Olympiatravet
| Group One International race | |
| Location |
Åby Racetrack, Mölndal, Sweden
|
|---|---|
| Inaugurated | 1979 |
| Race type | Harness race for standardbred trotters |
| Website | Olympiatravet (Swedish) |
| Race information | |
| Distance | 2,140 meters (1.33 miles) |
| Track | Left-handed 1,000 meter track (0.62 mile) |
| Qualification | Via invitations or qualifying races. 3 year-olds and up |
| Purse | ≈US$326,000 |
Olympiatravet (literally "The Olympic Trot") is an annual Group One harness event for trotters that is held at Åby Racetrack in Mölndal, 10 km south of Gothenburg, Sweden. The event was carried through for the first time in 1979. In 2009, the purse of the final was approximately US$326,000 (SEK2,750,000).
Olympiatravet is arranged by the Swedish Horse Racing Totalisator Board, ATG, together with The Swedish Olympic Committee, SOC. The Swedish olympic movement receives a share of the money gambled on the event. 90% of this share is kept by SOC, while the remaining 10% is given to Sveriges Handikappsförbund (SHIF) and athletes competing in the Paralympics. In total, Olympiatravet has brought the olympic movement over US$27 million (over SEK163 million), and in 2008 alone the amount was ≈US$1,767,000 (SEK10,500,000). In 2009, another SEK 10,340,000 was handed over to SOC (SEK9.4 million) and SHIF (SEK940,000).
In order to honour the winners, through the years, olympic athletes have visited the Olympiatravet Day as well as the tracks and days of the qualifying races. The winners in 2009, Triton Sund and his connections, were celebrated by, among others, olympic gold medalists Team Anette Norberg (curling) as well as cross-country skiing star Charlotte Kalla.
The ten contestants can make the final in three ways - through qualifying races, via an invitation or by being the reigning champion of the event. To race in the final, and thus both to enter the qualifying races and to come in contention for invitations, a horse must be of age three or above.
In 2009, three qualifying races were carried out. The winners and runners-up of these races were awarded starts in Olympiatravet's final. The winner of Rommeheatet, a race a week before the Olympiatravet final, was also awarded a place in the final. To fill up the rest of the ten places in the final, Åby invites horses and offers them wild cards. In 2009, four such wild cards were handed out.
With the exceptions of 1980 and 1982, a motorized starting gate has been used to launch the race since the event began in 1979. The distance has always been 2,140 meters.
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