FEI President Ingmar De Vos opened the seventh FEI Sports Forum in typically upbeat style, welcoming the almost 250 delegates to the FEI’s unique discussion platform: “Every year we use the Sports Forum platform to zoom in on specific topics so that we can make decisions as a community that will help drive our sport to new heights. And we are here once again to do just that. . . . I am really looking forward to all the discussions that will take place during this FEI Sports Forum. They guide us to develop the right strategies and to take the best decisions.”

IMD Professor of leadership and organisational change Ina Toegel was next on stage and extended an IMD welcome to delegates, challenging them to interact with each other and to change their perceptions.

Each session of the FEI Sports Forum were live streamed and are now available on replay. We have created individual destinations for each session so that you can watch and have all the relevant documentation in the one location.

IOC’s Antoine Goetschy presented on the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), talking about the importance of encouraging participating in sport and how central YOG is to that goal. It helps shape the future of sport. The individual International Federations have the opportunity to decide what discipline they want to include and it does not have to be an Olympic discipline. The YOG offers the International Federations the chance to adapt to local audiences and explore future formats. The YOG is massively popular on social media so we encourage everyone to follow the YOG equestrian discipline Jumping, which is open to 30 athletes from 30 nations, on the FEI social media platforms.

“We are all here because we believe that competitive sport is great for young people, we are all convinced. It’s performing.  We are teaching them to perform, to be committed, to take risks, to set their goals. We know what is good for young people. When you start to know what young people want, it’s the definition of you being old”.
“There is a massive drop in competitive sport when they grow up, when they stop playing. And why do they stop? They need to have a family, they need to study, they start to smoke and party and drink and they play video games”.
“They always look for challenges and improving themselves, and doing better and learn something. All this is fantastic in sport. They are looking for fun, new skills, they look for purpose and new experiences and challenges”.
“Organised sport is being challenged. If young people sometimes quit sport, it’s not because they quit the sport, it’s because they quit sport the way we organise it”.
The Youth Olympic Games aim to bring together talented young athletes aged 15 to 18 from around the world. Held every four years, the first edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2010, which included equestrian sport (Jumping) on the programme, featured over 3,500 athletes and was held over a 12-day period. The next Summer Youth Olympic Games will be held in Buenos Aires in October 2018. For more on BuenosAires2018, click here.
What makes the Youth Olympic Games so unique is the Culture and Education Programme (CEP) which runs alongside the sports fixtures and is based around the following five themes: Olympism, Social Responsibility, Skills Development, Expression and Well-being and Healthy Lifestyles. These are valuable tools for the athletes of tomorrow and are very much an integral part of the Youth Olympic Games model.
In this session, IOC experts will present plans for the future of the Youth Olympic Games. A discussion with the NFs will follow.

Youth was the focal point of the first day of the FEI Sports Forum, with a dynamic panel of eight successful youth athletes from around the world representing all disciplines debating a wide range of topics during three separate sessions. Led by moderator Catie Staszak (USA), the panel shared their thoughts on accessibility to high level sport, long-term career pathways and sport promotion and media. This was the first time in the seven-year history of the FEI Sports Forum that the multi-faceted subject of youth has been tackled in such an-in-depth manner.
The athletes asked for greater visibility for their achievements through youth rankings, rethinking competition formats, the possible creation of a Youth Nations Cup and a roadmap for young professionals that will help athletes moving from the young rider to senior ranks. The female athletes stressed the importance of demonstrating that it is possible to be both a successful athlete and a mother, asking that ranking points should be frozen across all disciplines during pregnancy.
The panellists proposed that a range of initiatives could be put in place, including a youth congress, presence on FEI Committees, media training programmes, guidance on optimising social media use, specialised apps to engage wider audiences, enhanced broadcasting including the use of Go Pro cameras. Boosting the fun, playfulness and joy in the sport was seen as key.

Accessibility to High Level Sport
Discussing the importance of being able to combine the pursuit of a career in equestrian sport and education, youth session moderator Catie Staszak (USA): “Educational institutions need to understand the requirements of equestrian athletes who are pursuing an education.” Para-Equestrian Dressage athlete Gemma Rose Jen Foo will have to miss the FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2018 due to her studies.

Eventing athlete and law student Thaïs Méheust (FRA) “I don’t want to choose between my education and my athlete career - I want to do both. Education is the key for everything, team spirit and learning how to be better individuals and in sport. We can do both - we have to do both, to be a good athlete and a good citizen.”

