Just a stepping stone for bigger goals?
Soon enough the Olympic disciplines needn't bother about any championships leading up to the Olympic games. Cause why would any organisation of their right mind continue to bother to even bid and host these events?
In the long run, however, the European Championships are just a stepping stone toward more significant goals. In 2026, the combined World Equestrian Games will take place in Aachen, Germany, where our dressage team aims to secure an Olympic spot.
The World Championships will be the first opportunity to qualify for the 2028 Olympics, and the goal is to secure the team quota there. With this year ahead, the focus will be on developing more horses to ensure a strong squad for Aachen.
This is cut out from a fresh out of the oven press release from one of the more name worthy European national federations.
The comments above are made by their Chef d'Equipe, where he is talking about the goals for 2025 and 2026.
Some of the note worthy keywords in the above content are European and World Championships and the God all mighty Olympic Games.
Sounds like a plan now doesn't it?
Now picture this!
This year France will host their first ever senior FEI Dressage European Championship at Jiva Hill Stables in Crozet.
With a stunning backdrop of Mont Blanc, this venue in the Haut-Jura Regional Natural Park offers top-tier facilities for the athletes.
Now picture this, you're a member of the organising committee of this historic event. An event that is not only historic for the whole of France. But also for your region.
Then you find out one of the current leading nations in dressage consider your "baby" to be; just a stepping stone for more significant goals.
What a freakin' insult!
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Reopened for bids..
Not only this, this is also one of the reasons equestrian sporting events have such a hard time to find sponsors.
It is also part of the, ever growing, problem in why the Olympic disciplines [on all levels] have troubles in finding organisations who are willing to host the European Championships in the first place.
Cause why would anybody even be bothered to host, and or sponsor an event that is considered to be just a stepping stone for other and more significant events?
Just think about it. How many allocated event venues have dropped out over the past years, leading to the bidding process of the championship in mind has to be reopened? There are actually quite the few.
Making a qualified guess this will continue to happen. Most likely it will even get worse and escalate. Cause this is not only a championship problem.
There is also a similar and huge problem in eventing more than anything else. Where people hunt for MERs just to get to the next level, never mind if they are actually qualified [read have the actual skill and experience] to do so or not.
Even for the bigger championships they just go for it, cause the rule book say they can. Last year most riders held back on their international outings to set all focus on the Olympic Games in Paris. In the long run these kind of actions lead to some serious consequences for the event organisers!
You'll get the same result by openly discarding the significance of the European Championships. Not only that, it also sets the bar for the future of equestrian sport.
What do you think? Please leave a comment in the comment section 👇🏻
