FEI Meets CSI: Olympics Jumping Scandal Turned Over to Princess Diana Death Investigator

by Fran Jurga | 29 May 2009 | The Jurga Report

The popularity of horse sport in Germany is illustrated by the placement of this billboard in an inner city neighborhood. Flickr image courtesy of Fraencko.

The FEI, the world's governing body of equestrian sport, spoke today, after yesterday's shocking announcement that Germany was disbanding its national equestrian teams. Even as the European championships approach this summer and the World Equestrian Games (WEG) looms for 2010, a deepening scandal surrounding attitudes as well as actions by German riders, veterinarians and perhaps other officials in an attempt to deliver gold medals at Hong Kong during last summer's Olympics.

That's what was going on in Germany. Meanwhile, next door at the world headquarters of Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), in Switzerland, the case moved forwarded on legal and administrative legs that horse sports have never known before.

As some background: on Thursday, the FEI Headquarters filed a protest with the FEI Tribunal on the basis of widely reported admissions by German show jumper Marco Kutscher and veterinarian Björn Nolting concerning the undeclared treatment given to Marco Kutscher’s horse, Cornet Obolensky, at the 2008 Olympic Games and the circumstances surrounding this treatment including the collapse of the horse, which subsequently took part in competition.

If that is correct, after the horse collapsed from its medication, Kutscher still rode him in the Olympics. Compare that to the top British team horse, Portofino, that was scratched "to be safe" before the vet check because he seemed off but was fine on the competition day but, of course, not allowed to compete.

The FEI's protest requests the provisional suspension of these individuals from any FEI activities pending the results of its investigation. It also requests the provisional suspension of Hanfried Haring, FEI Bureau Member, judge and former Secretary General of the German NF, of his responsibilities on the FEI governing body, on the basis that he had knowledge of the relevant facts and did not report them to the relevant authorities.

The FEI had already appointed a three-member ethics panel to look into the German team doping scandal at the 2008 Olympics; the panel includes US Equestrian Federation President David O'Connor.

The panel is headed by London's former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens. If his name sounds familiar, he was oft quoted in the tabloids and on television as he was the head investigator of the death of Princess Diana. In 2006, Lord Stevens and his investigation/security firm, Quest, investigated player corruption in the Premier League of British football, among other things. Sports scandals seem to be one of his specialties.

Today's statement's key sentence may be: "The Panel has considered some preliminary information and is of the opinion that there may have been breaches of FEI rules by riders, team officials and National Federation representatives, and concludes that it should continue to carry out a detailed investigation in order to make specific recommendations to the FEI President on these matters."

The rather long and legalish statement of the FEI today states that the FEI is more or less removing itself from the scandal and Quest is taking over the investigation on behalf of the FEI. As you can imagine, the FEI wants to know who knew what, and when he or she knew it---not only on the German team and within the German federation, but within the FEI.

The statement reads: "In the interests of efficiency and speed, the Panel members considered that the gathering of further information and evidence should be carried out by expert professional investigators. Quest was chosen for this purpose. The Panel Chair is also the Chairman of Quest, and, therefore, the selection was made by the other members of the Panel, and without participation of the Chair."

In other words, ethics panel members O'Connor plus Ken Lalo, chairman of the FEI Tribunal, and John Roche, FEI Director of Jumping, have turned over the investigation to the chairman, but this was done without the involvement of the chair during that decision.

More intrigue filtered out of Germany today, including a clouding factor that the television contract for German showjumping is up for negotiation and that the embarrassment of Germans caught breaking doping rules at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics is not attractive to sponsors, no matter how popular the sport may be with viewers.

UPS sponsors show jumping in Germany and I checked today: they still have suspended show jumper Ludger Beerbaum on their web site. In one German newspaper, he was interviewed as saying that this would all blow over and he'd be back on the team soon.

This all sounds straight from one of those high-brow British detective mysteries on PBS that I love so much. It's just too bad it's the real world and the credibility of our horse sports is at stake.

German Equestrian Team Suspended as Olympic Doping Scandal Escalates in International Spotlight

by Fran Jurga | 28 May 2009 | The Jurga Report

Die Goldenen Reiter, a huge gilded statue in the city of Dresden, Germany became a symbol of Germany's drive for Olympic gold medals in 2008; Flickr photo by Lanchutt

Before you read this post, take a minute and watch this wonderful short video:
http://www.die-goldenen-reiter.com/film.html
Make it full screen; turn up the volume. All the way. Hit play.

