Live from the Equestrian Olympics : results

Dressage Medals Controversy

Jennifer — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:01:00 GMT

Olympic dressage competition joins the ranks of ice dancing with accusations of nationalism in judging. In the Grand Prix Freestyle, held last night, Germany's Isabell Werth earned a score of 78.100 percent to win the individual silver medal despite a major disobedience by her mount, Satchmo, who backed and bucked instead of piaffing at one point during their ride. It was essentially a repeat of the disobedience Satchmo showed in the Grand Prix Special test three days earlier.

The gold medalist, for a history-making third consecutive Olympics, was Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands, paired again with her 2004 Games partner, Salinero. Their freestyle in Hong Kong earned a whopping 82.400 to secure the pair the undisputed top spot. Winning the bronze -- her first individual Olympic medal -- was Heike Kemmer of Germany, who had a lovely freestyle test aboard Bonaparte. I'd never met Kemmer before last night, but she was thrilled with her horse and their performance and struck me as someone I'd like to get to know better. If she comes to town to clinic, I'll sign up.

The controversy swirled around the failure of U.S. rider Steffen Peters on Ravel to medal. Their final average score (Special and Freestyle) was 74.150, a heartbreaking 0.305 behind Kemmer's 74.455. The crux of the grumbling was the fact that the head of the judging panel, Gotthilf Riexinger, who is German, placed Peters ninth in the freestyle while the other judges placed him second or third -- both medal positions. Riexinger defended the scoring by saying that Werth's freestyle had a higher degree of difficulty than Peters's and that, other than the disobedience, many aspects of Werth's ride were of superior quality. But if the annoyed buzzing on the shuttle buses and at the media hotel is any indication, not everyone believes Riexinger's explanation. "Steffen got robbed!" someone exclaimed this morning.

Peters, who is a gracious competitor as well as a superb horseman, isn't saying anything negative, at least in public. Werth, for her part, spoke frankly about the fact that Satchmo lost his confidence -- apparently this has been in issue in the past -- and said she'll have to work to regain it. She seemed in no way arrogant about her final placing -- happy to medal, of course; but I actually got the feeling that, had she not medaled, she would have been OK with it, despite some inevitable disappointment. She is too experienced a competitor to think that every competition will go exactly as she'd like it to.

Will anything come of this hubbub? If it does, I'll let you know.

A Golden Moment

Jennifer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:21:00 GMT

I can't count the number of Olympic medal ceremonies I've watched on TV over the years. I even got to see one in person when I attended the 1996 Atlanta Games and saw Germany's Isabell Werth on Gigolo win the individual dressage gold medal over the Netherlands' Anky van Grunsven on Bonfire.

As thrilling as that experience was, last night I learned that nothing compares to hearing one's own national anthem played in person. The USA won the jumping team gold medal in a nail-biting jump-off with Canada, and when "The Star-Spangled Banner" rang out for Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden, Will Simpson, and McLain Ward and the stars and stripes were raised, it made for an unforgettable Olympic moment for this American journalist.

Olympic competition is so tightly scheduled that the medal ceremonies are finished practically before the results sink in, apparently even for some of the athletes. After last night's jump-off, the TV cameras caught Laura Kraut turning to Beezie Madden with a somebody-pinch-me-I-think-I'm-dreaming expression and saying, "Oh my God, we just won the gold medal!" The whirlwind of activity is such that it's hard to savor the moment. I hope the riders were able to do so. I know I did.

Coverage Update

Jennifer — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:33:00 GMT

I see that a couple of blog readers have wondered about the competition schedule and how to access live coverage.

As I write this, the morning of August 16 in Hong Kong, team dressage has ended and individual competition begins tonight with the Grand Prix Special. US riders Courtney King-Dye on Mythilus and Steffen Peters on Ravel have qualified for the Special by placing 25th or better in the Grand Prix. Debbie McDonald on Brentina didn't make the cut. And yes, the mare performed very oddly but all those in the U.S. camp have insisted that Brentina is not unsound.

Individual jumping competition began last night with the first qualifier. So here's what's ahead: August 16: Dressage, Grand Prix Special August 17: Jumping, team round 1 & individual second qualifier August 18: Jumping, team round 2 and medal ceremony; individual third qualifier August 19: Dressage, Grand Prix Freestyle and individual medal ceremony August 20: rest day August 21: Jumping, individual final rounds A and B and individual medal ceremony NBCOlympics.com is streaming live coverage.

Hong Kong is twelve hours ahead of the US East Coast, so a competition that begins at 7:15 p.m. local time will be streaming at 7:15 a.m. that same day on your East Coast computer.