by Charlotte Dujardin, the Olympic Triple dressage gold medalist, plans to go back to competition after serving her one -year ban in sport.
Dujardin, 40, was banished in December by the FEI – the world director of equestrian sports – and sentenced to a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs (£ 8,886) to “excessively” whip a horse.
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Video sequences emerged in July – a few days before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games – of it hitting the horse several times with a long whip around its legs.
The international ban, also supported by the British equestrian and British dressage, was rear for July 23, 2024, when it was temporarily suspended.
Although BBC Sport understands that Dujardin plans to go back to competition, we do not yet know when or where it will be.
From Thursday, it can apply a new application for membership of British dressage, which will allow it to participate in its affiliated competitions.
She was not eligible for receiving public funding and benefits funded by the public via UK Sport while she served the ban, and she also lost sponsorship agreements and embassy roles.
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A sports spokesman in the United Kingdom told BBC Sport that he was “reviewing Charlotte’s future eligibility to receive public funds”-whose result will determine if she can return to the British Equestrian World Class Performance Program.
It is understood that Dujardin representatives have spoken with the British equestrian and British dressage of his return to sport in recent days.
British dressage has confirmed to BBC Sport that he is in contact with the Dujardin team, while the British equestrian said that he could not discuss his correspondence with the athletes.
Dujardin is not among the first eight British entries put in FEI to compete for the European dressage championships in August.
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The final team – of four combinations of horsemen and horses of these first eight – will be confirmed by the British equestrian later this month.
Why was Dujardin banned?
Dujardin started to bid for a fourth gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games.
But last July, just before the start of the games, she published a statement saying that she was withdrawing after a video emerged showing her “making a mistake of judgment”.
She was then temporarily suspended by the FEI, who said that she had received images showing that Dujardin “engaging in conduct unlike the principles of horses’ well -being – during a training session carried out at the private stable of Ms. Dujardin”.
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The FEI said that Dujardin confirmed that she was the individual of the video, who was “filmed several years ago” and “asked to be temporarily suspended while waiting for the outcome of the investigations”.
By announcing its ban in December, the FEI court said that the video showed Dujardin whipping the horse more than 20 times, mainly from behind on the hind legs, as well as between and from the front on the front legs and the shoulders of the horse.
He added that the images of the training session did not constitute any other violation of the rules and that there were no additional complaints raised against the conduct of Dujardin since the publication of the video.
At the time, she said that she fully respected the FEI verdict and would forever aim to do better. “
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Who is Dujardin?
Dujardin took importance at the London 2012 Olympic Games in Valegro, winning gold medals in a team and in individual training.
The pair picked up individual gold and the silver team four years later in Rio.
On a different horse, Gio, Dujardin won two bronze medals at the Tokyo 2020 games, delayed.
The story has signaled to the Paris Olympic Games, where a medal of all color would have made her Olympian outright of her most decorated Britain – a title that she shares with the former cyclist Laura Kenny, both having six Olympic medals.
She was to compete on Imhotep, known as Pete – her first horse from Valegro to mark more than 90% in international competition. The couple was undefeated since the European Championships 2023.
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Imhotep has since been sold, as has always been planned for the Games, while Times Kismet, which Dujardin had identified as his next Olympic horse, was also sold in Jessica von Bredow -Werndl in Germany – who managed to defend his title of individual dressage in Paris.
