Individual Showjumping Final Thread

[Trolt]

you're gonna have to enlighten us here, why the O Connor hate

I've never heard of him before, don't follow that much international sj tbh

If I remember correctly, he won gold in 2004 Olympics, then got it removed because he horse tested positive for a banned substance.

Can't remember what substance, or what the reason/excuse for the horse having that substance was??

 

[JCWHITE]

Obviously gutted for GB, much respect for the winner, who has been showing a lot of form over the last months,thought for a minute that aptly named London would win,
Sounds like the Big Star show will roll on to Rio.
Cheers lads you are all heroes!

 

[JFTDWS]

He was done for doping after winning the gold individual at the last Olympics - had the medal taken away - at least that's what I remember - please correct me if wrong!

You're right the commentary team were discussing it weren't they. I presumed it was an accidental mistake type substance not a cynical performance enhancing scam. Perhaps I'm too forgiving!

 

[gadetra]

He was done for a banned substance after winning gold at Athens, it wasn't performance enhancing and he was cleared of all wrongdoing but it leaves a sour taste. The jury's out.
Yeahie for bronze though, fair play to him.

 

[pootleperkin]

Yep it was the 2004, not 2008 Olympics as I said - have a look at this for the later part of the story http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/competitionnews/390/59088.html

 

[Kat]

Oh god, we've got dressage to get through tomorrow

Mind you I'm working till after lunch so will probs miss the first few. Included my beloved Rubi

If you use the Eurovisionsport site then you can watch from the beginning when you get home from work and fast forward through the breaks/competitors you don't like to catch up

 

[JFTDWS]

Yep it was the 2004, not 2008 Olympics as I said - have a look at this for the later part of the story http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/competitionnews/390/59088.html

what an utterly bizarre story.

I honestly don't feel comfortable slating him without knowing what happened, but it's certainly very odd indeed.

 

[JFTDWS]

If you use the Eurovisionsport site then you can watch from the beginning when you get home from work and fast forward through the breaks/competitors you don't like to catch up

will do, thanks

 

[kirstykate]

Yep it was the 2004, not 2008 Olympics as I said - have a look at this for the later part of the story http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/competitionnews/390/59088.html

Most Show jumpers have been banned at some point, Maclean Ward was one of the worst

 

[Supertrooper]

Well done to the team GB SJ's and horses. I know we didn't win any individual medals but to win a team gold is just amazing and something to be very proud of xx

 

[Daffodil]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012-olympics-live/9460772/Olympics-live.html

A good summary here.

 

[xxlindeyxx]

Cian o connor didnt cheat in Athens nor did he dope his horse , so id say get your facts straight before giving out about him. In athens his horse still had some veterinary given medicine in his blood stream from a previous illness /injury and was proved not to do anything wrong. SO congrats to him for getting a medal and i hope you know ben maher once helped a girl to beat up his ex girlfriend but ye all forgot about that when he won his medal..

Sorry rant over

 

[Nollaig Shona]

If I remember correctly, he won gold in 2004 Olympics, then got it removed because he horse tested positive for a banned substance.

Can't remember what substance, or what the reason/excuse for the horse having that substance was??

His horse (Waterford Crystal) tested positive for a medication that it'd been given weeks and weeks previously. Cian was cleared of any wrong doing, but the FEI rule is that the horse can't have anything in it's system, so they disqualified him from the Olympics -and made him give the medal back- and he was fined and banned from competing for a while.

The B sample went missing from the lab under suspicious circumstances (given the samples aren't labelled with anything to identify who/where the sample came from), no one was ever caught for it.

Not sure how that's classed as cheating but people hear the words "failed dope test" and think of performance enhancers, the substance in Waterford Crystal's sample was a sedative.

There have been a lot of rumours and innuendo doing the rounds about Cian for years - even before the Athens Olympics.

(and no, I'm not repeating what I've heard)

 

[Equilibrium Ireland]

Leaves a sour taste. You all are funny especially when you forget other Olympians stripped of their medals for drugging. And here's a quote from the great Ludger afterwards. " I used to think if it's not found, it's allowed," But no we all harp on Cian. A guy that works his ass of and deserved that medal today. Yeah and as Lindsey above says, it's ok to give Ben a pass. Nice guy.

Terri

 

[ribbons]

And off we go again. Judge and jury in the armchairs of Britain. With no facts, no evidence and sentencing anyone and everyone with nothing more than rumour and heresay

 

[Equilibrium Ireland]

I bet if he didn't ride for Team GB you might feel differently.

Cian took his punishment. Has been squeaky clean since and yet is still tethered with something that occurred 8 years ago. Time to move on. He did.

Terri

 

[pootleperkin]

BTW, I wasn't slating Cian, JFTD asked what people were going on about and I simply reported what I remembered happening. No judgement here.

 

[xxlindeyxx]

Leaves a sour taste. You all are funny especially when you forget other Olympians stripped of their medals for drugging. And here's a quote from the great Ludger afterwards. " I used to think if it's not found, it's allowed," But no we all harp on Cian. A guy that works his ass of and deserved that medal today. Yeah and as Lindsey above says, it's ok to give Ben a pass. Nice guy.

Terri

I agree with you, but i was annoyed when people didnt care that Ben maher was a woman beater when he won his medal. not to give him a pass.

