The day of St.GEORG editor Gabriele Pochhammer with the show jumpers of the 2024 Olympic Games.
“Just don’t think that tomorrow will be a done deal,” warned Richard “Ritchie” Vogel at the 2024 Olympics after his clear ride, the third for the German team, which now puts Otto Becker’s boys in pole position for tomorrow, on the last starting place at the 2024 Olympic Games. That could be worth something in a jump-off – but you have to get that far first. One could interpret Otto’s expression as one of relaxed concentration when he appeared in our mixed zone at the 2024 Olympics in a delicate apricot-colored T-shirt. He hasn’t won anything yet, but anything is possible: a team medal, for the first time since the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The person who saved it back then, Ludger Beerbaum, whose stable provides two-thirds of the team here, stood contentedly on the sidelines.
Olympia 2024: German show jumpers show aggressiveness
“We are prepared,” said Otto Becker, and that sounds aggressive. “It’s a fine line mentally. If you think you can take things lightly, things can quickly go wrong.” Look at Sweden, the big favorites, but Peder Fredricson’s Catch Me Not wanted anything to do with this brightly colored graffiti wall. “He didn’t even know he was supposed to jump,” said Peder, “horses aren’t machines.” That’s how it is, and Sweden just managed to qualify for tomorrow.
“Appropriately fresh,” said Christian Kukuk of his Checker after the first German clear round at the 2024 Olympics. “Sometimes he bucks at the beginning of the course.” Not bad either, but the grey horse has refrained from doing so this time.
Olympia 2024: Philipp Weishaupt gets support from his wife
Philipp Weishaupt was not only happy about his zero at the 2024 Olympics with Zineday (“When he’s in such a good mood, riding is really easy”), he was even happier that his wife Domenika was able to be there. After a serious riding accident, she had been in a coma for several weeks and was recovering only slowly. Now she could take part in the action again from the stands. “We’ve been working towards this, this was our plan,” he beamed. At the last minute, there was an accreditation for her, which was not so easy to get. Horse owners are only allowed two per horse and Zineday’s owners naturally wanted to be there too.
Olympic champion is eliminated with the team
Others were not as radiant as the Germans yesterday, and some hopes were dashed early on. The 2004 Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa dismounted immediately after the team was eliminated because of blood on the spur of Pedro Verniss’ horse Nimrod de Muze. “I’m concentrating on the individual now,” he says. That’s fine; new game, new luck is the motto from Monday in the individual qualification for the 2024 Olympics. The Swiss, who are also favorites, have no other choice. Steve Guerdat talked about the worst course of his life together with the mare Dynamix. But he accepted no excuses. “We’re professionals, we’re at the Olympics, no excuses.” So neither the humid heat nor the difficult distances were to blame; things just didn’t go well for the Swiss.
Olympia 2024: Bond James Bond is in the starting blocks
The team trainer of our Belgian neighbors, Peter Weinberg, was in top form once again. Clear agreements within the team keep the mood up. “When we came here, everyone knew that they would ride too and that no one would have to hang around here for three weeks.” Reservist Gregory Wathelet with Bond James Bond will therefore get his chance in the individual ranking. The team easily qualified with four faults.
Olympia 2024: This is what the press center looks like
The first week of the 2024 Olympics is over, we journalists have somehow settled into our press center, where the cooling even works if we’re lucky. Every morning we have a few cartons of milk with our coffee, and we’re making progress. The mountains of bananas are inexhaustible. However, it’s getting more and more crowded the more decisions are pending. We’re no longer allowed to reserve our workstations, but now a stern look to the right and left is enough to keep uninvited neighbors away. Everyone is working like crazy, our camera and laptop bags are covered in dirt from the sunny park. We’ve known many colleagues for decades, others are new and some take some getting used to. There are simply no earplugs thick enough to escape the constant chatter. In the mixed zone, our FN trainer Adelheid confidently directs us to our riders, making sure that no one skips the media marathon. And this morning my day was saved when the nice colleagues from NDR lent me a chair so I could catch my breath before Ritchi came into the mixed zone and explained his strategy again. What looked like an “oops” sentence at the last obstacle (did the horse have to save the rider?) was actually a clever tactic: “I did one more stride there. That was intentional, to get him back on his feet, to work a bit on his collection and rideability.” It was all strategy, then. One that will hopefully work tomorrow.
Gabriele PochhammerEditor
Publisher of St.GEORG, which she was editor-in-chief of from 1995-2012, the first woman to hold this position. Reporter at eleven Olympic Games and countless World and European Championships. Successful horse breeder: The gelding Leonidas II, bred by her, was one of the best eventing horses of his time. One of her areas of expertise: international sports politics, writes for the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Previous post
Olympia 2024: Jessica von Bredow-Werndl with best Grand Prix result, Werth in third place
console.log(“tCustom Vendor 435 has consent”);
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘
fbq(‘init’, ‘494794794201357’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
