DeRosa Daily Equestrian Olympic News
Horsesdaily Veteran Olympic Reporter Diana DeRosa Brings Us Into Her World

A Few Words About Eventing

Just before the final Individual Show Jumping round the color announcer Brian O’Connor interviewed his brother, Olympic Gold Medalist and USEF President David O’Connor.  In their conversation David made a point of noting what an unbelievable level of dressage was demonstrated at these Olympic Games.  He was right on target with that comment.  The level of Eventing Dressage continues to improve with every Olympic Games.

Also different this time around was the fact that there were no roads and tracks in the cross country, something that has been in place for a few years now, but was new to an Olympic Games.  There were also additional rules, such as one fall and you are eliminated (which caused for Amy’s demise).

But overall it was a great Eventing competition and on the final show jumping day it was a packed house and an evening with no rain (for once). People were fanning themselves to get some relief from the heat.  Because of the weather the class started at 7:15 in the evening. The second round at almost 11:00 and the Medal Ceremony took place near midnight.  With the 12 hour time difference from New York for some of us this worked quite well.

In order to help the spectators understand what was happening they showed a video which explained how the riders were penalized.  For instance they showed a rider actually having a run-out and then up on the screen flashed the words 4 penalty points, then a second run-out eliminated them.  It was a new concept that made a lot of sense and as I sat in the stands I watched as people paid attention to the video in order to better understand the class.

It seemed to have helped because the audience got very involved and enthusiastic with every rail down and every clear round.  Whenever someone went clear the crowd of close to 18,000 would pound into an uproar.

All I could think about after the night was over was how great it was to see such enthusiasm.  It started with the crowd.  It continued with the riders who went clear because they were practically jumping off their horse’s backs with enthusiasm, punching the air, raising their arms and all the while smiling.

That enthusiasm continued on the podium.  At one point Gina raised both her arms in the air and yelled with excitement.  Then in the press room Hinrich was so human it was amazing.  He stumbled on his words but didn’t care.  When asked if he thought he’d come home with two medals, he said he thought the Team could win but was not expecting for himself to get a Gold.  Seeing that the press might want him to say more he giddily commented, “you can say whatever you want.”

Then in a jiffy that night was over and with mixed emotions we headed back to our hotels.  We were happy for Gina but sad for Phillip.  Lessons learned are never easy.