2004 Olympic Games - Eventing

Who's On First: Gold – Silver – Bronze – Who’s got What?

Photos and text by Diana DeRosa for Horsesdaily.com

August 18, 2004 – Athens, Greece – I had planned to write about impressions and how supportive people were to each other and some other ideas I had but a medal issue came up that was probably heard round the world. So, I think I need to focus on this.

It started after the Team Stadium Jumping for Eventing. The class was over and we were all in the Press Room writing our stories when we were alerted that the Ground Jury was looking into something that might affect the Medal Placings. It had already been settled that Germany had won the Gold, France the Silver, Great Britain the Bronze and the U.S. was fourth. Hmmmm – could this mean the U.S. might move up because of some mistake?

Then word came back that Bettina Hoy had crossed the starting line twice and in show jumping that is something you learn not to do very early on. After an hour and a half the Ground Jury decided to penalize Bettina with 12 faults which meant the other teams would move up and we’d get a medal.

But the Germans went to the appeal committee explaining to them that the clock had not started when Bettina crossed the wire and therefore even though she had made a mistake so had the officials handling the timers and as a result the Appeals Committee reversed the decision.

Well, you can imagine the conversations, debates, etc. going back and forth. The French who had been happy with their Silver were even happier with their Gold but not so happy to be told you are back to a Silver Medal again. Same story for the Brits and especially for the U.S. because this didn’t mean a change in placings this was the difference between getting a medal and not getting a medal.