You see, less than a year ago, I was preparing to blog the Olympics, and the German team sent me a link, so I could watch a terrific music video they had made to pump up the national spirit to get behind the Germans' push to come home with gold medals in all three sports at the Olympics equestrian games in Hong Kong.

I loved the video and its quick edits. I loved the idea of the team members singing along. Loved seeing some of my favorite horses and riders. Really loved the action closeups of the hooves with all those big studs digging into the grass. The song is really catchy. It was a big hit in the 1980s in Germany and the rock star who sang it is an icon--sort of a Billy Joel, German-style.

I watched the little video again after I spent Thursday tracking down the news from Germany and I saw something else, entirely. What do you see?


The international horse sport community will be reeling on Friday as the world wonders what is going on in Germany. And maybe in their own backyards. I wonder, too.

Thursday afternoon, the national equestrian federation of Germany, FN Verlag (FN), announced the suspension of all riders who represented Germany at the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong's equestrian events, where Germany won three gold medals. In effect, FN Verlag and the German national sport federation have dissolved, disbanded, and suspended its equestrian teams for FEI-level events. To use one of my favorite German words: "kaput!"

This story began back on May 11, when the FEI reported that German Olympic show jumper Marco Kutscher told German reporters that his horse had been illegally treated with arnica and lactanase during the Olympics at Hong Kong in August. Kutscher's confession and subsequent accusations initiated a cascade of events that will probably not end with Thursday's drastic action, which affects not just jumping but also dressage and eventing. Dressage superstar Isabell Werth even made a callous offhand remark that what she does to her horse is the concern of her and the owner and no one else, thank you very much.

What began as an investigation of a single rider and the team veterinarian is now affecting a dozen riders' careers and reputations.

My German is not the very best, but I think I know what the German press release is saying: each of the riders is going to be thoroughly investigated and must apply to be reinstated. Only after assurance that the rider will be a leader for a clean sport will that rider be allowed to represent Germany ever again. There is no indication of how long this process might take, nor how long the FEI's own investigation might take. There is a comment that time is not a concern.

All this with the World Equestrian Games coming up in just over a year. What more can the FEI do to police the barns and schooling rings? Are veterinarians the advocates of the horse and the rulebook or are they under too much pressure just as the riders are? And just where does that pressure originate?

Germany has been double-shocked by statements made by show jumping champion Ludger Beerbaum this weekend, including his assertion that he would do whatever it took to win and understood that he just was not supposed to get caught. The FN press release mentions Beerbaum--and only Beerbaum--by name.

The scandal reaches higher; FEI Bureau Member, judge and former Secretary General of FN Hanfried Haring has been associated with the scandal and may lose his position.

Be careful about what news sources you check on this story. HorseandHound.co.uk is usually tops for European news and you can follow their headlines via Twitter @horseandhound.

Come on, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and Sixty Minutes. You love a good scandal: do you have a reporter who speaks German? Here's your chance. What can the FEI say in its own defense, that these things have been going on in spite of rules and inspections and tests?

Equestrian sports woke up with two black eyes this morning. The elephant in the room got loose.

To refresh your memory about the Olympics in Hong Kong and the Germans' ups and downs there, please read my Olympic blog: The World Rides in Hong Kong. I feel like I should start the blog up again and write "The Rest of the Story".

Shedding Season: Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum and the End of the Midnight Horse Laundry Caper

Champion show jumper Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum wants the horse world to know that she and Markus use Miele industrial-strength washing machines. But do international show jumpers even get a chance to get as dirty as a backyard horse? (Miele photo)

When I drive by my local laundromat, the sign "NO HORSE BLANKETS" is written in such huge letters that I can read it without slowing down. Before you even get inside, you have been warned that you will be prosecuted if you put horse-related items in any washer or dryer.

Shrunken heads or scalps of offending grooms and stablehands may as well hang from the ceiling. "Horse" is a four-letter word in America's laundromats.

Of course, that doesn't stop a lot of people, especially for small items like leg wraps and saddlecloths...Not to mention their own clothes, which usually have more horse hair on them than the horses' clothes do. And they usually sneak in at midnight, when no one's around.

