Games of The XXVIII Olympiad

Athens (GRE), 13 August - 29 August 2004

In 2004 the Olympic Games returned to Greece, the home of both the ancient Olympics and the first modern Olympics. For the first time ever a record 201 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in the Olympic Games and the popularity of the Games soared to new heights as 3.9 billion people had access to the television coverage compared to 3.6 billion for Sydney 2000.

In hindsight, the equestrian facilities at Makopoulo may have been a little over the top, costing over 30 million Euro. Two stadiums were built, for Jumping and Dressage events, with seating around 10,000 and 8,000 respectively. In addition there was a covered arena 20x60m, a 500 meter racetrack and eight training areas.

Nevertheless, this folly paled in comparison to the major controversies which affected the equestrian events of the 2004 Olympic Games – the four medication cases involving:

•             Cian O’Connor (IRL) – Waterford Crystal – Jumping
•             Ludger Beerbaum (GER) - Goldfever – Jumping
•         Harald Riedl (AUT) – Foxy – Eventing
•             Bettina Hoy (GER) – Ringwood Cockatoo – Eventing

Having won individual Jumping gold, Ireland’s Cian O’Connor aboard Waterford Crystal were in the limelight, until it was discovered that Waterfod Crystal tested positive for sedatives generally administered to humans. The case only came to an end in March 2005, having been further complicated when the urine B-sample was lost, and resulted in O’Connor’s disqualification and a three months suspension. The gold medal was then awarded to second placed Rodrigo Pessoa.

For Beerbaum and Riedl, their cases were fairly straight forward medication cases and resulted in an automatic disqualification, as prescribed by the FEI rules, but did not involve any additional punishment, such as suspensions.

Nevertheless, for Beerbaum whose horse Goldfever tested positive for a substance found in cortisone - Betamethason  - which had been applied to treat a skin irritation, his disqualification upset Germany’s team gold as his double clear score no longer counted and their revised score as a results, put them in third place and no longer first. The team gold medal was awarded to the USA at a ceremony in February 2005 in Palm Beach.

The Austrian eventer Harald Riedl was also disqualified from the competition, but did not receive any further punishment.

Bettina Hoy, already punished by her ordeal in Athens, had her horse found positive for Benardryl, used to treat a swelling on his back. There was neither a disqualification nor any other punishment.

Key Figures (general):

• ·                201 nations
• ·                10,625 athletes (4,329 women; 6,296 men)
• ·                28 sports
• ·                45,000 Volunteers
• ·                21,500 Media

The shot put events were held in Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic Games.

The archery competitions were staged in the same Panathenaic Stadium that was used for the 1896 Olympics.

Key figures (equestrian)

• ·                39 nations (Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordon, Mexico, Netherland, Netherland Antilles, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, USA, Virgin Islands)
• ·                204 entries (77 in Jumping; 52 in Dressage; 75 in Eventing)

A major issue in Athens was the footing, with several horses finishing their careers because of injuries sustained there; among them was Dilème de Cèphe and Royal Kaliber. The FEI was forced to create an inquiry committee. It had two basic findings:

- The footing was acceptable but was short of the standard required at Olympic Games

- The horses’ equipment; heavy and tall boots behind and too many studs in front shoes, contributed to the accidents

For the first time the FEI organised special Olympic selection trials in Aachen in June 2003, open to countries who are not part of the normal circuit, from Asia, Africa and Oceania. For previous Olympic Games, such countries had been invited to compete in a European Nations Cup, such as the CSIO Falsterbo in 1999. At the special event in Aachen 38 riders from 12 countries competed, Japan, Korea and New Zealand made the Olympic qualification as teams; in addition five individual slots were allocated to Egypt, Jordan, Australia and two for Saudi Arabia.

For the first time a course designer received a second chance to build the Olympic Jumping courses: Olaf Petersen.

