BARCELONA, Spain--One of the two critical competitions for the U.S. show jumping team to qualify for the Paris Olympics begins Thursday, Sept. 28 in Barcelona with the Nations Cup Final.
The U.S. Nations Cup team for BarcelonaWhile the strong team of Karl Cook, Laura Kraut, Devin Ryan, Jessica Springsteen and McLain Ward, led b Robert Ridland, would like to win the Finals, the team's most important goal will be to qualify for Paris.
To do that, while 15 teams are competing, there are only five teams that the U.S. has to beat to qualify, but at least three of those teams are very strong and will also be striving to qualify.
The one qualifying spot available from Barcelona will go to the team that finished highest of those teams not already qualified, and the five teams not already qualified along with the U.S., are Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Uzbekistan.
The full list of nations fielding teams is: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, USA and Uzbekistan.
Argentina, Brazil and the U.S., along with Canada, have another chance to qualify at the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, Oct.20 to Nov. 5, but for Italy and Uzbekistan, Barcelona is their final chance.
FOR THE U.S., Ward is taking Callas and Contatious, Kraut has Dorado and Confu, Ryan has Eddie Blue, Springsteen has Hungry Heart and Don Juan Van De Donkhouve and Cook has Kalinka Van't Zorgvvliet.
The Final begins on Thursday, Sept. 28, with the First FEI Jumping Nations Cup Competition at 8:00 a.m. ET with the teams placing first through eighth moving on to Sunday’s Final Competition.
The Second FEI Jumping Nations Cup Competition – Challenge Cup will take place Saturday, Sept. 30, at 3:00 p.m. ET and is open to all teams from the First Competition not qualified for Sunday’s Final Competition.
The Third FEI Jumping Nations Cup Competition - Final Competition will take place Sunday, Oct. 1, at 9:00 a.m. ET to determine the winning team of the FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final.
Brazil has a very strong team, including former Portuguese star Luciana Diniz, Stephan de Freitas Barcha, Marlon Modolo Zanotelli, Rodrigo Pessoa and Pedro Veniss.
Diniz took a break from the sport last October and only came back in at international level in July this year.
She competed for Brazil at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 but carried the Portuguese flag at the Games in London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and is now targeting Paris 2024 on behalf of Brazil once again.
All of the Brazilian riders have been in top form and will be hoping to win the Final and that single Olympic qualifying spot.
The Italians are sending out three members of the team that finished 10th at the Jumping European Championship on home ground in Milan three weeks ago - Alberto Zorzi, Emanuele Camilli and Giampiero Garofalo - along with the super-experienced Lorenzo de Luca and Piergiorgio Bucci so Italy also has a very strong team.
The Mexican team includes Jose Antonio Chedraui, Frederico Fernandez, Eugenion Garza Perez, Fernando Marinez Sommer and Nichola Pizarro.
Mexico tied with the U.S. in the Nations Cup in Mexico but finished second after Kraut beat Perez in the jump-off, so off that result Mexico will be striving to beat the U.S. this time and claim the one qualifying spot.
BELGIUM is the defending champion and will be returning with three members of last year’s winning side, Koen Vereecke, Gregory Wathelet and Gilles Thomas, who will be joined by Niels Bruynseels and Wilm Vermeir and led by chef d'equipe Peter Weinberg.
Switzerland's team included two of the top riders in the world, Steve Guerdat and Martin Fuchs, who will be joined by Elian Baumann, Alain Jufer and Janika Sprunger at the Final.
Seven of the top 10 athletes in the current world rankings list will compete in Barcelona including world number one Henrik von Eckermann from Sweden who will competet as an individual, Guerdat, world number three, Julien Epaillard from France who is world number two and Ward, who is World number five.
The French team, led by Epaillard, includes world number nine Simon Delestre, Dublin Grand Prix winner Francois Xavier Boudant, Olivier Perreau and Olivier Robert.
The Germans look super-strong too, with Hans-Dieter Dreher, Christian Kukuk, Jörne Sprehe, Richard Vogel and Jana Wargers led by chef d'equipe Otto Becker.
Ireland’s team consists of Trevor Breen, Daniel Coyle, Jack Ryan, the veteran Denis Lynch and 19-year-old Max Wachman.
The Dutch also look strong, with Harrie Smolders, Maikel van der Vleuten and Jur Vrieling.
The first Horse Inspection, Training session and Draw for the order-of-go are on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
The competition will begin on Thursday , Sept. 28 when all 15 nations will compete.
The top eight will go through to Sunday’s €1,250,000 final round to decide the title while the remaining countries will compete in Saturday night’s €300,000 Challenge Cup.
