Equestrian Eventing at the Olympics
Eventing, along with Dressage and Jumping, are the three events that are contested as a part of the equestrian discipline during the Olympics. There are currently two disciplines of Eventing conducted during the Olympics, which are, Individual Eventing and Team Eventing. Both the disciplines were introduced during the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
In equestrian eventing, riders perform a dressage test, a cross-country round, and a jumping round.
The format in which the event is conducted has undergone several changes over the course of many Olympics. Initially in 1912 and 1916 the event was conducted over a course of five days in which the fifth day was for a dressage test. In 1920, the dressage test was removed, only to be added back in the following 1924 Olympics. The format has remained the same since 1924, except for a few minor modifications in cross-country distances and height of obstacles.
Germany has won the gold medal in the last two Olympics, 2004 and 2008, in both team eventing and individual eventing. Prior to that, Australia dominated both the events, winning the gold medal four straight times from 1984 to 1996 in individual eventing and winning three straight gold medals for team eventing from 1992 to 2000. The United States, France, the Netherlands and Sweden are the other countries that have had some success in Olympic eventing.
Related Pages
- More about Equestrian at the Olympics
- Equestrian events were also held at the ancient Olympic Games
- See more on the Greatest Equestrian Athletes at the Olympics.
- See information about discontinued Equestrian events at the Olympic Games.
- Olympic Sports involving animals
- More about the sport of Equestrian
- List of Olympic Sports
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