It’s difficult not to leave one Olympics hankering for the next one. Upon returning from Paris, we started to look ahead to the Los Angeles Games in 2028, which will be the third time the California city has hosted the Olympics (1932, 1984).
While there is a lot of information yet to be confirmed or clarified ahead of LA28, we thought it would be a good time to summarize what we do know about what’s happening four years from now.
Kaylawna Smith-Cook and MB MaiBlume. Photo courtesy of Tina Fitch Photography.
Equestrian Sports ARE on the Docket – but Not All are 100% Confirmed
Last year, the FEI and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that equestrian sports would be part of the program for Los Angeles. What was reiterated, however, was that the decision to host eventing would be in many ways contingent upon securing a venue that could host all three disciplines.
Initially, LA28 put forward the Sepulveda Basin area, situated north of the city proper, as the potential host site for equestrian sports. Without any existing infrastructure for horses (and, notably, a cross country course), this would incur a cost to the tune of millions of dollars to build even temporary structures similar to those found in Paris. Remember, at Tokyo in 2021, much of the equestrian could take place at an existing facility, with only cross country built from the ground up in a different location. For LA, officials wanted to avoid this.
What emerged is Galway Downs, located in Temecula (about an hour south of LA, in Riverside County). While the selection of Galway Downs as the host site is yet to be fully confirmed, we do know that the venue has been put on the official LA program as the likely site at this juncture. The 242-acre facility that’s also a working racehorse training facility hosts competitions across disciplines, including up to CCI4*-L eventing, making it an ideal existing solution for the Olympic-sized conundrum. The venue will, of course, need to build some infrastructure to accommodate a larger stadium and a big influx of spectators, but the cost savings has been listed as upwards of $26 million.
This seems to be the biggest limiting factor on the table for eventing in LA, for now at least. “President De Vos clarified that Eventing’s place on the programme for LA28 was subject to having a single venue for all the equestrian disciplines, something he was very confident about, but that the focus on cost and venue optimisation by the IOC, along with proposed changes to the format were essential for the FEI and the future of Eventing at the Olympic Games,” a press release from the FEI published after the FEI Eventing Seminar earlier this year states.
But the sport as we know it may yet look quite different.
A New Format on the Horizon?
Boyd Martin and Fedarman B. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Another complicating factor in the road to LA is the fact that the FEI has come under pressure from the IOC to revise the format of eventing to cater more to spectators. As a result, a proposal was submitted for consideration to change the Olympic format considerably.
The new format involves a short format competition that has cross country has the final phase to determine team medals. From there, a second show jumping round would be held for, presumably, the top 25 individuals on the day after cross country to award individual medals.
These changes “were the result of discussions between the FEI, International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), the host broadcast organisation for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The objective was to make Eventing more attractive to fans and new audiences, and increase the media value by capitalising on the Cross Country phase which was a unique draw for the discipline,” according to the FEI.
The public response to this new format has been less than favorable, with most people voicing opinions that the tradition and nature of the sport would be forever changed. Having cross country last also introduces welfare questions; would riders be encouraged to ride safely, or would there be a greater focus on speed and, therefore, a higher potential for accidents? Is it fair to ask a horse that’s just run cross country to come back for a medal ceremony? What about penalty appeals, and how long they can often take to be confirmed?
It’s still unclear whether or not the approval of the format revisions are a contingency of eventing being chosen for the next Olympics. President De Vos’ quote above seems to indicate it is not, but it’s also important to understand that the decision-making process is often slow and not the most transparent. It’s best not to make any assumptions at this point, and to await the final decisions from the FEI, which we’ve been told should be coming sometime in 2025.
When Will We Know More?
Shane Rose and Virgil. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Right now, it’s a waiting game. The IOC and the FEI will be diving into performance data from the Paris Olympics, factoring in broadcast and fan appeal as they formulate a plan for upcoming Olympics. Beyond Los Angeles, we don’t know the future of equestrian sports in the Olympics.
The FEI at this juncture told us that “at the moment is that the FEI is encouraged by the selection of a venue for LA28 that supports all three equestrian disciplines, including eventing. We are looking forward to the IOC’s confirmation of the final sports programme, competition formats, and quotas,” which feels like a positive development in terms of eventing’s inclusion in the final program. Next year is looking like the soonest we’ll have more information on this.
Equestrian sports have also come under heavy scrutinization from a welfare lens, and while this article isn’t intended to be an opinion editorial, I will put on that hat for one moment to say that it’s important — forget the Olympics for a second — to advocate for the well-being of our equine partners. It’s one thing to promote positive imagery, but if the imagery that isn’t shared doesn’t also match this underlying value, then we are doing nothing other than shooting ourselves in the foot. Welfare must be a genuine, inward-looking conversation that we all have with ourselves. It benefits us to remember that our horses do not have aspirations of winning a medal or finishing a 5*. As such, we owe it to them to hold ourselves and each other accountable for their treatment and for our ongoing education of what “welfare” actually means.
In terms of attending LA28, tickets aren’t on sale yet, but you can sign up on the LA28 website here for email updates that will put you in line to be among the first to know when ticket plans are released.
There will be much more information yet to come, so stay tuned for more on the next Olympics right here on EN.
Resources:
Equestrian Center in Temecula Proposed as Host for LA28 Equestrian
FEI Eventing Seminar Press Release
Equestrian Sport Confirmed for LA28
Revised Eventing Format Submitted for Los Angeles Olympics