So when I received two press announcements almost simultaneously about horse-product laundering, I was sure that the Horse-Hating Laundromat Owners of America were really cracking down. But it turned out that these are two product announcements that prove my theory about how challenged rank-and-file horse owners are with keeping all those horse clothes clean.

Manufacturer's claim: saddle pads and horse blankets will no longer get wet or dirty. (Nanotechnology photo)

Nanotechnology is a dog-products manufacturer ready to break into the horse market. They will soon be offering dirt-proof turnout and stable blankets, sheets, and saddle pads. I'd love to be the public relations firm for these blankets and challenge horses to get them dirty. Testing these products would be fun and I am sure that my local laundromat owner is really hoping that they catch on!

Learn more at www.doggonesmartbed.com. Maybe I should have my house and car (and self) upholstered in their fabric!

Horseowner's Ancient Wisdom: Buy a horse a new turnout blanket and rolling becomes compulsory, regardless of the weather...or how much you paid for the blanket

The second news had some star-quality intrigue. Miele, makers of industrial-strength and oh-so-Euro-designed washing machines, offered a behind-the-scenes photo tour of Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum's lovely home in Germany. This promo is testament to the celebrity status of riders in Europe compared to America. The tour ends in the stable, where we see that she and Markus have two industrial-strength washers ready to launder the endless supply of coolers they keep winning.

Click here for a mini slide-show tour of Meredith's farm in Germany; click here to download the Miele horse laundry brochure.

Hats off to Meredith for endorsing a company that makes a product we'd all like to own (and no doubt, some lucky readers already do). I hope Miele keeps a presence in the horse world and helps us all clean up our act!

2008 Olympics Protest: German Equestrians, Mindful of History, Will Gallop On

Argentinian show jumping rider Gregorio Werthein carried the Olympic torch through Buenos Aires yesterday. (Reuters.com photo)

Germany has decided that it will continue with plans to compete in a multitude of sports at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, in spite of pressure to withdraw in protest against Chinese oppression of Tibetan human rights.

But German athletes are among the most outspoken on their distaste for Chinese politics. The German water polo team has announced plans to wear bright orange terry-cloth robes poolside, evoking the orange prayer robes of Buddhist monks protesting in Tibet. German pole vaulter Anna Battke is planning a protest during the opening ceremony, according to the Germany newsmagazine Der Spiegel. She is urging athletes to participate in the ceremony dressed either as monks or Chinese government officials. At some point in the ceremony, athletes representing the two groups would simultaneously bow and shake hands, symbolizing peace between them.

The cover of this week's Der Spiegel (similar to our Time magazine), shows the Olympic rings but, if you look closely, the rings are actually handcuffs.

As always, it pays to take a spin around the web to some of the foreign-based news web sites that have English versions. You will certainly see a different spin on the news from what you will hear and see on the US television news. On the AsiaOne website you will read: "I have considered whether I can compete in China under these conditions," attributed to German show jumper Ludger Beerbaum.

Germany is perhaps the birthplace of the political Olympics, going back to Adolph Hitler's controversial hosting of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. US participation in those games were hotly protested by Jewish Americans who were outraged by the persecution of Jews under the Nazis. Germany did not allow Jewish athletes to represent their country and Hitler did not recognize African-American Jesse Owens' remarkable feat of winning four gold medals.

In the equestrian events in 1936, Germany won team and individual gold medals in all the sports; the Spanish Riding School's Alois Podhajsky won the bronze medal in dressage for Austria. Horses with the Trakehner brand won six gold medals.

It's sad to look at the medal standings from 1936: once-great horse nations Poland, Hungary and Romania were up there in the medals. Poland won the silver in eventing ahead of Great Britain!

At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, politics and sport made deadly contact when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes and coaches.

On the bright side, it was the sport of table tennis and its international competition scene that initially brought China out of its withdrawal from the world stage back in the 1970s. One thing led to another, and now China is the most dominant force in international commerce.

So, it looks like the show will go on for the Germans in Hong Kong. German riders are among the favorites in all three Olympic equestrian disciplines. And most of the rest of the world will be riding German-bred horses. They have nothing to protest there. But watch for a strong German will to win in the eventing, as the Germans were disqualified and stripped of their gold medals at the 2004 Olympics in Athens when Bettina Hoy crossed the start line twice in the show jumping phase. An insightful article about Bettina's ongoing resentment can be read on the Reuters Olympics web site.