A new three-per-team with no drop score format was introduced at the delayed Tokyo Olympic Games and it remains in place for Paris. So what does this mean and how does it work? Read on to find out…

The team and individual competitions in equestrian eventing at the Olympics will run concurrently over three consecutive days from 27 to 29 July. Dressage tests will be completed on Saturday 27 July, with the cross-country phase taking place on Sunday 28 July and the final jumping phases happening on Monday 29 July.

All three scores count

There are three horses and riders on each team and all three scores count towards the team’s overall final score. A rider rides the same horse throughout the competition.

Results from each phase are added together for a final score. It is the lowest score that wins, both for the team and individual medals.

Horses can be substituted for the team competition and a horse/rider combination may be substituted by a reserve combination for a medical or veterinarian reason in any of the three tests after the start of the competition.

This means one horse and rider might do the dressage and cross-country, but then a reserve rider takes over for the final showjumping phase should the original pair be injured or similar.

Any substitution will incur a penalty for the team of 20 points and only one substitution per team is permitted.

Any substitute horse and riders called up will compete for the team only; they will not be able to qualify for the individual competition.

Starting order

The dressage test that will be ridden is the 2024 Olympic Games 5* test (short).

The top 25 at the end of the team showjumping phase on Monday morning will qualify for the individual jumping final. These horses and riders will jump their second rounds on Monday afternoon.

A drawn starting order will be used for the dressage and cross-country phases, but in the final showjumping rounds riders  will go in reverse order of merit.

As well as Friday morning’s first horse inspection, there will be a second horse inspection on Monday 29 July before the final jumping phase takes place.

The line up

German rider Julia Krajewski made history at the delayed Tokyo Olympic Games when she became the first-ever female athlete to claim the Olympic individual eventing title.

Other individual medallists in Tokyo were Britain’s Tom McEwen, who won silver aboard Toledo de Kerser, and Australia’s Andrew Hoy, who took bronze with Vassily de Lassos. Tom is also competing in Paris, but on a different horse — JL Dublin.

Great Britain come to Paris as the defending champions after winning team gold in Tokyo. Australia won team silver last time, ahead of France, who claimed bronze.

Olympic eventing: fascinating facts

The oldest event rider competing in Paris is Ecuador’s Ronald Zabala Goetschel, who is 57 years old.

The youngest rider is Veera Manninen from Finland, who is 24 years old.

Karin Donckers from Belgium is contesting her seventh Olympic Games — the most of any rider competing in Paris.

When the Olympic Games were last staged in Paris in 1924, The Netherlands claimed team gold and team member Adolph van der Voort van Zijp claimed the individual title with Silver-Piece.

History was made when the USA’s Lana du Pont was the first woman to compete in an Olympic three-day-event in Tokyo in 1964.

There have been three back-to-back individual Olympic eventing champions:

  1. The Netherlands’ Charles Pahud de Mortanges rode Marcroix to victory on home ground in Amsterdam in 1928 and again in Los Angeles four years later.
  2. New Zealand’s Sir Mark Todd was back-to-back champion with Charisma in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988.
  3. Germany’s Michael Jung was victorious aboard Sam at London 2012 and again at the 2016 Games in Rio.

Paris Olympic eventing in numbers

  • 27 countries
  • 16 teams
  • 65 horse/athlete combinations
  • 11 countries represented by individuals

Meet the officials

Overseeing the Olympic eventing will be:

Technical Delegate: Marcin Konarski from Poland

Assistant Technical Delegate: Gaston Bileitczuk from France

Ground Jury President: Christina Klingspor from Sweden

Ground Jury Members: Xavier Le Sauce from France and Robert Stevenson from the USA

Course Designer: France’s Pierre Le Goupil

Team nations

Countries fielding teams for the eventing at the Paris Olympics are:

  • Australia
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • France
  • Germany
  • Great Britain
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Poland
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • USA

Countries fielding individuals are:

  • Austria
  • China
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Ecuador
  • Finland
  • Hungary
  • Morocco
  • Portugal
  • South Africa
  • Spain

View our Olympic timetable and find out how to watch

Main image: Germany’s Michael Jung is pictured riding Chipmunk in the main arena at the Paris Olympics with the Palace of Versailles in the background. Image by FEI/Benjamin Clark

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