Equestrian at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Individual eventing

The individual eventing event, part of the equestrian program at the 2004 Summer Olympics, was held from 15 August to 18 August 2004 in the Olympic Equestrian Centre on the outskirts of Markopoulo in the Attica region of Greece. Like all other equestrian events, the eventing competition was mixed gender, with both male and female athletes competing in the same division.

For the first time, there was two rounds of jumping. Both rounds counted toward the individual results. After the first round, the final team placings were determined. Then the top 25 pairs ( limited to three per nation ) contested a second jumping round, the results from this were added to the riders scores to determine the final individual results.

The German Bettina Hoy was initially awarded first place. During the first jumping phase, she received 14 time penalty points in an otherwise flawless round. This put her in eighth place going into the final phase. The Germans appealed those points, noting that the time on which the points had been assigned (the time from when Hoy had first crossed the starting line) was not the same time as the time displayed on the stadium clock and which Hoy had thought was the official time. The clock had been reset and displayed the time from when Hoy had crossed the starting line the second time, which was when she began her jumps. These points were then rescinded by the Jury of Appeal, which put Hoy in second place only 2.20 points behind the then-leader. In the final jumping phase, Hoy moved into first place and was awarded the gold medal on 18 August. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on 21 August that the appeal had been incorrectly upheld and ordered that the 14 points be returned to Hoy's score. This stripped her of her medal and put her in ninth place.

The total score for each horse and rider was the sum of the total penalty points earned in the various phases of competitions. The pair with the lowest number of penalty points was victorious.

For the dressage portion of the competition, horse and rider pairs performed series of movements that were evaluated by judges. Judges gave marks of 0 to 10 for each movement, subtracting points for errors. The score for each judge was represented by a percentage of marks possible that were gained. Scores from the three judges were averaged for an overall percentage. This was then subtracted from 100 and multiplied by 1.5 to determine the number of penalty points awarded for the round.

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