New Zealand is on track to send a rider to compete in the individual show jumping borrowed horse event at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games on 6–18 October 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Youth Olympic Games Selection Criteria
The Youth Olympics will be a great experience for young athletes by offering not only international competition experience at a major event, but a taste of culture and education in the beautiful city of Buenos Aires.
The Jumping Athletes compete in the Individual competition and the Team competition with teams being made up of athletes within each FEI region.
NZ has a strong legacy of success at the Youth Olympics with Emily Fraser winning the Gold in 2014 in Nanjing, China and Jake Lambert winning a silver Team medal in Singapore in 2010.
The first step is for New Zealand to qualify a spot at the games. The third competition of the FEI World Jumping Challenge Category A (either the Wairarapa Area Show 21-23 October 2017 or the South Canterbury North Otago at Waimate 2-3 December 2017) will count towards NZL qualifying a position for the Youth Olympic Games and will be mandatory for athletes wishing to be selected for the Youth Olympic Games.
For riders to be eligible for nomination, they must be born between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2003; and have obtained a Certificate of Capability between 1 April 2017 and 31 May 2018.
Certificate of Capability can be obtained by competing at any of the six FEI World Jumping Challenge Category A events that are being held in NZ between October and December this year. There will be three competitions held in each of the North and South Islands.
For all qualifying events, only an athlete’s first participation on the declared horse will count towards a CoC (certificate of capability) qualification.
Each athlete must obtain a score of not more than eight penalties in the first round.
Other factors will also be considered by selectors including performance at key events throughout the 2017-18 season and demonstrating the ability to compete on borrowed horses. The full nomination criteria will is available on the Jumping page of the ESNZ website.
Following confirmation from the FEI that NZ has qualified a spot for the Youth Olympics, the ESNZ Jumping selectors will choose one combination to which they will nominate to the New Zealand Olympic Committee Selection Panel who will then select and confirm that athlete to represent New Zealand.