A call for horses to receive medals at LA28 as well as their riders was put to Olympic organisers at the FEI General Assembly (7 November).
Currently it is the riders, rather than the horses, who officially receive medals. But European Equestrian Federation president Quentin Simonet asked organisers of the Los Angeles Games whether they would consider having medals for the horses too.
“We have two athletes,” he said. “They are both delivering the performance.”
While acknowledging the success of past Olympics, Mr Simonet said that he is “sure [LA28] wants to be better than the previous Games”, noting it would be an “added value” to recognise the horses in this way.
The question came at the end of an update on progress for LA28 given by Niccolò Campriani, an Olympic gold medal-winning shooter and now vice president of sports on the LA28 Olympic organising committee, and Cesar Hirsch, LA28’s equestrian subject matter expert.
Mr Campriani replied: “I love the proposal. It’s absolutely, in the end, an IOC [International Olympic Committee] decision. But LA28 has shown in the last couple of years that we’re pretty good at challenging the IOC on things that we believe in.
“As an athlete coming from an individual sport, if I could have broken the medal in two, three pieces, and given one to my coach and one to my psychologist, I would have done it. I totally agree that there is always a team effort.”
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FEI president Ingmar De Vos said that he liked the idea and the FEI would write to the IOC.
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Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.