Jumping athlete and mechanical engineering student Edouard Schmitz (SUI), has the advantage of the Swiss Olympic Talent Card: “This allows me to study in a flexible way and I train every day. I get great support from the Swiss Federation. This support is important. If you want to be competitive today, you need to stay in the sport, you can’t drop out for education and drop back in.”

Dressage athlete Juan Matute Guimón (ESP) explained the positive impact of online education: “All of my high school education has been online, I have managed to pursue my academic and sport goals. Now my higher education is online, it’s flexible and helps me to adapt to priorities around travel and sport. This means I don’t have to give up anything.”

Long Term Career Pathways
Vaulting athlete Jamie Hocking (AUS) underlined the need to harness profile opportunities in media and social media to help with the climb to the top, and in Vaulting where equestrian careers are considerably shorter than in other equestrian disciplines: “I have random people in my life now saying I am famous, thanks to the recent profile. We need advice on how to take advantage of this now in a digital age.”

Driving athlete Martin Hölle (HUN) spoke about the importance of mentors and meeting the world’s best equestrian athletes: “It’s my dream to meet Edward Gal.”

Peter Bayer (AUT), Secretary General of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), spoke on the innovative initiatives rolled out by his Federation and included a classic line from Formula 1 superstar Lewis Hamilton: “If you never spin you’re not trying hard enough!”

Sports Presentation and Promotion
Influencer Carl Hedin (SWE) on harnessing social media: “Tap into your own identity, understand how to use the apps and, when an opportunity to work with a brand comes around, work out how to best utilise this for your needs as an equestrian athlete.”

Juan Matute Guimón (ESP) on maintaining interest at major dressage events: “We should look at gymnastics and ice skating and take lessons from these sports and how they entertain the audiences. The Freestyle at our events is the highlight, and without taking away the essence of dressage, there are many technologies we can use as well as social media. I appreciate tradition a lot, but if we want our sport to progress and appeal to younger audiences we need to embrace the latest technology, using it to create new tests.”

Paulina Berriel Tarán (URU): “Every weekend in Uruguay people tune into the radio to listen in on the Endurance races. it’s really exciting, and for a 120k race it’s important to have all the latest details on the race to stay excited for a long time. Broadcast media can take lessons from radio in Uruguay and make this sport even better.”

Edouard Schmitz (SUI): “Statistics and exciting new details about our sport are exciting to fans who don’t follow equestrian sport, as well as for media correspondents who are not equestrian specialists. It sparks interest on screen and this causes discussion too amongst fans.”

Jamie Hocking (AUS) commenting on discussions about whether the dress code is too traditional across the disciplines: “If you don’t like the uniform you should come and try Vaulting!”

The youth panelists were unanimous in asking the FEI and National Federations for direction. Tabitha Sternberg-Allen (GBR): “We don’t want things handed to us on a silver platter, we just want guidance from those who know more about this sport than we do.” 

Giving back to youth
Hanfried Haring, FEI Bureau Member and former President of the German National Federation: “I am so glad I’m still involved in horse sport because there is so much I need to give back to the youth.”

Moderator: Catie Staszak (USA), multimedia sports journalist specialising in equine media

Athletes Panel:
Jumping: Edouard Schmitz (SUI)
Dressage: Juan Matute Guimón (ESP)
Para Dressage: Gemma Rose Jen Foo (SGP)
Eventing: Thaïs Méheust (FRA)
Driving: Martin Hölle (HUN)
Endurance: Paulina Berriel Tarán (URU)
Vaulting: James Hocking (AUS)
Reining: Tabitha Sternberg-Allen (GBR)

Guest Speakers:
Peter Bayer (AUT), FIA Secretary General for Motor Sport, will talk about some of the innovative initiatives the FIA have rolled out in order to assist career pathways for young athletes.
Carl Hedin (SWE), International Dressage Rider and CEO of Eques Management

FEI Legal Director Mikael Rentsch introduced the session on Athlete Welfare, talking about harassment and abuse and the recently released IOC toolkit. Guest speakers, Kirsty Burrows (GBR), Consultant on Athlete Safeguarding and Susan Greinig, IOC Medical Programmes Manager gave a clear definition of what harassment and abuse is, as well as explaining the toolkit which the IOC has put in place and how everyone in sport can adapt to safeguard and protect, not only our athletes, but all those involved in sport.

This step-by-step process for the development of policy and procedure guidelines, reports the mechanisms for all of us to use to understand the landscape and help prevent abuse before it happens, The IOC toolkit is available for everyone, not just International Federations and National Olympic Committees, but also all National Federations.

