Equestrian at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Team eventing
The team eventing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics is scheduled to take place from 30 July to 2 August 2021 at the Baji Koen Equestrian Park and Central Breakwater. Like all other equestrian events, the eventing competition is open-gender, with both male and female athletes competing in the same division. 45 riders (15 teams of 3) from 15 nations are expected to compete. Background. This will be the 25th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics since it was introduced in 1912. The reigning Olympic  champion is France (Karim Laghouag, Thibaut Vallette, Mathieu Lemoine, and Astier Nicolas). The reigning (2018) World Champion is Great Britain (Rosalind Canter, Piggy French, Tom McEwen, and Gemma Tattersall). An Olympics.com preview of equestrian (all events) provided the following overview: Qualification. A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter 1 team of 3 riders in the team eventing. Quota places are allocated to the NOC, which selects the riders. There were 15 team quota places available, allocated as follows: Competition format. The eventing competition features all 45 riders competing in three rounds (dressage, cross-country, and jumping). Scores from all 3  riders on each team are summed to give a team score; the number of team members was reduced from 4 in 2016 to 3, with there no longer being a dropped score. Schedule. The event takes place over four days, with two days for the dressage followed by cross-country and jumping on the next two days. All times are Japan Standard Time (). Results. Standings after dressage. At the end of the two days of dressage, Olympic champions Germany and World champions Great Britain had already broken away from the pack, with Germany, for the first time since 2008, not  in the lead after the first discipline Standings after cross-country. Germany suffered a nightmare cross country, with over 34 points in penalties all but knocking them out of medal contention, and ending the defense of their Olympic title. Great Britain, by contrast, backed up their earlier excellent dressage work with a faultless cross-country, posting three of only seven clear rounds all day, which gave them a huge 18 point lead going into the final discipline, the showjumping, equivalent to four posts down. Australia and France took advantage of Germany's disaster yo move into medal position, and clear  of the pack. Final standings (after jumping). Despite three clear rounds from the defending champions Germany lifting them to fourth, the medal positions remained unchanged as Great Britain won Olympic team eventing gold for the first time since 1972. a gap of 49 years. Australia took silver, with France taking the bronze medals.