USEF Explains Vote to Support Olympic Format Changes

Photo courtesy of FEI. Photo courtesy of FEI.

There’s been some earnest chin scratching in the eventing community since Tuesday’s FEI vote in support of sweeping Olympic format changes, most notably a proposal to limit teams to three horse/athlete combinations per nation with no drop score. Under the newly approved format, the active reserve can be substituted into the competition at the beginning of any phase of competition.

To quote one EN reader, and summarize the thoughts of many others: “But why?”

The USEF has since issued an explanation of its vote in favor of the proposal:

“After careful assessment with much involvement from key stakeholders, we came to the conclusion that without the change in Olympic format, it was likely that one of our Olympic disciplines would be dropped from future Olympic Games. This would be unacceptable,” said Murray Kessler, USEF President-Elect.

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) challenged our International Federation to present format changes that would increase relevance among fans and broaden global participation or risk being eliminated. These changes do just that and while we resist change, this might even make the sport more exciting.”

The driving factors which ultimately drove the decision for USEF to vote “Yes” on the format changes included:

  • Keeping show jumping, dressage, AND eventing all in the Olympic Games
  • Agreement to protect the current format for each sport at all other major championships
  • No reduction in Team USA members as the new format includes three riders plus an ACTIVE reserve that can participate and earn medals
  • Supporting the FEI and IOC’s goal to give more countries in the world the opportunity to participate
  • Supporting the effort to make the sport easier to understand and fan friendly (the drop score was confusing)
  • Numerous other revisions to the details of the format changes that were made as the result on constructive dialogue in the various committees and forums leading up to the General Assembly vote

The USEF contingent was also able to accomplish changes or delay implementation of other proposed rules at the General Assembly that would have had severe negative unintended consequences on international sport in North America. The changes to the Olympic format along with other highlights from the General Assembly will be reviewed at the USEF Annual Meeting being held January 11-14, 2017 in Lexington, Ky.

It is unclear what other “proposed rules” the USEF is referring to in the final paragraph of its statement, and we look forward to learning more about those details at the USEF Annual Meeting.

[USEF Votes to Support Olympic Format Changes at FEI General Assembly]