The team
dressage
Dressage ( or ; a French term, most commonly translated to mean "training") is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrian sport defined b ...
in
equestrian
The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse".
Horseback riding (or Riding in British English)
Examples of this are:
*Equestrian sports
*Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...
at the
1980 Olympic Games The 1980 Olympics may refer to:
* 1980 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid, New York, United States
* 1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officiall ...
in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
was held at
Trade Unions' Equestrian Complex
The Trade Unions' Equestrian Complex (now Equestrian Complex «Bitsa» ) is an equestrian venue located near the Bitsa Park in the South District of Moscow city, Russia. During the 1980 Summer Olympics, it hosted the riding and running portions ...
on 31 July.
Background
Since their historic victory over Germany at the
1972 Olympic Games in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, the Soviet dressage riders struggled to regain a leading position and missed a team podium entirely at the
1976 Olympic Games in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
. When a boycott of the stronger nations became obvious, the almost 100% chance of recapturing Olympic gold appeared on the horizon for the host nation.
However, to get a team medal, there needed to be more than just a Soviet team in Moscow. As the countries belonging to the political west-block boycotted the Games, the Soviet Union had to stimulate countries from the east-block to take part. Those countries had some international dressage riders, but few really at the Olympic, Grand Prix-level. In the end, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland travelled to Moscow to guarantee a team competition. All this logistic maneuvering to guarantee a nations' ranking led to the fact that Poland, for instance, only found out they were allowed to compete with a team two days before departure.
In Moscow in the end there was a team class, there were three team medals awarded, but to speak of Olympic level is hard when looking at the results these brave riders and horses got from the highly experienced chief judge
Gustaf Nyblaeus and his four colleagues. The judges' panel was challenged in its own way with more horses not able to show certain movements than they would have cared for.
The Soviet Union won their coveted team gold in the impressive Bitza stadium about 50 km outside Moscow with more than 800 points ahead of Bulgaria and Romania more than 230 points behind the silver medalists.
Competition format
The team medals were awarded after the Grand-Prix portion of the individual competition. After the Grand-Prix portion of the individual event the three rides of each team were added up and the highest score was the winner, all three scores counted towards the final. Both the team and the individual competitions ran concurrently.
Results
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Equestrian at the 1980 Summer Olympics - Team dressage
Equestrian at the 1980 Summer Olympics