Host cities for the FEI Youth Jumping Competition* 2022 and this year’s FEI Dressage European Championship U25 have been finalised, with allocations agreed by the FEI Board at its videoconference meeting yesterday.
These important Youth Championships will both be hosted in Germany, with the FEI Youth Jumping Competition 2022 allocated to Aachen, and the FEI Dressage European Championship U25 to Hagen, two venues with enviable track records for organising top level events.
Following the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision to postpone the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2022 in Dakar (SEN) until 2026, the FEI sought IOC agreement for a replacement competition. The new FEI Youth Jumping Competition 2022 will mean that young Jumping athletes aged 14-18 will still have the opportunity to participate in a global competition based on the unique YOG format.
“We were delighted the IOC supported the FEI initiative for a replacement equestrian competition for the Youth Olympic Games in 2022 and that it will be hosted at the world-famous showgrounds in Aachen”, FEI President Ingmar De Vos said. “The Youth are our future and we need to safeguard the development of youth engagement in equestrian sport and continue inspiring this new generation of athletes.
“Participation at the YOG is a significant motivating factor for athletes to stay in elite-level sport. Now we can offer the FEI Youth Jumping Competition 2022 as an alternative to the next YOG generation, which they would otherwise have lost with the postponement of Dakar 2022. And it allows us to promote the Olympic values with these young athletes in a truly global environment.”
The FEI Youth Jumping Competition (28 June to 3 July 2022) will follow the same format as the Equestrian Competition at the Youth Olympic Games, with 30 athletes from 30 nations across six continents participating in a continental team competition and an individual competition. As with YOG, all Athletes will compete on borrowed horses provided by the Organiser.
The FEI Dressage European Championship U25 in 2021, originally scheduled to run in Donaueschingen (GER), has been reallocated to Hagen (GER). Host of multiple championship-level events, Hagen was the venue used for the test event for the new Olympic formats in Jumping and Dressage in 2019.
The U25 Championship will run concurrently with the Senior FEI Dressage European Championships from 8–12 September 2021.