WEG dressage

Fools Motto said:
Talking of risks, as in weather/hurricane risks, apparently the Carolinas have never been hit by a hurricane like this before. I just put it down to 'sods law'!
Also got me thinking, Tokyo is in an earthquake prone area. Does that not affect decisions? or any earthquake prone competition areas before? Just musing...
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Not true. NC has been hit by 413 hurricanes and tropical cyclones since 1879, 120 of which were after 1980. Since 1980, they have caused $10 billion worth of damage to the state and resulted in 77 direct fatalities and 44 indirect ones. The biggest storms to hit the state in recent memory were Hurricane Fran in 1996, which was still a Category 3 storm when it made landfall in Wilmington, and Hugo in 1989, which devastated Charleston, while the biggest recorded one ever was Hurricane Hazel in 1954, a Cat 4 which struck near Calabash, NC, then moved north along the coast to states as far north as New York. It had winds of up to 100mph and caused $281 million worth of damage (in 1954 money). Florence, for the record, was a Cat 1 by the time it made landfall. Because it's slow-moving, it's causing a huge amount of rainfall and flooding in the state, but it's far from the most serious storm to ever hit NC.

So not only has NC had hurricanes like Florence. They're not uncommon, and it's had bigger ones.
 
caladria said:
I bet a lot of the organisational problems are part of the game of stepping up short notice - after all, Bromont pulled out only two years ago, Kentucky was in the picture for a while (but couldn't get over the Lexington Rolex / FEI Longines sponsorship issue at the time) and Tryon was confirmed, what, 18 months ago? So they had 18 months to do four years work, but were essentially the only near-viable option on the table.

And then you add a hurricane affecting proceedings, which really wasn't as likely as all that even in hurricane season. After all - the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 weren't affected and they're a bare 200 miles south of Tryon and no more inland! After all, we're up to Joyce now, and Flo is the only hurricane to hit the contiguous USA so far. I mean, if they'd gone with Ocala or Wellington in Florida they'd also be right in hurricane season... but pretty much unaffected by Flo.

I think with the dressage horses, it's probably not so much that they need to go home on Monday - it's that the planes need to get to Europe, turn around, and be back in Tryon on Tuesday to pick up the eventing horses. And then it wouldn't be surprising if they were turning around and coming back for another load on Wednesday!

As you say, I think the endurance people have had it worst - they've not been affected by building/time constraints, just totally normal weather for the region and human error, one of which was entirely predictable and the other of which just shouldn't have happened.
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You have a good point about 4 years of work in 18 months. That's pretty insane.

I wonder would these type of events be better off with a permanent base/bases. When locations are pulling out its a bad sign. It's a bit like the Olympics. It's getting harder to get countries willing to host them. Whatever about weg, I'm not sure constantly moving the Olympics is sustainable.

I saw footage of the reaction when the endurance was cancelled. The police were called in. One of the athletes got so wound up he was arrested :eek3:
 
mule said:
You have a good point about 4 years of work in 18 months. That's pretty insane.

I wonder would these type of events be better off with a permanent base/bases. When locations are pulling out its a bad sign. It's a bit like the Olympics. It's getting harder to get countries willing to host them. Whatever about weg, I'm not sure constantly moving the Olympics is sustainable.

I saw footage of the reaction when the endurance was cancelled. The police were called in. One of the athletes got so wound up he was arrested :eek3:
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I honestly don't think that WEG has a future, and that the disciplines will split into separate world championships.

Unless you do either a permanent or rotating base - Lexington is big enough, I'm guessing Aachen is big enough, but it's anyone's guess whether either would want it permanently or shared between them.

(And Lexington is now Land Rover Kentucky Horse Park, having lost the Rolex sponsorship that the FEI objected to)
 
One of the best things about WEG is the Team spirit it creates. I was lucky enough to be competing in the reining, which is not an Olympic sport and so often gets overlooked.. (A bit like driving).
It was absolutely humbling the way our Dressage and Eventers came over and added to the atmosphere..
Then we were devastated by the cancellation of the Dressage Kur.. the first time an Irish competitor had ever qualified... Such a shame.

WEG was a brilliant experience.. I appreciate that there were initial issues.. but would hate to see it canned.
 
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