THE FUTURE OF EVENTING AT THE OLYMPICS

The Paris 2024 Olympics may well be the last time we witness eventing being held in its traditional long format of dressage, cross-country and then jumping.

This news came following the recent FEI 2024 online eventing seminar, where despite an initial announcement in 2023 that all the equestrian disciplines at Paris 2024 will be on the Los Angeles 2028 sports programme, eventing has not yet been confirmed for inclusion.

This is because one of the International Olympic Committee’s priorities for 2028 is to reduce the costs and complexities of the various sports as well as to try to only use existing venues without making major adaptations. Therefore, a venue is required that can host the entire competition and all three disciplines.

Olympic organisers have also requested a format change for eventing, whereby medals are awarded after the popular cross-country phase. The preferred proposal presented to the FEI is that the team event would be run similarly to a short-format CCI where cross-country is the final phase, but the competition would still follow the long-format in terms of distances and jumping efforts.

Individual medals would then be decided by a second showjumping round to be held the day after the cross-country. All riders, whether Individual or Team, would be required to complete both jumping rounds.

The suggested format would therefore be:

Day 1: Dressage

Day 2: Jumping

Day 3: Cross-country, which decides the team medals and the ceremony.

Day 4: Jumping, which decided individual medals and the ceremony.

The FEI emphasised that there is much that still needs to be finalised and decided, and they have requested that National Federations submit their formats and proposed changes by March 1. The FEI are confident that a venue for LA28 will be announced imminently.

What do you think of the new proposed format for Olympic eventing going forward?