Vaulting proves it’s ‘All in the Family’

Even if it is difficult for non-Swedish speakers to pronounce correctly, Fylinge has an undeniable positive vibe about it.

The venue for the FEI Vaulting European Championships and World Championships for Young Vaulters and Juniors, is a classic horse ground which has played a central role in the breeding of Swedish sport horses for many centuries.

Sitting in one of the old stone buildings, which has been transformed into a press centre, Ted Velander, his wife Pernilla and their daughter Ella Filippa are well aware of the significance of holding these Championships in such a historical setting. But Flyinge is also home to the Velander family, who live just a stone’s throw away from the venue.

This is not the first time that Ted has been at the head of an Organising Committee for a Vaulting Event. Since the first Swedish National Championships were held in Flyinge in 2015, he has overseen the organisation of CVI 3-star events every year since 2016, except in 2020 when the event was cancelled on account of the pandemic.

An experienced journalist, Pernilla is the Press Officer for Flyinge 2023 and has played a key role in raising the profile and visibility of Equestrian Vaulting with the local and national press.

Both Ted and Pernilla are experienced equestrians, and Ted still competes in Eventing competitions, national and international, and is also a course designer and trainer. But it was really their daughter Ella Filippa who got them involved in Vaulting.

“Ella Fllipa was nine years old, when we were all in Germany where I was filming videos to educate the public in a series on all the equestrian disciplines,” Pernilla explained.

“She decided to stay in the Vaulting arena for the whole event and when she came out of there, she said to me, ‘Mummy, this is what I want to do!’ So, she started Vaulting and as her parents we became more involved.”

The years of driving Ella Filippa to weekly lessons definitely paid off at the Championships this week. The 24-year-old made her parents proud, when she and her teammates won the team bronze medal at the FEI Vaulting European Championships 2023. The last time the Swedish team won a Vaulting medal was at the FEI World Equestrian Games at Jerez de Frontera (ESP) in 2002.

It is a victory that Ella Filippa has savoured with each of her teammates, some of whom she has known since she was a little girl first starting out in the club.

“Some of the girls on my team have become my best friends,” Ella Filippa said. “A few of the girls who I started out with, now have families of their own and we are still very close even though they are not Vaulting anymore. But we still keep in touch and these are friendships that started when we were kids.

“I was only 11 years old when I first travelled with the team as a reserve to the Vaulting Championships at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Kentucky. My parents followed a few days later, so the older girls looked after me and made sure I had everything I needed. That’s just how the Vaulting community works. We all look after each other.

“The fact that Vaulting is so social is one of the main reasons that I have stayed in the sport so long. It’s this social context that really picks me up and enriches my training.”

And it’s not just Ella Filippa who feels this way.

"When we describe our community as a 'family,' it truly reflects the strong bond among everyone working and competing in Vaulting,” Ted explained.

"Every individual involved in organising the Event is a parent of a Vaulter in our club. Each parent brings a unique set of professional skills honed through their careers, making it easy for me to call upon everyone to contribute their expertise to the successful organisation of these Championships.”

For the Velanders, their hope is that these Championships will give people, who are new to the sport, some insight into the level of skill required and the intensity of the connection with the horse.

“The sport of Vaulting in Sweden is not well known and for this reason can sometimes be misunderstood,” Ted explained. “Many people, even those with experience in other equestrian disciplines, take time to appreciate the level of feeling that is required with the horse when Vaulting. It’s only after they see what the lungers can get the horse to do that they say, ‘Gosh, this is impressive!’

“Vaulters are gymnasts who need to also work their timing with the horse, and this is critical if they are to perform well. And while lungers make the job of getting a horse to move in a circle look easy, there is a tremendous amount of hard work and time that goes into making it look effortless.

“This is why it was important for us to use these Championships as an opportunity to take the sport outside of the venue and to have the Opening Ceremony in the city of Lund. We had a wooden horse set up on a grass field in the center of Lund, inviting everyone to experience Vaulting firsthand. And we were privileged to witness a captivating presentation and performance by 70 para vaulters, spanning half an hour. The event garnered significant attention, making it to the front page of the daily paper and the electric atmosphere surpassed all our expectations." 

The FEI Vaulting European Championships and the FEI World Championships for Young Vaulters and Juniors will come to a close this evening, with Pas-de-Deux and Nations Team rounding off the six-day event.

Photo credit: FEI/Liz Gregg