Sara
Cavanagh Schwartz is the Editor of
The
Horse of Delaware Valley 
Great
news – for those of you who haven’t already heard, the Court of Arbitration
for Sport upheld the protest of the U.S., Brits and French concerning the medals
in eventing. That means (the) French win Team Gold, Brits (win) Team Silver, and
U.S. (wins) Team Bronze. , Leslie Law GBR) wins Individual Gold, Kim
Severson (USA) wins Individual Silver and Pippa Funnell (GBR) wins
the Bronze.
The brouhaha began when Bettina Hoy, after the horn
had sounded, went throught the start, then made a circle and went through the
start again.The Ground Jury, seeing her circle, stopped the clock and restarted
it when she went through the start again. They realized their mistake them selves
– discussed it for 1 ½ hours and, luckily had a back up time, so decided
her time should rightly have started the first time she went through the timers
and assessed her 14 time faults – dropping the Germans from Team Gold to
fourth and Bettina from Individual Gold.
The Germans protested and
the Appeals Jury reversed the Ground Jury – reinstating Germany as Gold Medalists
and Bettina (to her then second place.)
The U.S., Brits and French protested
to the CAS. Attending the hearing, (which was held in the Hermes Suite, of the
Holiday Inn, in Athens) for the U.S. were Jim Wolf, John Long and David
O’Connor, along with four USOC lawyers, including Gary Johansen
and Jeff Benz; (and) a lawyer for Brits, Sarah Fried for the BOA,
and a lawyer for the French. Friend and Benze argued the case, which
revolved not so much upon the field of play as upon the responsibilities of the
Appeals Jury. (Bettina Hoy and German representatives also attended the hearing.)
The CAS ruled that the Appeals Jury had no jurisdiction as the case rested upon
fact, which must be left to the Ground Jury, not upon interpretation of rules,
which could be decided by Appeals Jury. We hear there is to be another Medal Ceremony,
but don’t know where or when yet. McLain Ward said there should be
a ceremony stripping the German Team and Bettina of their medals.
Huge
celebrating here!
The US Dressage Team won Bronze, but again a scandal.
Dressage judging has had a very questionable reputation for years, but it plumbed
new depths today.
Anky van Grusven, of the Netherlands, scored
74 – stands third – despite MAJOR mistakes – everyone here outraged.
She had NO halt, should have gotten a zero – shied out of the corner into
the canter half passes, thus missing the beginning of that movement – and
lunged and leapt out of the first pirouette. Anyone else with those mistakes would
have had a 65.
Meanwhile, all of our guys marked just a couple of points
low.
Show jumping 1st individual tomorrow at 9 am – draw for order
at 7 p.m. tonight – scores of top three riders from each country will decide
order of go in Nations’ Cup.
Fingers crossed for our guys!
S. The
opinions expressed in the above Letter from Athens are not necesarily those of
eventingetc or its Editor
and/or Publisher. |
