BIGGEST BUDGET TO DATE

The budget of the 1948 Olympic Games in London had been CHF 5.7 million; Helsinki had used 12.9 million and Melbourne CHF 13.2 million. The budget of Rome was CHF 120 million and the Games, which were widely broadcast on television in Europe, became a milestone in the popularisation of Olympic sport.

THE ETERNAL CITY AS A BACKGROUND

Piazza di Siena in the park surrounding the magnificent Villa Borghese is certainly one of the most beautiful horseshow grounds, the first international Concours Hippique was held there in 1922. Pratoni del Vivaro, near Rocca di Papa in the Alban Mountains, 35km south of Rome, was used for Eventing. Since then Pratoni has hosted several FEI Eventing Championship. The Olympic stadium, built in 1953, was the site for the final competition of the Games, the team Jumping.

The Organising Committee for the equestrian events was headed by a former international jumping rider, Francesco Formigli. The technical head was Bruno Bruni; the two course designers Alberto Lombardi (Jumping) and Ranieri di Campello (Eventing) – all three were also former Italian riding greats.

CHANGES TO THE EQUESTRIAN PROGRAMME

In the four years since Stockholm, the FEI had decided to make several changes to the Olympic programme.

Dressage:

·                 only two riders per country;

·                 no team competition;

·                 Grand Prix performances to be discussed among the judges before a final verdict;

·                 the ride-off performances to be filmed and the film reviewed for a length of time;

·                 judges to be selected only from countries with no medal contenders;

·                 scores would be given on the scale of 0 – 10 instead of 0 – 6.

Jumping:

·                 For the first time since 1920 there were two separate Jumping competitions.

Eventing:

·                 For the first time since 1924 there were four riders per nation.

Key Figures (general):

• ·                 83 nations
• ·                 5,338 athletes (611 women; 4,727 men)
• ·                 17 sports
• ·                 An Olympic Anthem composed by Spyros Samaras (music) and by Kostis Palamas (lyrics) was first played at the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens. Thereafter, a variety of musical offerings provided the backgrounds to the Opening Ceremonies until 1960, since which time the Samaras/Palamas composition has become the official Olympic Anthem (decision taken by the IOC Session in 1958).

Key figures (equestrian)

• ·                 29 nations (Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay, USA)
• ·                 159 entries (69 in Jumping; 17 in Dressage; 73 in Eventing)

JUMPING (69 riders from 23 nations)

The water jump, measuring five meters, and a triple combination with strange distances were the pièce-de-résistance of the Jumping course in both the individual and team competitions. More than half of the starters had faults in these combinations.

After the first round of the individual competition, Raimondo d’lnzeo and Posillipo were in the lead. They managed the only clear round, ahead of the surprising Argentinean Naldo Dasso with 4 points, Piero d’lnzeo and Max Fresson with 8. In the second round, David Broome with 7 points managed the best performance. Piero d’lnzeo and Hans-Günter Winkler had two knock-downs each and the leader, Raimondo d’lnzeo, had three. Still with 12 points the younger of the two d’lnzeo brothers gained the gold medal, ahead of his brother and young David Broome.

Only nine of the 18 teams finished the first round and the others were, according to Olympic rules, eliminated. The Technical Delegate decided, however, to apply the Nations Cup rule stating that eliminated riders would get the worst score plus 20 points. This meant that all 18 teams were allowed into the second round.

DRESSAGE (17 riders from 10 nations)

Dressage in Rome was different from anything experienced before.

In the Grand Prix the judges conferred for up to 20 minutes after each ride during which time nothing happened where the spectators were concerned. The rider-off, with the same test again, was filmed. The final results were announced three days later.

Six thousands spectators watched the Grand Prix in Piazza di Siena. Five riders qualified for the ride-off: two Soviets and one rider each from Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. The ride-off changed nothing. The 34-year old Sergej Filatov on the eight-year old black stallion Absent won gold.

EVENTING (73 riders from 19 nations)

The Australians were the 1960 Eventing sensation. After discrete Dressage scores the foursome of Larry Morgan, Neale Lavis, Brian Crago and Bill Roycroft dominated the Cross-Country to an extent never experienced before. When the results after the Cross-Country became finally known, Morgan was overwhelmingly in the lead ahead of Crago and Lavis; all three were in the medal positions. Their fourth rider, Roycroft, after a fall at the cement drain pipes, was not too far back, except for the fact that he was lying in a hospital bed with a concussion and a broken collarbone. When Crago’s potential silver medal horse Sabre was rejected at the second horse inspection, Australia no longer had a team. Forty-five-year old Bill Roycroft was taken out of hospital. He rode Our Solo to a clear round in the Jumping phase and secured team gold for Australia.  

To find out more about the equestrian events includes ,  to see the medallists and full results of 1960 Olympic Games. click here.

The medallists and full results can be found here.