Susan Greinig, IOC Medical Programmes Manager
“Athlete safeguarding should include everyone in sport. You need to have a rule before you can break a rule. We encourage you to build and put your own case studies in place.”
“All sports all over the world are affected by this problem.”
“Harassment and abuse has no place in sport. We must always remember that.”
“The most important thing is communication. If you have a framework in place, you need to educate everyone how to use this. Although we promote the information of safeguarding, we needed to show how to implement this and give young athletes a way of avoiding a situation.”
https://www.olympic.org/athlete365/library/safe-sport/

Kirsty Burrows (GBR), Consultant: Athlete Safeguarding
“Athlete safeguarding is a collective responsibility.  We have made sure the initiatives we develop are aligned with what the experts say."
“We are not only protecting the athlete, we are protecting people in sport.”
“If there are no policies in place at national level, it makes it very difficult to handle a case. The athlete place their trust in the organisation and national federations are key to athlete safeguarding because you are at the apex of sporting organisations.”
“Preparation, positioning, components, implementation, preventative measures. All of this information outlined in this toolkit applies to all organisations.  It tries to understand the positioning of sporting organisations. The toolkit outlines step by step of how to develop a policy and procedure.”

Moderator: Mikael Rentsch, FEI Legal Director

Guest Speakers:
Kirsty Burrows (GBR), Consultant: Athlete Safeguarding
Susan Greinig, IOC Medical Programmes Manager

As part of the Athlete Welfare programme, the session on Concussion & Return to Play policy reviewed the latest findings on sport-related concussion and looked at new return-to-play policies put in place by some National Federations. Concussion is a complex condition and often goes unrecognised by athletes, their entourages and even medical experts. Recognition of concussion and its correct management were looked at in detail, and the dangers of return to sport before full recovery were highlighted, including increased risk of another fall and second impact syndrome, which shows that the concussed brain is more susceptible to injury in the event of another fall.

Laurent Mekies, Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Safety Director, presented the latest safety protocols put in place by the FIA.

The athlete welfare session also included the use of Medication & Recreational Drugs in equestrian sport, focusing on both safety and anti-doping perspectives. The panellists stressed the need for athlete education and a thorough understanding of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules and regulations.

Part 2: Concussion & Return to Play
Dr Peter Whitehead (GBR), Chair of the FEI Medical Committee: “No-one is slightly concussed. All concussions are significant. Recovery periods can vary dramatically, and it is slower in younger age groups. Anyone with concussion needs physical and cognitive rest. Computers and mobile phones need to be removed. It’ll be tempting to update friends on Facebook and Snapchat, but this mental rest is very important.”
“Ignorance about concussion is very common, even in the medical profession”, Dr Peter Whitehead

Catherine Bollon, FEI Athletes Services & Human Anti-Doping Advisor: “The first step is to be able to recognise concussion. There are several people coming into contact with horses at events, not just athletes, but also grooms and veterinarians.” The FEI has a useful online concussion checklist and flow chart to follow in the case of suspected concussion on its Athlete Health & Safety hub (click Concussion button):http://inside.fei.org/fei/your-role/medical-safety. “The FEI is aware that its community is not fully educated on concussion and we are here to help our National Federations by providing latest research and best practice in identifying and dealing with concussion.”

Laurent Mekies, Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Safety Director, demonstrated the detailed work being done by the FIA into the effects of crashes to further improve protection of drivers: “All of our drivers go through very detailed return to play testing after incidents.” A highlight of Mekies’ presentation was the data from Fernando Alonso’s crash at the Australian Grand Prix last year, where he was travelling at over 300kph at the point of final impact. Alonso experienced a total of three high-G decelerations: two peak lateral decelerations at 45g and 46g, and when the car landed on the ground after being airborne for 0.9 seconds, a peak longitudinal acceleration of 20G. The FIA will be sharing the development of its technology being used in motor racing with the FEI, including the data captured from in-ear accelerometers, the “black box” and camera fitted to the vehicles, and the future development of biometric data which is next on the agenda.

In order to supplement the National Federation medical suspension and return to play policies, and to assist NFs that do not have such protocols in place, the FEI will be introducing an automatic alert system on 1 June 2018. This electronic system will send an automatic notification to NFs when one of their athletes sustains a serious injury and needs to be monitored before returning to play. Eventing already has its own system in place, but the new system will be implemented across all other disciplines.

Moderator: Mikael Rentsch, FEI Legal Director

Guest Speakers:
Laurent Mekies, FIA Safety Director
Dr Peter Whitehead (GBR), Chair of the FEI Medical Committee
Catherine Bollon, FEI Athletes Services & Human Anti-Doping Advisor

3. Medication & Recreational Drugs
Dr Peter Whitehead (GBR), Chair of the FEI Medical Committee: “The first case I was involved in was with an athlete who had unwittingly taken diet-related hunger suppression medication, but this contained an anabolic steroid. Recreational use of substances outside of the sport will also have an effect on athletes competing, and we therefore follow the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines on medication and recreational drugs.”  

