PR90750

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, July 20, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--

Germany has a long and formidable record in Olympic Equestrian Dressage. Since

the team competition was first introduced in Amsterdam (NED) in 1928, when the

German side pinned Sweden into silver and The Netherlands into bronze, they

have won 13 of the 20 Olympic team contests. And it's looking very much like

gold number. 14 is just around the corner.

The loss to Great Britain at London in 2012 was the only blip in an otherwise

seamless run that began in Los Angeles in 1984 when the great Reiner Klimke and

Ahlerich led the victory gallop. Despite all the disruption of the last 18

months due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1)

outbreak in mainland Europe, Team Germany arrive at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic

Games as defending champions and strong favourites to do it all over again.

Isabell Werth heads the line-up with mare Bella Rose and holding the World

number one slot. Underpinning the sheer strength of the German challenge, she

will be joined by World numbers two and four, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl with

TSF Dalera BB and Dorothee Schneider with Showtime FRH. With Helen

Langehanenberg and her mare Annabelle in reserve, they seem like an unstoppable

force.

However, the three-per team format introduced for this year's Games could prove

highly influential. One off day for just one team member and the story could be

very different indeed.

At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Great Britain claimed silver and The Netherlands

took team bronze. This time around the British send the dynamic duo of

Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester once again, but both on relatively unexposed

horses.

Edward Gal with Total US and Hans Peter Minderhoud with Dream Boy headline the

Dutch team, Patrik Kittel (Well Done de la Roche) leads the Swedish contingent

and Steffen Peters (Suppenkasper) will be a strong anchor for Team USA.

Meanwhile Team Belgium will be making a little bit of Olympic history as they

make their first appearance since 1928.

Read more here. [https://inside.fei.org/fei/your-role/media]

Click here [https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/sports/equestrian/] for more

information on Equestrian at the Olympic Games.

[https://olympics.com/en/sports/equestrian/]

Follow all media updates [https://inside.fei.org/fei/your-role/media] and

competition results [https://inside.fei.org/fei/your-role/media] throughout the

Games.

Images

Images available on FEI Flickr [https://inside.fei.org/fei/your-role/media] for

editorial use only.

FEI Social Media

Facebook [https://inside.fei.org/fei/your-role/media],Instagram

[https://www.instagram.com/fei_global/?hl=en ], Twitter

[https://twitter.com/FEI_Global?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5E

author], FEI-YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb3uedNKWKG7gGDYQJ1VsWg]

#EquestrianDressage #Tokyo2020 #Olympics

About FEI [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb3uedNKWKG7gGDYQJ1VsWg]

Media contact:

Shannon Gibbons

FEI Media Relations & Media Operations Manager

Shannon.gibbons@fei.org

+41 78 750 61 46

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1577650/FEI_Logo.jpg

Photo:

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1577651/FEI_Germany_team_gold_Rio_2016.jpg

SOURCE: FEI