Equestrian competitions have been a part of the Olympic competition since 1912 and involves mixed-gender competition. The United States is the all time leader with 49 medals, including 11 golds, in the competition, though Germany has won 24 medals in the last five Olympics compared to only 17 for the United States. The US has medaled in every Olympics since 1960 (excluding the boycotted 1980 games).
The Team:
This year’s team features 13 competitors, 12 of whom will be competing in the team events and all of whom will be competing in the individual events.
Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.
USA Equestrian
Dressage:
Jan Ebeling
Tina Konyot
Adrienne Lyle – Individual only – She also has her own blog – http://adrienne-lyle.blogspot.com/
Steffen Peters^
Eventing:
Will Coleman
Tiana Coudray
Phillip Dutton*
Boyd Martin – has his own blog – http://boydandsilvamartin.blogspot.com/
Karen O’Connor&
Show Jumping:
Rich Fellers
Reed Kessler
Beezie Madden**
McLain Ward**
* – Was on team in Beijing
** – Was on team in Beijing and Athens
& – Was on team in Beijing, Sydney, Atlanta and Seoul
^ – Was on team in Beijing and Atlanta
Schedule:
Equestrian is a sport that probably is not familiar to many people. The dressage events are based on horses doing different movements and scored based off of how well they do those movements. There will be a grand prix round to start. The top seven teams and the top eleven individuals not on those teams move on to the grand prix special. The total score of the team from the grand prix round and the grand prix special will determine medals. Additionally the top 18 individual scores from the two rounds combined go through to the final, the grand prix freestyle. The grand prix freestyle scores determine the individual medals. Phew. And that’s just one of the forms of Equestrian…
Eventing is the decathlon of equestrian, involving a dressage portion, a cross-country portion, and a show jumping portion. Cross-country and show jumping are somewhat similar as they both involve a horse going through a course jumping over fences or other obstacles. The cross-country course is longer, linear and has more permanent bigger obstacles. Think logs, ditches, hedges. The show jumping course is smaller and set up in a ring. Additionally the fences are able to be knocked down. Think hurdles.
The first couple days are the dressage portion and the scores are translated to penalties (least penalties wins this competition). The third day is the cross-country portion where the riders will again attempt to avoid penalties (for jumping mistakes and time penalties). Finally on day 4 the showjumping is conducted with two rounds. After the first round the team medals are decided. The team of five will use the best three results to get their team score. The second round of jumping will only involve the top 25 individual riders at that point. Adding the final set of jumping penalties will provide the final results.
The jumping competition itself consists of five rounds, with two of those counting for the team competition. The first round is individual only and will narrow the field down to the top 60 and all team riders. The second round will narrow the field to the top 45, combined first and second round scores, and the best eight teams (second round only scores). The third round will narrow the field to the top 35 (first, second, and third round scores combined) and determines the team medalists (second and third round scores combined). The fourth round narrows the field to the top 20 based only on the fourth round score and the fifth and final round determines the medals based off of the fourth and fifth round scores combined. In case of a tie there is a jump-off conducted.
While it’s pretty confusing at first, I think the Equestrian competition could be interesting to watch, especially the jumping portions.
All Times ET
Saturday July 28th
5 AM – Eventing – Dressage Day 1
Sunday July 29th
5 AM – Eventing – Dressage Day 2
Monday July 30th
7:30 AM – Eventing – Cross-Country
Tuesday July 31st
5:30 AM – Eventing – Jumping
9:30 AM – Eventing – Individual Jumping
Thursday August 2nd
6 AM – Dressage – Grand Prix Day 1
Friday August 3rd
6 AM – Dressage – Grand Prix Day 2
Saturday August 4th
5:30 AM – Jumping – Round 1
Sunday August 5th
6 AM – Jumping – Round 2
Monday August 6th
9 AM – Jumping – Round 3
Tuesday August 7th
5 AM – Dressage – Grand Prix Special
Wednesday August 8th
7 AM – Jumping – Final Round A
9:45 AM – Jumping – Final Round B
Thursday August 9th
7:30 AM – Dressage – Grand Prix Freestyle
Past Results:
Dressage has been a decent medal producer for the United States, they won the team bronze in four straight Olympics before losing that spot to Denmark in the Beijing games. The individual portion has not been the US’s strong suit, the last medal was in 1932. Steffen Peters came in 4th in Beijing and is a serious threat for a medal this time around. Peters was also part of the team that won bronze in Atlanta.
Eventing has been a good event for the United States in the three Olympics before Beijing the American team had won a medal, though the last gold was in 1984. The US has won a medal in the last four Olympics in the individual portion of the competition, the last gold being in 2000 when David O’Connor was victorious. In Beijing the US took home the silver in the individual eventing but finished 7th as a team. Phillip Dutton is actually a two-time gold medalist, both coming for Australia, from winning the 1996 and 2000 team events. Karen O’Connor is a five-time Olympian now. She has competed in 1988 (Seoul), 1996 (Atlanta), 2000 (Sydney) and 2008 (Beijing). She won the bronze in Sydney and the silver in Atlanta, both as part of the team event.
Jumping has been another good event for the US with team medals in 3 of the last four Olympics, including the last two golds, and individual medals in the last two Olympics. The US almost had two individual medals in Beijing but Beezie Madden and McLain Ward ended up tied for 3rd and Madden won the jump-off. Both were part of the team that won gold in Athens as well.
It seems a safe bet that the Us will win medals in Equestrian in London. It is simply a question of which events and which competitors.
