It is perhaps the Olympics’ biggest scandal so far.
Now the Swede Göran Åkerström tells why dresort star Charlotte Dujardin is suspended for six months.
– It is totally unacceptable, he says.
It was on Tuesday that the big shock announcement came, with just days left until the Olympics. Charlotte Dujardin, one of Britain’s most successful equestrians and Olympians of all time, is skipping the Olympics. The announcement hit like a bomb, but it didn’t take long before the reason for the decision came.
The video that made everyone furious
She herself said in a statement that a four-year-old clip was the basis behind the decision, in which, according to her own statement, she treated a horse incorrectly. The clip spread like wildfire on social media, and what it showed has sent the entire sports world into a frenzy. During his career, Dujardin has also taught younger riders, and in the clip in question, a student is on a horse while Gujardin walks alongside – and repeatedly uses a whip against the horse.
According to the British media, Dujardin must have used his whip against the horse a total of 24 times in one minute. Although Dujardin said that she “normally doesn’t train her horses like that”, she chose to drop out of the Olympics. But on Wednesday it was also announced that she was suspended for six months by the International Equestrian Federation, and in that decision a Swede played one of the main roles.
The Swede’s serious words
Göran Åkerström is the chief veterinarian for the International Equestrian Federation, and comments on the video, which is said to have been leaked by a lawyer, as follows for Reuters:
– What is shown in the video is, first of all, totally unacceptable under any circumstances.
He also believes that it is an outdated method to get the horse to train better, and that there is no doubt whatsoever whether she hits the horse or not, and that the evidence is “clear as day”.
– You can definitely see that some of the rap hits the horse, and that the horse was stressed about it. It’s a stupid thing to do for the horse’s learning process, says Åkerström.
Leaked video on Dujardin (warning for strong images):
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