PR90832

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, July 23, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Jumping looks set to be a testing thriller

Tokyo 2020 is one of the most talked-about Olympic Games of all time, and as it

arrives a year late and filled with challenges, for the stars of international

Jumping the questions are clear:  

How will the three-rider no-drop-score format play out in the battle for the

Team medals? And is there anyone to get in the way of the pair who claimed

individual silver at the FEI World Equestrian Games in 2018 and the individual

European title a year later - Martin Fuchs and his super-horse Clooney - when

it comes to individual gold?

With so few team competition opportunities in the lead-up to these Games, it's

difficult to make any predictions, but if the Division 1 Nations Cups that took

place last month are anything to go by, then the on-form countries are Sweden,

Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

A total of 75 athletes will be chasing down their individual dreams when the

action begins at Baji Koen on 3 August, and athletes from 19 countries will be

giving it everything they've got when the team contest gets underway on 6

August. It will be a fascinating four days of Olympic equestrian sport.

Team France are the defending champions having clinched gold for only the

second time in Olympic history in Rio 2016, and Penelope Leprevost is the only

member of that victorious team to line out again at Tokyo 2020 where she will

be joined by Mathieu Billot and Nicolas Delmotte. Silver went to the USA five

years ago, while Germany won out in a thrilling jump-off against Canada for the

bronze.

Comeback king Nick Skelton won Britain's first Olympic Individual title in Rio

with Big Star, a phenomenal and emotional achievement for the 58-year-old who

had broken his neck in a fall 16 years earlier. Silver went to Sweden's Peder

Fredricson and the brilliant All In and this pair, who won individual European

gold in 2017, will be joined by Malin Baryard-Johnson (Indiana) and Henrik von

Eckermann (King Edward) in Tokyo.

The British have two of the team that secured Olympic gold for their country

for the first time in 60 years in London 2012, and both Scott Brash (Hello

Jefferson) and Ben Maher (Explosion W) also look set to challenge strongly for

the individual medals.

READ MORE  https://inside.fei.org/fei/your-role/media

Images

Images available on FEI Flickr [

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gallery_fei/albums/72157708780958282 ]for

editorial use only.

FEI Social Media

Facebook [ https://www.facebook.com/the.fei/ ], Instagram [

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

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

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

#EquestrianShowjumping #Showjumping #Equestrian #Tokyo2020 #Olympics

Video content

All video footage is available at https://fei.broadcast-content.tv/ with the

following login details: media@fei.org Password: FEI2018

Media Toolkit

View the FEI Equestrian Media Toolkit here:  

https://inside.fei.org/system/files/EQUESTRIAN%20MEDIA%20TOOL%20KIT_TOKYO2020.pdf

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

competition results [ https://tokyo2020.live.fei.org/ ]throughout the Games.

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/ ].

About FEI [ https://inside.fei.org/fei/about-fei ]

Media contact:

Shannon Gibbons

FEI Media Relations & Media Operations Manager

Shannon.gibbons@fei.org  

+41 78 750 61 46

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1580472/FEI_Nick_Skelton.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1578235/Logo.jpg  

Source: FEI