Sports Forum 2015

Lausanne, March 2015 – March and April will be very important for the IJRC Club, because in addition to the routine meeting, the Board is working on a document that it will present at the Jumping session during the upcoming Sports Forum in Lausanne on 27-28 April 2015.

During this Sports Forum will be analysed the FEI Jumping Committee’s proposals regarding some issues connected with Olympic Games, WEG and other Championships and Games in order to come up with very constructive proposals that will seriously improve the quality of our Sport.

One of the main point that will be discussed, is the question if, as it has happened in the past, a team competing in a Championship, has to be composed by 3 or 4 athletes.

Before thinking of limiting the participation, it is important to consider the following items:

In the optical of the Olympics Games, it is of course desirable to have the representation of the 5 continents as required by Olympics Games Charter and also it will be good to have a large number of flags.
A result of reducing the team’s competitors number from 4 to 3, it will be the possibility to enter 5 more teams, but this would not guarantee more flags because it seems very unlikely that these flags will not be already represented in the 15 participating individuals.

It is necessary to deeply analyse the pro and the counter and considering the welfare of the horse.

Another 2 strategic subjects that the IJRC Board will analyse are:

1) the WEG and the Nations Cup. The question is if these 2 competitions should have the same format and numbers of riders per team as the Olympic Games or not (with 3 riders per team and  not drop off the worst result).

2)  Invitation System. The question is if this System could be linked with the distribution of ranking points based on the creation, by the FEI, of three different kind of competitions.

Concerning this last point, the IJRC Club thinks that it is important to have a clear definition of Wild Card and Pay Card.

The first question is that an invitation extended by the OC to an athlete who has not been invited in descending order of the  Rankings List ( or entered as a home athlete by the home NF or nominated by the FEI to receive the FEI invitation) has to be always considered  as a Wild/Pay Card?

Is the Olympic Champion, European champion or Individual Gold medal at WEG to be considered as a Wild-Pay card when it is not in the top 30?

There is a lot of discussion.

We all realize we are having a few problems ahead of us:

–   Many people have access to the top money shows by paying.

–   It is difficult for talent riders and YR to access to the top level shows (but the real top talent have been able to jump in the top 30 in one year and half i.e. Bertram Allen and Martin Fuchs).

–   It is difficult for lower ranked riders to make it up to top 30 (again we must say that it is not impossible i.e Hans Dieter Dreher).

–   Invitation restricted to the top 30.

–   Not easy to jump also for riders between 35 and 100 without paying in top money shows.

– For riders not highly ranked is difficult also to jump in 3* without paying (table or table for student, special fee etc).

–   Not enough points in 2* and 3* shows (linked to PM) because low PM.

–   Not enough 4*.

It is easy to understand that it is not possible to solve all these problems just with the ranking list.

We have  to consider that all the changes we did so far have been done just to solve problems that were not caused by the ranking, but mainly by the pay cards or by the invitation system.

The Club is sure that everyone involved in all these important discussions and the drafting of these new regulations, will act giving the main importance to the sport, without being influenced by stakeholders group to which they belong, considering also that they will be very affected by the outcomes that they will reach.

We need to work all together, nobody would like to kill, riders, organizers or federations.

IJRC doesn’t like compromise, but in order to make our sport more attractive, to combine the interest of all stakeholders it is time to find good compromise and in order to stay on the same level of others sports.

If we all manage to act in this way  the IJRC is fully confident of the positive outcome of this year Sport Forum.

The Sports Forum is very important for all members of our international equestrian community, because of the impact of the subjects held during this annual meeting, keeping in mind that the aim is to improve the future of our sport reaching some interesting solutions. 

23 March 2015