Catherine Bollon, FEI Athletes Services & Human Anti-Doping Advisor, sent a simple and direct message to athletes: “Check it before you take it. If you need a TUE, take something else in the meantime, while you apply for the TUE.” For guidelines on Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) applications: “An educated athlete is an empowered athlete. It is vital that our National Federations work with athletes to make sure they are fully informed. Recreational drugs have no place in sport.”

National Federations are urged to use and make athletes aware of the FEI’s human anti-doping toolkits: https://inside.fei.org/fei/cleansport/humans and the WADA toolkits, including: www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/education-and-prevention/dangers-of-doping-get-the-facts.

Moderator: Mikael Rentsch, FEI Legal Director

Guest Speakers:
Dr Peter Whitehead (GBR), Chair of the FEI Medical Committee
Catherine Bollon, FEI Athletes Services & Human Anti-Doping Advisor

Eventing Risk Management
David O’Connor (USA), FEI Bureau Member and Chair of the Eventing Committee, gave an update on the FEI’s Eventing Risk Management programme, presenting the updated 2017 statistics which show that numbers of competitions and numbers of starters have increased significantly and, importantly, numbers of fallers continue to decrease.
The presentation, which looked at statistics from 2008 to 2017, provided figures on falls at national events versus fall at international fixtures, the role of the National Safety Officers, and the importance of the coach in risk management.
The discipline now has a record 700 events in the FEI Calendar for 2018.

David O’Connor, Chair of the FEI Risk Management Steering Group, gave a comprehensive review: “Sitting on horses has a risk to it, so it becomes about risk management.
“2017 was the first year we’ve had data from every single competition and it means we can identify trends."
“Experience and education has an effect on the risk management of the sport – the less experienced you are going to a four-star the more risk you are at of having a fall."
“Every single fence that is jumped at an FEI event is catalogued and put into the data system, and then you can start to see trends. Every year the FEI collects and enters in the database 670 fence description forms with more than 21,000 fences; 1,100 fall reports and 700 fence analyses."
“Coaching is an important part of our next step in risk management. The aim is to develop an FEI Coaching System, which is already going on but it’s focusing on equestrianism not so much about Eventing.”
A survey was conducted last year to identify National Federations that had a specific Eventing National Coach Education programme, with the objective of further developing Cross Country coaching guidelines specifically for Eventing. The coach is the most important advisor on the level at which the combination can compete and preparing them for that level, as well as evaluating the level of fitness, health, mental and physical preparation and technical ability.
The FEI Coaching System for Eventing will use an agreed syllabus for the on-going education and improvement of coaches in all equestrian disciplines in developing NFs for the benefit of the sport and all those involved. The coaches produced by these courses will be certified jointly by the NF and the FEI.

Speaker: David O’Connor (USA), FEI Bureau Member and Chair of the Eventing Committee.

Since the Working Group on FEI Officials began its work 18 months ago, 13 recommendations for improvements to the appointment, education, and evaluation of FEI Officials have been developed. Mark Samuel (CAN), FEI 2^nd Vice President and Chair of the FEI Officials Working Group provided an update on progress, details of which are available in the supporting document "The Recommendations" (below).
Details were also provided on a new position that will be created at FEI HQ for an individual who will oversee FEI Officials and their career development, and who will deliver on recommendations of the Officials Working Group.

Mark Samuel (CAN), FEI 2^nd Vice President, Chair of Regional Group IV, and Chair of the FEI Officials Working Group said: “The FEI will be appointing a Head of FEI Officials, based at FEI Headquarters in Lausanne, who will be entirely responsible for FEI Officials’ education and development pathways. The FEI plans to extend the number of FEI Officials in FEI events across all disciplines as equestrian sport grows worldwide. We are therefore focusing on delivering more of our education material for our Officials on FEI Campus, the free e-learning gateway launched last year.”
FEI Campus is an FEI Solidarity project (https://campus.fei.org) and is expected to become the virtual reference point for millions of equestrian fans globally, as well as for athletes and FEI Officials. Get in the know with FEI Campus.

Soenke Lauterbach (GER), Secretary General of the German Equestrian Federation and a member of the FEI Officials Working Group: “FEI Campus is a great on-line platform designed for FEI Officials with blended learning in mind. Language training has also been highlighted today as a key part of our international FEI Officials’ skills set. We urge FEI Officials to sign up for these subsidised courses offered on FEI Campus.”