 

[Trolt]

And off we go again. Judge and jury in the armchairs of Britain. With no facts, no evidence and sentencing anyone and everyone with nothing more than rumour and heresay

No judgement or heresay from me either ... someone asked what happened, and I repeated what I remembered. There was no value laden words at all in my repeat of the news.

 

[JFTDWS]

BTW, I wasn't slating Cian, JFTD asked what people were going on about and I simply reported what I remembered happening. No judgement here.

Please don't lets derail this thread with bickering, accusations and their inevitable counter-defenses. It's completely true that I asked about what happened in light of some rather harsh comments on the thread, and those who posted links to relevant articles were only answering me.

All I know is that Cian rode a couple of stonking rounds and really flew round that jump off. He was unlucky to have the pole, he'd been so fast. Fwiw, it was also a great round by the Dutchman. They all deserved their medals, in my mind.

(Nick did too, I've given him and the rest of Team GB an imaginary medal )

 

[TJP]

I screamed him home, my son came running into the room and told me off as in his words 'I thought someone was stealing you'. Delighted for him & finally a medal for Ireland!!!! As I said earlier today we will take any colour.

 

[ribbons]

Pootleperkin and trolt, I'm sorry if you thought my comments were aimed at you. They were not.
You simply referred people to the reports on the incident, rather than openly calling the man a cheat, when in fact those in possession of the evidence cleared him of that charge.

 

[PolarSkye]

OK - the whole "doping" episode involving Cian O'Connor, Waterford Crystal and the Athens games was decidedly dodgy - all round.

And, yes, there had been rumours before. And, yes, Ben Maher is no saint in his personal life. But . . . there's no smoke without fire. Something untoward went on and FWIW, I think anyone who's been banned from competing or had an Olympic medal removed b/c of wrong-doing should be given a long, hard look at in the future . . . in any sport. I didn't want that idiot Chambers competing on our athletics team.

I didn't say O'Connor didn't deserve to win based on his riding (which was immaculate), but that I didn't want him to based on the scandal and drama surrounding not just his Athens appearance but parts of his career in general. Our equestrian sports get enough flack from the general public - elitist, for toffs, not proper sports - take your pick - without any whiff of doping/previous doping, etc.

Now that I've cleared that up - anyone for dressage commentary?

P

 

[kirstykate]

Come on you did such a sterling job with the SJ surely you can do the stressage

 

[woodtiger]

Cian O'Connor winning bronze left a sour taste in my mouth, given his previous Olympic circumstances and the fact that he replaced Denis Lynch - who was found guilty along with three others in 2008 at HK for using Capsaicum. One of Denis's horses was found to be hypersensitive at Aachen last month and withdrawn - he was not accused of doping but the same rule as applied to Tiffany Foster was enforced - and HSI therefore "deselected" him, replacing him with Cian, who is so far up Robert Splaine's bottom that he waves out of his mouth.

If they were deselecting Denis for doping offences, why replace him with someone for whom a doping scandal caused such disrepute to Ireland? Jessica Kurten would have been my choice, very clean, on form, incredibly talented and a lovely person - who refuses to compete on a team with Cian O'Conner (go figure).

Incidentally I went to the Greenwich Tavern after the jumping final, along with about a thousand orange clad Dutch supporters, Rob Ehrens, Gerco, Maikel, Jur and Marc, and who should scoot out in an equicruiser two horse wagon no more than two hours after the medal ceremony, but Blue Loyd and his groom.... It raised eyebrows as to why they were leaving for a long drive home SO quickly having had such a hard week jumping, but this is purely casting nasturtiums ;-)

 

[xxlindeyxx]

Cian O'Connor winning bronze left a sour taste in my mouth, given his previous Olympic circumstances and the fact that he replaced Denis Lynch - who was found guilty along with three others in 2008 at HK for using Capsaicum. One of Denis's horses was found to be hypersensitive at Aachen last month and withdrawn - he was not accused of doping but the same rule as applied to Tiffany Foster was enforced - and HSI therefore "deselected" him, replacing him with Cian, who is so far up Robert Splaine's bottom that he waves out of his mouth.

If they were deselecting Denis for doping offences, why replace him with someone for whom a doping scandal caused such disrepute to Ireland? Jessica Kurten would have been my choice, very clean, on form, incredibly talented and a lovely person - who refuses to compete on a team with Cian O'Conner (go figure).

Incidentally I went to the Greenwich Tavern after the jumping final, along with about a thousand orange clad Dutch supporters, Rob Ehrens, Gerco, Maikel, Jur and Marc, and who should scoot out in an equicruiser two horse wagon no more than two hours after the medal ceremony, but Blue Loyd and his groom.... It raised eyebrows as to why they were leaving for a long drive home SO quickly having had such a hard week jumping, but this is purely casting nasturtiums ;-)

Jessica kurten was caught for doping too, and she has jumped with cian numerous amount of times since so go figure that.

 

[Nereide]

A list of thoroughbred sire lines and their ancestors competing in London Olympics at showjumping http://www.equichannel.cz/plnokrevnici-a-olympijske-skakani and at eventing http://www.equichannel.cz/plnokrevnici-na-olympijske-vsestrannosti

I hope, that the pedigree fans enjoy it!