The Olympic Programme Commission report recommending that eventing be excluded from the 2008 Olympics was presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board on Aug. 28 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The commission was in charge of reviewing the Olympic program and presented recommendations on the program of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Eventing was recommended for exclusion of the Olympic program because of the cost for venue preparations and operations, and because of safety issues. Following is an excerpt of the official response from the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), the international governing body for equestrian sport:



Three sports and five disciplines were recommended for exclusion of the Olympic programme, among which the equestrian discipline of Eventing, considering the costs for venue preparations and operations for Games OC and the issue of safety of athletes and horses.


Since the 2000 Olympic Games, the FEI has conducted a thorough study on the discipline of Eventing, consulting with a number of specialists inside and outside the sport. Important changes were made in the discipline format to improve safety both of the riders and horses and a global safety programme was put in place. The FEI worked with the IOC to significantly reduce the “Minimum Requirements for Olympic Games” and important changes to the format of the Olympic Eventing competition were adopted to lower the cost of staging the discipline for the OC.


The FEI organised several meetings with the OC of the 2004 Olympic Games (ATHOC) in order to review the budget of the infrastructure of the equestrian competitions

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.