Galloping on to the Paris Olympic Games

Today marks the 50-day countdown to the start of the equestrian events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the excitement is mounting with every moment.

The three Olympic disciplines of Dressage, Eventing and Jumping will take centre stage in the beautiful gardens of the Palace of Versailles from 26 July to 6 August, so here are some things you might like to know when marking your calendar and making your plan to follow it from start to finish, whether you are travelling to the French capital or watching the action from afar.

The venue

Initially built as a simple hunting lodge, the magnificent Château de Versailles was home to the court of Louis XIV in 1682 and became the epicentre of French royalty. In 1883 it became a national museum open to the public and it was the first French site to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 1979.

The Paris 2024 equestrian events will play out over its 2,000 acres of parkland, and a temporary outdoor arena, flanked by several stands, has been created on the Etoile Royale esplanade to the west of the Grand Canal at the heart of the palace’s gardens. The Eventing cross-country course will take competitors across the Canal and along both sides of it, with the Château providing the most stunning backdrop.

Despite challenging weather conditions works on site are well up to speed with all major infrastructure in place including field of play, warm-up, training arenas and stable tents. Right now internal fit-out is underway including stable boxes, the veterinary clinic, the media centre and the judge’s tower. The main cross-country obstacle features such as water jumps, banks and ditches have been completed for some time, and other obstacles will be brought in as pre-constructed portable jumps and positioned by the course designer in the coming weeks. 

It won’t be long until all the facilities are buzzing with even more activity when the horses begin to arrive on 24 July.

Eventing

Eventing will stand alone in that the entire competition will run, without interruption, on consecutive days between 26 and 29 July. 

It will begin with the First Horse Inspection on Friday 26 July at 09.30, and the following day 65 horse-and-rider combinations will line out in the Dressage phase, also starting at 09.30 local time.

Eventing Cross-Country is bound to attract a massive audience on Sunday 28 July as the sound of galloping hooves will thunder out across the royal turf beginning at 10.30 in the morning and running right through to 15.00.

And on Monday 29 July, following the Second Horse Inspection at 08.00, both the Team and Individual medals will be awarded following the final Jumping phase back in the arena. The Team medals will be decided in the round that begins at 11.00, and at 15.00 the top-25 will battle it out for the Individual title.

The Dressage Test for Eventing will be the 2024 Olympic Games 5* test (short), the cross-country course will be a maximum of 5,800 metres long with a maximum time of 10 minutes. And the height of fences in the final Jumping phase will be 1.25m for the Team competition and 1.30m for the Individuals.

Officials for Eventing will include:

Technical Delegate                -    Marcin Konarski (POL)
Ground Jury President           -    Christina Klingspor (SWE)
Ground Jury Member             -    Xavier Le Sauce (FRA)
Ground Jury Member             -    Robert Stevenson (USA)
Assistant Technical Delegate   -    Gaston Bileitczuk (FRA)
Course Designer                    -    Pierre le Goupil (FRA)

A total of 16 Teams and 48 athletes will compete for the Team medals including the hosts from France along with Germany, New Zealand, Great Britain, USA, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Japan and Italy. Team athletes also compete for the Individual medals.

An additional 17 Individual quota places are allocated through the FEI Olympic Groups and the overall FEI Olympic ranking. The regional distribution covers
North Western Europe, South Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North America, Central & South America, Africa and the Middle East, South East Asia and Oceania.

Dressage

The first Horse Inspection for Dressage will be held on Sunday 28 July at 08.00, and at 11.00 on Tuesday morning 30 July the first 30 horse-and-rider combinations will compete in the Grand Prix while the remaining 30 will do their tests on Wednesday 31.

The top ten ranked Teams in the Grand Prix, including those tied for tenth place, will qualify for the FEI Grand Prix Special which will begin at 10.00 on 3 August and will decide the Team medals.

The second Dressage Horse Inspection will take place at 08.00 on 4 August and will be followed at 10.00 by the Grand Prix Freestyle. This is the Individual Final Competition which is open to 18 combinations qualified from the FEI Grand Prix. The Individual medal ceremony is scheduled for 13.30 on Sunday afternoon. 

Officials for Dressage will include: 

Ground Jury President          -    Raphael Saleh (FRA)
Ground Jury Member            -    Henning Lehrmann (GER)
Ground Jury Member            -    Isobel Wessels (GBR)
Ground Jury Member            -    Mariette Sanders (NED)
Ground Jury Member            -    Magnus Ringmark (SWE)
Ground Jury Member            -    Michael Osinski (USA)
Ground Jury Member            -    Susanne Baarup (DEN)

The Judges Supervisory Panel will consist of:

Member                    -    Andrew Gardner (GBR)
Member                    -    Mary Seefried (AUS)
Member                    -    Henk van Bergen (NED)

There will be a total of 15 Teams and 45 athletes along with 15 Individual competitors. The qualified Teams are France, Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, USA, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Canada,  Australia, Portugal, Finland.

Another 15 countries will be represented by Individuals. Places are allocated through FEI Olympic Groups, qualification events and the FEI Olympic Ranking list.

Jumping

The Jumping horses arrive on 30 July and their First Horse Inspection takes place the next day, followed by an evening Training session from 17.15 to 20.00.

The Team Qualifier on Thursday 1 August begins at 11.00 and is open to 20 teams consisting of three athletes per team with all three scores counting. 

The Team Final, which kicks off on Friday 2 August at 14.00, is open to the ten best placed teams in Thursday’s competition including those tied for tenth place. Teams that withdraw before the start on Friday will not be replaced, and all teams taking part in the Team Final re-start with zero penalties.

The contest for the Individual medals will take place over two days beginning on Monday 5 August with 75 starters from which the top-30 will go through to the Individual Final on Tuesday 6 August, running in reverse order of classification and all starting again on a zero scoreline. 

The Final competition, which will begin at 10.00, will be conducted under Jumping Rules Art. 238.2.2, with one round against the clock with a jump-off in case of a tie on penalties for first place and will bring the equestrian events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to a close.  

Officials for Jumping will include:

Ground Jury President  -    Frances Hesketh-Jones (ITA)
Member                      -    Patrice Alvado (FRA)
Member                      -    Harrij Braspenning (NED)
Member                      -    David Distler (USA)
Member                      -    Karoly Fugli (HUN)
Course Designer          -    Santiago Varela (ESP)
Co-Course Designer     -    Gregory Bodo (FRA)

The 20 qualified Teams are France, Sweden, Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Israel, Poland, USA, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Japan and Brazil. 

Another 15 countries will be represented by Individuals and again places are allocated through FEI Olympic Groups, qualification events and the FEI Olympic Ranking list.

Deadline

There’s just over two weeks left to go before the deadline for National Federations to submit Certificates of Capability to the FEI on 25 June while Monday 8 July is the deadline for Definite Entries. By then we will have the full list of horses and athletes in all disciplines, including those on the reserve lists. 

The Games of the XXXlll Olympiad are just around the corner. Don’t miss a hoofbeat…..

Timetable

https://inside.fei.org/fei/games/paris2024/timetable

Rules and Regulations for all disciplines here