It was a day for banner performances and shocking downfalls during the team qualifier at the 2024 Paris Olympics. A course featuring brightly colored poles and a stiff challenge—especially considering its role as a qualifier versus a final—meant just one team would emerge unscathed with three clear rounds, as well as a predicted contender knocked out of team medal contention.
Germany proved unbeatable, jumping four fault-free rounds to secure the enviable top position ahead of Friday’s final medal round. Coming into this Olympic Games with a 9% winning chance from EquiRatings, Germany arrived in Paris seeking their first team gold medal in jumping since the 2000 Games (Sydney) and their first medal since they took bronze in 2016 (Rio de Janeiro). Tomorrow’s medal final will start with a score of zero for all 10 teams moving forward. Today’s qualifier results will be used to determine the starting order for the final.
Achieving Results with Clear Communication
“United was amazing,” Richard Vogel commented as the last rider out for the Germans today. “I have to give him a huge credit. I think it was a challenging, tough course. It was a very fair course, so a huge compliment to the course designer. I think he did a very good track here today. But United made it ride easy for me. He felt in great shape. So we’re optimistic for tomorrow.”
Vogel noted that United Touch S (Untouched – Touch of Class x Lux Z) possesses great power, and it’s something he’s had to manage after taking over the horse from a young rider. To aid in this, he relies heavily on transition work, particularly from the canter down to the trot, to instill more rideability. Vogel strives to establish a channel of communication that becomes seamless between his thoughts and the horse’s reactions.
“I should not even need to pull. I should just think ‘OK, now we have to collect.’ The horse almost needs to read my mind,” Vogel explained. “The slightest difference in my seat should be enough sign for him. In order to achieve that, we do a lot of transitions from canter to trot. It’s a very good exercise to be one with the horse and to be very close with the horse’s back and have your legs on and not just sit kind of on top of the horse.”
Team Jumping Track Tests Even the Best
Course designers Santiago Varela and Gregory Bodo set a challenging track of 14 fences and 17 jumping efforts, featuring colorful poles and standards all painstakingly painted to pay homage to French culture.
The result was a course that caught out plenty of pairs. This shockingly included Sweden’s Peder Fredricson and Catch Me Not S (Cardento 933 – Ralmea x Raimro’s Son), who fell victim to the imposing wall jump at 11 with a runout. Fredricson mused that his mount didn’t see or understand the question, but he didn’t think the horse lost any confidence due to the error. Initially given a 16% win chance by EquiRatings, the defending gold medalists finished eighth in the qualifier today. Fredricson’s error proved costly as the other two Swedish riders produced clear rounds. With a clean slate tomorrow, it still remains very much any team’s game.
Surprisingly, Switzerland also found themselves on the back foot and finished just outside of the qualifying berth in 12th overall. A total of six rails down, including one from Rolex Grand Prix of Windsor winners Martin Fuchs and Leone Jei (Baltic VDL – Dara x Corland), would eliminate the team from contention.
“Not the day we wished for,” Fuchs said. “I actually was very confident going in believing that with the clear round we would qualify for the final. So I was highly motivated and Leone Jei jumped great throughout the course. I really believed that we could deliver a clear round and tried to save our chances for the final. Maybe I was almost a bit too confident in the triple combination when we jumped the plank so well. I didn’t focus enough on the C of the triple. I was already thinking about bringing it home and not about jumping the fence.”
Team USA Qualifies in Second with Two Clears
Coming in second and nearly producing three clear rounds was Team USA, anchored by McLain Ward and Ilex (Baltic VDL – Calendula x Chin Chin). Despite a rail down at fence 8 and two time penalties, the clear efforts of Laura Kraut and Baloutinue (Balou du Rouet – Utika x Landor S) as well as Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque (Zandor – Pocahontas D’Amaury x Kannan GFE), who were substituted in earlier today after an allergy issue with Kent Farrington’s Greya, put the U.S. into good stead ahead of the medal round.
“To be honest, it was very clear, obviously, that I was the alternate and how late I could be called,” Cook said. “We knew that going in, and it was important in all of our prep. Everything yesterday, last night and this morning was as if we were showing, because it’s too hard to do that after the fact. Mentally, we were on the team the whole time.”
“I’m just so appreciative for the opportunity,” Cook continued. “And, you know, I feel proud that I could do that for Team USA and my other team members.”
U.S. Quickest of the Day in Team Jumping
McLain Ward admits today was more of a conservative ride, as were those of many of his counterparts, prioritizing team qualification over individual success, particularly considering that this is the 11-year-old KWPN gelding’s first major championship.
“I knew going in that we had a pretty big margin of error. So I planned to be a little conservative and make sure there wasn’t a big blow up. He felt really great. The rail down was a very light rub, but not a big deal,” Ward said. “Job one was to qualify. You never want to take that for granted. But I think about how the horses felt. They felt fresh, they jumped well and I think that brings you into the final with a good feeling.”
Despite Ward’s two time faults, the U.S. was in fact the quickest team of the day, turning in a team total time of 227.57. Kraut’s Baloutinue and Cook’s Caracole de la Roque are notoriously quick horses. And tactful management of the clock today means there will be plenty of speed left in reserve for tomorrow’s influential final.
“Balou is just everything you would want in an Olympic horse, and I had complete faith in him today,” Kraut said of her clear round with Baloutinue, the quickest of the U.S. riders with a time of 72.92. “I wasn’t 100-percent sure what my plan was going to be, because to be honest with you, the course wasn’t really suited to him. But going first, I just thought I’ve got to go in and be quick since time is going to be such a factor and just have faith that he’d go clear on the fences, and he did.”
Movers and Shakers (and One Elimination)
Great Britain also made good on their initial lower win chances from EquiRatings, securing third in the qualifier despite two rails down. One was from Harry Charles and Romeo 88 (Contact van de Heffinck – Only Picobello x Orlando); the other was from Scott Brash and Jefferson (Cooper van de Heffinck – Hovis x Irco Mena). This result again underscores the challenges of today’s course, as Ireland’s Daniel Coyle noted in his post-ride interview after delivering a clear round on Legacy (Chippendale Z – Regina D x Bon Ami).
“There’s a lot of really experienced riders high in the rankings with a lot of faults today,” Coyle said. “I know today’s not the final, but it was interesting to see. Maybe I’m wrong. But to be honest, tomorrow can’t be much tougher than this.”
Looking to the overall leaderboard, just nine combinations jumped free of penalties out of the 60 starters. The triple combination at fence 13 proved to be the most influential. Eleven pairs had the B element down and six pairs had the C element down. And the brightly painted wall jump at 11 caused three refusals.
Brazil’s Pedro Veniss and Nimrod De Muze were eliminated today per FEI blood rules after a minor amount of blood was found on the horse’s flank during the post-competition check. Under FEI Jumping Rules, blood on the flanks or in the mouth results in an automatic elimination. Subsequently, Rodrigo Pessoa, Brazil’s anchor rider, withdrew Major Tom from the qualifier since Brazil was eliminated as a team. Pessoa will return for the individual qualifier on Monday.
Team Jumping Qualifiers:
The top 10 teams from today will move forward to the medal final tomorrow:
- Germany
- USA
- Great Britain
- Belgium
- The Netherlands
- Ireland
- France
- Sweden
- Israel
- Mexico
To read more about our coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, click here.
