2004 Olympic Games - Eventing

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

Appeals Committee Under Fire

Following the Awards Ceremony there was a Press Conference and the Appeals Committee were there to answer the questions as was Bo Helander of the FEI to answer any questions pertaining to the rules. As Bo explained, “there is no way to cover everything that happens” and therefore it’s important to have an Appeals Committee there to deal with the reality of the situation.

When asked what he thought about how this would look to the eyes of the world he responded that he thought that it was a good thing to show that there was a system in place to quickly and fairly deal with something unexpected like this happening.

When Bettina was asked about the situation she explained that she looked at the clock and saw that there was plenty of time left so she assumed the time had just started and therefore she had time for another circle. In fact the timer had reset itself. Hugh Thomas who was on the Appeals Committee explained that it was a mistake and an error on the part of the organizers and that in fairness to the athlete they had to take this into consideration and had to ensure that the athlete had a fair and equal chance. So, based on that they decided to reverse the decision.