I finally heard back from the FEI about whether the official reserve will compete as an individual in the Olympics.
In the test events, and there will be two this year–Boekelo and Pratoni in Italy-- the designated reserves will be allowed to compete in all three phases as individuals because the FEI is considering their runs for MERs.
The Olympics will be different. Until needed as a substitution, the reserve will wait in the barns; they will not compete unless and until activated as a substitute.
This is quite strange from an IOC bureaucracy POV.
There’s a tight cap on athlete numbers and reserves are usually banned from all accredited areas and must stay off-site and train at facilities that don’t require accreditation. If an athlete drops out (and is allowed to be replaced - this is another big issue) their accreditation is taken away immediately and then and only then can the reserve have access to accredited areas.
Seems odd to me that the IOC would even go along with this. Or maybe by ‘wait in the barns’ really means wait outside the accredited areas.
“Wait in the barns” was my wording. All the FEI said was that they would not compete until they had been activated by a substitution. But the horses will have to pass both jogs in order to compete. Rules don’t say that there will be a special jog for them; if they are in the regular jog, their riders will be on site for that.
Not necessarily. Their horse has to pass the first jog to be eligible to compete in dressage and/or XC. They would also have to pass the second jog to compete in stadium jumping, apparently whether or not they rode XC. At least I think that is what the rules contemplate.
If the substitution is made before dressage, there is no penalty.
Just read the FEI 202 Olympics Rules on Stable Access, and the Reserve Athletes do have access there, as do the reserve horse groom and owner.
It also occurs to me that the stabled reserve horses will need exercise. One seriously doubts that the organizers are required to provide separate exercise areas any more that they are required to provide separate stabling (got to keep expenses down, don’t ya know). One suspects that shared stabling and exercise areas have been the rule rather than the exception at previous Olympics which have included reserve athletes and horses.
My question is if the substitution is made AFTER dressage. In that case, a substitute would run one or both jumping phases without having ridden dressage.
In fact, if they are substituted AFTER XC, then they would do SJ without having done either dressage or XC.
That’s the way it seemed to read to me. If they are substituted in AFTER dressage, then a substitute would ride some of the phases, but would not ride all three.
That will also mean that 3-phase score for one of the team spots will be an amalgam of more than one horse-rider pair. Rider-Horse A for dressage, and substitute Rider-Horse B for XC & SJ. Etc.
IMO eventing is all about one horse-rider pair and 3 phases. So IMO this is not eventing. I don’t know what it is.
overandonward, you are correct where team eventing is concerned. It’s not eventing as we know it. But eventing is an individual sport, and the reserves/substitutes are not going to be eligible for individual medals. So the individual medals will be limited to horses and riders who complete all three phases, and that’s eventing as we know it–at least that’s how I interpret the rules.
