinic must be on site. And it means literally a hospital capable clinic. Does Santa Anita have that?

That would be another reason other locations won’t work.

I too have heard the Stronach rumor and believe that’s what caused the abrupt change from Galway to Santa Anita. It’s too bad, the management at Galway has done an amazing job in revamping the venue over the past couple years and had some major plans to create the facility into an Olympic level setting. I have lived in Temecula for over 15 years and while traffic can be an issue around Galway at big events, I have no doubt this was taken into consideration and would have been planned for. Temecula has a lot to offer and it is a huge disappointment regarding the sudden change.

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From a friend who is a track jockey at Santa Anita: Belinda Stronach has done more to destroy horse racing than anything else. Now she is focusing on performance horses. There is absolutely no place to put an evening course on the property.

I honestly think there is a financial angle she is playing and is willing to cut everybody else off at the knees to win. At the same time this will be the death of at least evening in the olympics, fulfilling the IOC intent from years ago.

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Well, the good side of this is, Eventing will no longer have to deal with all the headaches associated with being an olympic sport.

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Stronach’s focus on performance horses extends to this very platform. They have become big supporters of Wellington International and by extension CoTH.
image

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And? That doesn’t mean that 1/ST is good for the sport given the legal issues Belinda is involved with as well as the damage done to horse racing.

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