This is what I’m seeing in the NBC app. I had just woken up when I watched the last 3 riders go so my memory is foggy but thought OT had some time penalties on top of the rail which is what initially dropped him out of medals.
The live scoring has been doing funky stuff all week.
so what does everyone think about the eventing Olympics? Are you happy with the results? Do you like the new rules and regs for the Olympics? I seriously disapprove of fallers getting to sj, unless they are allowed to get back on and continue. Was the xc too difficult? Too easy? Shall we just stop planning them in the tropics in July? The horses aren’t the only ones who suffered.
I am happy we got three clear rounds with a few time penalties. But the dressage and sj must improve.
NO, Ollie did not get an individual medal. Julia won individual Gold, Tom McEwen (sp?) was individual Silver and Andrew Hoy individual Bronze!
I didn’t see anything about contested results, I hope that is not true.
Olympics.com is showing official results as Julia/Tom/Andrew for gold/silver/bronze.
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I tried to be open minded about the new system but I don’t like it. There should be a drop score with 4 team members IMO. Considering the weather conditions I don’t think the cross country was too easy, better that then to have horses suffering from heat exhaustion. As it was, I heard a number of them really breathing hard on course which made me worry about them. And I don’t agree with substituting fresh horses into the mix, where is the endurance then?
One more thing I don’t like about this new format, two show jumping rounds. Individual medals should be determined by the same SJ round as the team medals, in other words the top three finishers win the three individual medals, like in the old days. The horses have done enough, they don’t need another SJ round.
I stopped cheering for the US years ago, despite being an American. I am a huge fan of the Brits and have given up on US eventing.
14 Likes
I think the whole sub part way thing is weird. But I did like the 3 man team as a viewer. Easy to follow the scoring and it added a lot of excitement.
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My preference (which I know is not practical) would be to disallow any traveling reserve. Instead, you have a 3 person team with no drop score and a 4th individual rider who competes for individual medals only. The same substitution rules apply as before, except that the fourth individual rider is the the one who substitutes in.
(put another way, the traveling reserve gets to compete as an individual)
You’d have the same number of horses there, about 15 more rounds in dressage, cross-country, and show-jumping, and no situation where someone travelled all the way there to not be called into action.
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It would have been a nice gesture if Dutton or Martin had given up their show jumping spot to Smith and Mai Baum. Both have previous Olympics experiences, and the U.S. had an infinitesimal shot at a medal.
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I think the Olympics has destroyed our sport and we would have been much better off quitting the Olympics in 2004. Not a fan of these ridiculous rules and I’m disheartened to see the next bastardization coming in 2024.
I used to believe that the Olympics was absolutely essential for eventing and worth making concessions. I completely disagree with that position now and regret ever feeling that way.
20 Likes
I think the 20 penalties for substitution would have taken away the infintesimal shot at a team medal - ETA which likely would have put the US in the same tier scorewise as Italy and Ireland rather than being in striking distance of NZ and Germany. The so-called Big 6 eventing nations finished top 6.
It would have been a nice gesture, but it also would have taken away the original team rider’s chance to move up in the individual standings. None of them were going to medal unless hell froze over, but top 15 sounds better than top 25 on the ole resume - and to the owners of their horses.
4 Likes
A nice thought, perhaps, but not when you consider this (non medal) full completion result still achieves a hearty MER to qualify for future championships. It would also be a bit rude for the owners not to see their (healthy, sound) horse finish the event.
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The substitution rule needs to be ditched. It is three day eventing - one horse and rider doing all three phases.
I didn’t like this version of olympic eventing as it was an abomination of shortened tests (dressage, XC), wierd rules (substitution), a day off in the middle and extra jumping rounds. When you think about it, it really wasn’t eventing any more than a sprint triathlon is the same sport as an ironman triathlon. Unfortunately, now that this format has been run in the Olympics, expect it to propogate out to other events just like losing the long format. since eventing sold its soul to stay in the Olympic Games, it has just gotten further and further away from what eventing used to be and should be. It needs to get out of the Olympics!
As far as the US team is concerned, while the worlds best are competing in Europe constantly, we are playing intramural in our own back yard. We have to be willing to travel to play against the worlds best on a consistent basis. Otherwise we’ll be applauding sixth place and lower for a long time to come. Doing one or two big events in your backyard each year is not going to prepare you for how you have to compete against the best.
15 Likes
I like it. Maybe the PTB are reading? LOL
The countries that used the substitute during competition this year were all countries that were not in the mix at the top of the standings anyway. I guess the Swiss were the highest on the leaderboard that brought in a sub. It would be interesting to see how it might have played out if it affected a team in medal contention.
A couple of the countries that swapped in the team alternate before the competition (AUS, IRE) got underway might have had harder decisions to make.
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Not sure I like the substitution deal, especially after XC for show jumping. The three person team definitely made it more of a nail-biter. I don’t really have a strong opinion on that other than it does stink for the traveling reserve. Some horses looked very tired during their second round, while some looked like it was their first.
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I am not a fan of this substitution thing. Especially the Sweden situation where they got to elect not to run XC yet still compete the horse in SJ. That is crossing a line, turning three day eventing into some weird team triathlon class. And it’s led to all sorts of ridiculous conversation, like suggesting people should retire sound and able horses mid-competition so the reserve can ride one of the phases. No. Just no.
With no drop score, allowing teams to continue on with a penalty for “losing” a rider along the way seems more than fair. I don’t think there is any harm in letting non-completions show jump with a hefty penalty, although I’m also kind of wondering what’s the point when you had all the teams battling it out for last place.
But none of that affected the outcome. The best riders won in regular fashion, regardless of what was happening at the bottom of the leaderboard.
I hope a second 5* improves our US riders instead becoming another opportunity for euros to fly in and pick up easy money. But I don’t blame our riders at all- we have great riders, but we have an unsustainable support system for equestrian sports. They have to devote too much energy to keeping themselves in business to be internationally competitive.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
24 Likes
I didn’t particularly mind the subbing in for this competition, I think it was nice that other countries that don’t have as much access to eventing got to at least complete for their team. But I do agree it’s not really eventing. I think if they want to keep calling it eventing, they need to do something different next time.
Now, if they end up calling it something different like they had suggested a while ago, like Equestrian Triathlon or something, I think the way it played out would be fine for that since while it’s not actually eventing, it was still mostly fun and easy to watch (though the scoring was a bit weird) and might be more interesting for outside observers. It’d be eventers competing, but it would make it clear it’s not exactly real eventing.
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I agree, weird rules and I’m not a fan of the format - leaning towards the opinion that eventing would be better off just getting out of the Olympics. But there wasn’t a day off in the middle in their timezone (might have worked out that way to view depending on where you are in the world though). It was roughly a 30-32 hour break as they ran xc early morning and showjumping in the eventing to avoid the heat in the middle of the day.
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It was nice to see only one horse death from the event. Those pins etc. must be working. The rules remain opaque however.
“Only one horse death” seems a bit hyperbolic, don’t you think?
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That’s true and at the same time Bert deNemethy had the same authority over the show jumping team. Many of the team ‘s show jumpers were also loaned or donated to the team and Bert chose who rode which horses.
When Michael Plumb’s ride Markham had to be put down on the plane to Tokyo it was another team rider, William Haggard, who offered his own horse, Bold Minstrel, to Mike to ride in the Olympics. That would never happen today!
