Luciana Diniz and Fit For Fun represent Portugal
Individual athletes are one step closer to adding Olympic rings to their resume after the finalization this week of the FEI Olympic Athletes Jumping Ranking.
Only 15 spots are available to riders who wish to represent their nation at the Olympics as an individual. Through the result of last year’s Pan American Games, Venezuela and Colombia already have two spots each, and Peru and Uruguay have one spot each. Taipei also has an individual spot.
That leaves 9 spots. The four highest-ranked riders on the overall FEI Olympic Athletes Jumping Ranking earn spots for their country, giving Belgium two spots, Italy one spot, and Egypt one spot as well.
The 4 remaining spots are allocated to the country of the best-ranked rider from regional groups A (North Western Europe), B (South Western Europe), C (Central & Eastern Europe; Central Asia) and F (Africa and the Middle East.)
So what of the list of riders that has been circulating? Is their qualification to ride at the Rio Games set in stone?
The answer is, absolutely not. The performances of the riders listed below simply earned their country an individual place in the Olympics. It’s now up to their National Organizing Committee (i.e. their federation) to make the final rider selection. Those selections are expected to be decided in mid-summer, making their performances from now through July all the more crucial.
The following is the list of nations who have qualified for Individual participation in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games through the performances of their rider representatives:
Highest Ranked Riders:
Belgium (ranking of Gregory Wathelet #7, and Jerome Guery #12)
Italy (ranking of Emanuele Gaudiano #10)
Egypt (ranking of Karim Elzoghby #26))
Regional Grouping:
Group A: Ireland (ranking of Bertram Allen #15)
Group B: Portugal (ranking of Luciana Diniz #2)
Group C: Turkey (ranking of Omer Karaevli #55)
Group G: Taipei (ranking of unidentified rider)
Group F: Morocco (ranking of Abdelkebir Ouaddar #9)
Pre Qualified Through Pan American Games Results
Venezuela (result of Andres Rodriguez silver medal, and Emanuele Andrade 6th place)
Colombia (result of Daniel Bluman 13th place, and Fernando Cardenas 14th place)
Peru (result of Alonso Valdez Prado 14th place)
Uruguay (result of Nestor Van Hoff Neilsen 10th place)
See the full list of individual rider rankings at this link: FEI Olympic Athletes Jumping Ranking.
Fifteen nations previously qualified teams for the 2016 Rio Olympics: Brazil, The Netherlands, France, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Argentina, Qatar, Ukraine, Japan and Australia.