After round A Jessica Kürten (GER) and Nick Skelton (GBR) were, with the only clear rounds, in the lead, ahead of Daniel Meech of New Zealand with 1 time fault. O’Connor (IRL), Kappler (USA) and Kutscher (GER) were among six riders with 4 points each. In round B, none of the three leading riders were able to maintain their momentum, Kürten picked up 21 points, while Skelton and Meech 13 a piece. Meanwhile, O’Connor and Pessoa managed to produce the only two clears of the round. For O’Connor, this sent him straight to the top spot on the podium, while a jump-off between Rodrigo Pessoa and Chris Kappler for silver and bronze favoured the Brazilian for second place. Pessoa finished his jump-off with 4 points in 49.42 sec. Following the disqualification of Beerbaum and O’Connor, Rodrigo advanced to first place, Kappler took silver and Germany’s Marco Kutscher, who’s had to give up his team gold was awarded bronze as he moved up from fourth to third. 

DRESSAGE (52 riders from 18 nations)

Of the four horses which had dominated the 2000 Dressage competitions in Sydney, only one was still active: the Latvian-bred Rusty ridden by Ulla Salzgeber. Bonfire and Gigolo were retired after 2000 and Farbenfroh, the 2002 world champion horse of Nadine Capellmann did not, after being out of action for 18 months, find its form again.

Anky van Grunsven and the magnificent Salinero gloriously took gold with a memorable performance. For Ulla Salzgeber and Rusty, the 2003 European champions, it would be the silver, while Spain’s Beatriz Ferrer-Salat on the 17-year-old Beauvalais took the bronze.

There were new dressage tests, versions 2003. The Grand Prix lasted 5 min. 40 sec. with 32 marks and four collective marks for a maximum of 480 points. The Grand Prix Special was 7 minutes, with 36 + 4 marks for a maximum of 500 points and the Freestyle was supposed to be 5½ to 6 minutes.

Germany won its 11^th team gold medal ahead of the ever-improving Spanish and the United States. Of the 21 Olympic Dressage competitions held from 1912 to 2004, and taking into account that four had no team placing (1912, 1920, 1924 and 1960) and that Germany did not compete on three other occasions (1932, 1948 and 1980), one could effectively say that of the 14 German participations, they won eleven and when they didn’t win they took the silver twice and the bronze once.

EVENTING (75 riders from 23 nations)

In November 2000 the FEI came up with a new format for Eventing: there would be a team competition, with a maximum of five riders per country and the best three counting for the team medals. A few hours after the end of this competition, the top 25 in the individual standings in the team competition would be invited to do a second jumping competition. The second jumping scores would be added to the overall scores from the full competition to determine the final individual placings.

Parallel to this measure the FEI tackled the question of the A-B-C-D phases of endurance day, under criticism because of its considerable needs for land and officials. After lengthy discussions, the two roads and tracks (A + C) and the steeplechase (B) were abolished.

The rules were in place, but it would not be all smooth sailing for the Eventing competition, particularly for Germany’s Bettina Hoy. In second place after the cross-country behind Nicolas Touzaint, the jumping phase proved to be detrimental as she inadvertently crossed the starting line but did not start her round and then circled it once again before actually starting. An error occurred in the judges’ box, and the time was put back to zero for her second false start. However, lengthy discussions ensued on this false start, and it was decided to penalise her with 14 points for exceeding the time allowed. This put her back from 1^st to 9^th place and the German team from 1^st to 4^th.

It all went pear shaped when the Appeal Committee decided to remove the time penalties, “in the interest of sport”, and the team medals were distributed, gold to Germany, silver to France, bronze to Great Britain…

Then, in the second jumping test, the leader, Touzaint, had a disastrous round: 19 points dropped him to 9^th while Bettina Hoy, with only 6 points, went to the top and soon thereafter received the individual gold medal…

The three countries directly concerned with Hoy’s placing, France, Great Britain and the USA, appealed to the Court of Arbitration for sport CAS. The CAS clearly stated that the Appeal Committee had no jurisdiction to deal with the appeal lodged by the German delegation. No appeals can be made against a decision of a jury concerning penalties given. Thus Germany had to give back its gold medals which, consequently went to France and Britain’s Leslie Law. 

To find out more about the equestrian events includes ,  to see the medallists and full results of 2004 Olympic Games. click here.

The medallists and full results can be found here.