Can you believe that the Pan American Games are just over a week away from starting with the opening ceremonies scheduled for October 15th. The pure dressage riders will get things started off for the equestrian competitions at the Pan Ams, competing from the 15th to the 19th. Eventing will be held at the Santa Sofia Golf Club, which is a different venue from the dressage and show jumpers, and the eventers will ride from October 20th to 23rd. The show jumping will be the final equestrian competition at the Games. I fly out for the Games on the 18th, which is the Tuesday after Fair Hill. I have an excuse to write about the scinitllating scheduling details because the nominated entries list for the Pan American Games has been released by the FEI today.
What are the nominated entries? That’s a great question, I’m glad you asked! The nominated entries are a list of potential team members sent in by the national federations to essentially make a list of the possible competitors at the Games. The exact squads will be determined as the teams ship out for Guadalajara and formally submitted before the competition starts. Generally, countries include anyone with any chance of going to the Games on their nominated entry list because you never know what can happen to your first choice squad members.
[Nominated Entries PDF, FEI Press Release]
The US nominated entries list includes the entire group of PAG squad and alternates, so it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t know and in fact it is a bit dated list since Jolie, Tamra, and Boyd are all more or less out of the running for the US squad. But, the nominated entries is an interesting look at the other countries who are planning on competing at the Pan American Games.
There are 13 nations entered, 10 of which have at least 3 riders listed, meaning that they could potentially field teams. There are 64 riders and 70 horses on the nominated entry list and the FEI projects 51 final competitors although I expect that number to be considerably lower.
Bonus video–The first rider on course at the CIC2* Pan Am test event held earlier this summer:
