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Equestrian gold medal awarded to France on appeal
France were awarded the gold medal for the equestrian three-day event after lodging an appeal against Germany's controversial win.
France was awarded the gold medal in the three-day equestrian team event on Saturday, and Britain's Leslie Law got the individual gold, after three nations won a joint appeal against an earlier decision that gave both victories to Germany. The ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport means Britain gets the silver medal and the United States the bronze. Germany drops to fourth.
Since the team event was also a qualifier for the individual medals on Sunday, the ruling lifted Law, on Shear l'Eau, to gold. American Kim Severson, on Winsome Adante, got silver, and Pippa Funnell of Britain, on Primmore's Pride, got bronze.
Germany's riders won the gold medal on Wednesday but not before losing it, and then winning it back, in a bizarre flurry of judging decisions and reversals. The turnabout briefly gave the US team the bronze.
Initially, the judges gave Germany the gold and France the silver, while Britain took bronze.
But the same officials, concerned that Germany's Bettina Hoy might have crossed the start line twice on the show jumping course, then docked Germany 14 points, dropping it from first place to fourth with 147.8 points in a decision that lifted the United States to the bronze.
Germany then lodged a protest, an equestrian appeals committee reversed the judges' decision _ and the Germans reclaimed their gold. Once again, France was awarded the silver and Britain the bronze. The United States was left empty-handed.
That decision also gave Hoy gold in the individual competition. The CAS ruling decided that the appeals committee had no jurisdiction to consider the question, since the original ruling was purely a matter of fact.
The appeal submitted by the three countries to CAS challenged whether the equestrian appeal committee had jurisdiction to overturn the judges' decision.
Henri Serandour, head of the French Olympic Committee, said he was happy with the result but refused to act jubilant. "From the beginning, I asked for an appeal not to create controversy but to get to the truth, to find out why an appeals committee was allowed to change the ruling of a ground jury," he said.
"CAS has upheld the judges in their capacity. I am always happy when the rule is respected. I am also happy for the riders, who displayed an exemplary attitude."
The CAS panel assigned to hear the case was chaired by South African judge Deon van Zyl of South Africa. The other members were Canada's Richard McLaren and Pandelis Dedes of Greece.