Göran Akerström, FEI Veterinary Director: “The mentoring and evaluation of candidates for FEI Veterinarians is vital. We will be implementing systems for all of our disciplines into 2019.”

Panel: (Members of the FEI Officials Working Group)
Mark Samuel (CAN), FEI 2nd Vice-President, Chair of Group IV and Chair of the FEI Officials Working Group.
Soenke Lauterbach (GER), Secretary General, German Equestrian Federation
Peter Bollen (BEL), President of the Association of Jumping Organisers (AJO)
Frances Hesketh-Jones (ITA) FEI Jumping Course Director.
Brigitte Mathias (NAM) Secretary General, the Namibian Equestrian Federation

John McEwen (GBR), Chair of the FEI Veterinary Committee, opened the session on optimising performance in a challenging climate, outlining best practice and management of horses and humans in hot weather. Hot or hot and humid environmental conditions can pose a serious risk to the health and performance of both human and equine athletes unless properly handled.

Dr David Marlin (GBR), a scientist with more than 25 years of experience in physiology and biochemistry, and equine veterinarian Dr Martha Misheff (USA) presented ways to prepare and manage horses competing in challenging climatic conditions.

Dr Peter Whitehead (GBR), Chair of the FEI Medical Committee, talked about ways to protect athletes in these conditions so that they – and their horse – can perform optimally.

The panellists also flagged up the advisory documents (Optimising Performance in a Challenging Climate and an executive summary) that have been circulated to National Federations and which are available in the supporting documents below and which contain best practice and advice for athletes, NFs and Organising Committees.

John McEwen, FEI Veterinary Committee Chair: “as far back and before the Atlanta Games we have reviewed best practice for the protection of our equine athletes.”

Dr David Marlin (GBR), Scientific and Equine Consultant: “The increased globalisation of sport, and levels of demand has created problems – this really changed with the management put in place for the Atlanta Games.”

“When assessing risk, the amount of change in climate determines if the horse is at risk.”

“This research makes it easier for people to become familiar with the risk weather conditions. Event scheduling has been part of the analysis for Tryon and Tokyo – thunderstorms, light conditions, all of those factors have been considered.”

Dr Martha Misheff (USA), Member of the FEI Veterinary Committee: “Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are taken from human medicine and also relate to horses. If you have seen a horse with heat stroke it’s not something you will forget and will certainly recognise again.”

“We want to keep the horses safe and we want to keep people safe.”

Dr Peter Whitehead (GBR), Chair of the FEI Medical Committee: “For human athletes, complete acclimatisation takes up to 14 days, and can be reduced with regular exercise at home prior to travelling, which will help improve regulation of body temperature.”

Moderator: Dr John McEwen (GBR), Chair of the FEI Veterinary Committee
Panel:
Dr David Marlin (GBR), Scientific and Equine Consultant
Dr Martha Misheff (USA), Member of the FEI Veterinary Committee
Dr Peter Whitehead (GBR), Chair of the FEI Medical Committee

The final session of the FEI Sports Forum 2018 featured a presentation on the findings of the Dressage Judging Working Group. Frank Kemperman (NED), FEI Bureau Member and Chair of the FEI Dressage Committee and Bettina de Rham, FEI Dressage Director, explained that the Dressage Judging Working Group has tasked a sub-group, the Code of Points Pilot Study Advisory Group (COPPSAG), to come up with a proposal of Code of Points for a determined number of movements in the Grand Prix test. This Code of Points addresses many aspects of Dressage Judging and contributes to ensuring more clarity, fairness and openness in the system.

Richard Davison (GBR), Olympic rider and member of the FEI Dressage Judging Working Group, gave a detailed overview of the background to the proposed Code of Points judging system looking at research he has undertaken into the cognitive demands of judging.

Bettina de Rham, FEI Dressage Director: “The Code of Points will help to standardise the judging process, building on fairness and transparency, and also contributing very positively to the education of judges.”

Richard Davison (GBR): “Are our brains capable of making the same detailed decisions in the first hour of a Dressage test as well as hours later? Our competitions run for hours at a time. We should - for optimal judging performance - have a standard reference (Code of Points), standardised visual search routines, embrace analysis from objective data, and also learn from other sports where cognitive judging is so central.” 

Moderators:
Frank Kemperman (NED), FEI Bureau Member and Chair of the FEI Dressage Committee
Bettina de Rham, FEI Director Dressage, Para Dressage, Vaulting & Reining
Richard Davison (GBR), Olympic rider and member of the FEI Dressage Judging Working Group