A press release from the FEI announces that its General Assembly today has voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposed format changes for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020, which will now go to the IOC Executive Board for final approval in 2017.

Under the new proposals the number of athletes per team will be reduced to three, and the drop score - which previously allowed for a team’s worst score to be discarded - will be removed. The use of a reserve combination for teams will remain in place, but will according to the FEI be even more important and will be a key element in ensuring horse welfare.

11 out of 107 National Federations represented voted against the proposal – Albania, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Monaco, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Romania and Switzerland. Voting on the proposed sport-specific changes to the three individual Olympic disciplines – jumping, dressage and eventing – was unanimously in favour.

“This was a really important vote for the future of our sport if we are to increase universality in accordance with the recommendations of Olympic Agenda 2020,” FEI President Ingmar De Vos comments in the press release from the FEI.

“We need to increase the number of participating nations at the Olympic Games but within our existing quota of 200. Reducing team members to three per nation was probably the only way to boost the number of flags. Of course this now has to be approved by the IOC, but it opens the door to countries that previously could only see the Olympics as a distant dream.

“There were some National Federations that didn’t agree with the proposal, but that’s all part of the democratic process. Now we need to work together to make this a success.”

For jumping, the proposed changes are detailed as follows:

• Teams of three horse/athlete combinations per nation, plus one reserve combination, no drop score
• 20 teams (60 horse/athlete combinations)
• 15 slots for nations not qualified with a team (maximum one  horse/athlete combination per nation)
• Individual event will now take place before team event
• Cut-off score: the exact cut-off and resulting penalty will be finalised in the Olympic Regulations
• The exact penalty for any horse/athlete combination that is eliminated, or does not complete their round for any reason, will be finalised in the Olympic Regulations

Source: Press release from the FEI // Picture © FEI/ Richard Juilliart