Sport

Equestrian chiefs vote in favour of format changes for 2020 Olympics

Team numbers in dressage, eventing and showjumping to be decreased for Tokyo

Jonty Evans in action during the dressage event at the Rio Olympics. Photograph: Inpho/James Crombie
Tue Nov 22 2016 - 11:23

World equestrian chiefs have voted in favour of proposed format changes for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Under the new proposals — which now go forward to IOC executive board members for approval next year — team numbers in the Olympic equestrian disciplines of dressage, eventing and showjumping will be reduced from four to three per nation, with no discard score.

Existing rules meant that the worst-performing team rider would have their score discounted and not impact the overall team total.

Eleven national equestrian federations out of 107 represented at the general assembly of the FEI — equestrian’s governing body — in Tokyo voted against the changes, including Germany, France, Holland and New Zealand.

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Voting on proposed sport-specific changes proved unanimous. These include eventing’s dressage phase being reduced from two days to one, while dressage team medals will be decided solely through results in the grand prix special test and no longer a combination of grand prix and grand prix special scores.

Great Britain, meanwhile, were the solitary national federation to vote against Paralympic format changes.

For para-dressage — a sport that Britain has dominated on Olympic, world and European stages during the past 20 years — proposed changes include a team reduction from four to three. All three, plus a fourth rider, will also contest individual medals.

Team medals, meanwhile, will be decided solely on results in the team test and not the existing system that sees team and individual test results combined. The team test will also be set to music.

In a statement released by the FEI, the organisation’s president Ingmar De Vos said: “This was a really important vote for the future of our sport if we are to increase universality in accordance with the recommendations of Olympic Agenda 2020.

“We need to increase the number of participating nations at the Olympic Games, but within our existing quota of 200.

“Reducing team members to three per nation was probably the only way to boost the number of flags (countries). Of course, this now has to be approved by the IOC, but it opens the door to countries that previously could only see the Olympics as a distant dream.

“There were some national federations that didn’t agree with the proposal, but that is all part of the democratic process. Now we need to work together to make this a success.”