2004 Olympic Games - Dressage

Two Bronze Medals Announced Today
Dressage Wins By Points – Events Win By Overturned Ruling

Text and Photos by Diana DeRosa

August 21, 2004 – Athens , Greece -- When the news rang round the world on August 18 that Bettina Hoy had crossed the starting wire for the stadium part of Eventing and was being penalized 12 faults which would strip her and her team of their medals there was confusion felt by everyone. That was only compounded when the Appeals Committee overturned the verdict and gave Bettina and the German Team back their medals. But in the Press Conference that same day, the French who had been moved up to Gold and then back to Silver as a result of all of the above, decided a rule is a rule and she broke the rule And they were going to fight it through the proper channels. The end result was that the Appeals Committee Ruling has now been overturned…and so no more Team and/or Individual Medal for Germany .

This also means that the U.S. has moved into a Bronze Medal position. Something we are obviously happy about although in a sad sort of way. And this verdict came on the same day that the U.S. Dressage Team just squeaked into the Bronze Medal position behind an expected win by Germany but a surprise win by the Spanish Team.

The Eventing decision came down at the end of the day. So, none of us have had the chance to talk other than to say, “did you hear.”

Yes, we’ve all heard. That type of news spreads pretty quickly.

As a result the FEI is going to look into some of its policies to see if there is a better way to avoid situations like this. It’s pretty hard to figure out every potential and this one was a real winner. Hoy crosses the starting line and the clock resets instead of restarts. The Judges – where were the judges and why didn’t they blow the whistle and penalize her right then and there. Instead she looks at the clock and thinks, well the bell must have run after I passed the starter because there is not enough time on the clock for it to have been started sooner. So she goes on to her one day (or two or three) of glory only to now be stripped of her medal. How sad for everyone.