Equestrian at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Individual dressage

The individual dressage at the 1960 Summer Olympics took place between 5 and 6 September, at the Villa Borghese gardens. The event was open to men and women.[1]

Individual dressage at the Games of the XVII Olympiad
Sergei Filatov and Absent
Venue	Villa Borghese gardens
Date	5–6 September
Competitors	17 from 10 nations
Medalists
Sergei Filatov  Soviet Union Gustav Fischer  Switzerland Josef Neckermann  United Team of Germany

Background

The 1956 Olympics created some serious changes for the dressage competition at the 1960 Games. The previous Games had resulted in a serious judging scandal after the German and Swedish judges favored their own countrymen. These two judges were subsequently suspended by the FEI. Following this controversy, the IOC threatened to remove dressage from the Olympics, but the FEI managed to come to a compromise, removing the team competition from the 1960 Games and only allowing individual competitors (up to 2 per country). Additionally, 3 of the judges had to be from non-participating countries, and ride-offs were filmed and reviewed for a day before the final results were announced publicly.

The other major change was in the scoring scale, which moved from a scale of 0–6 to 0–10.

17 riders competed, from 10 nations. Despite the small number of riders, the competition still took a long time as the judges, conscious of not playing favoritism, conferred for up to 20 minutes following each ride. 5 riders total qualified for the ride-off (2 from the Soviet Union, and 1 each from Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden). The ride-off was filmed and reviewed, the judging panel decided not to change the original placings, and the results were announced to the public 3 days following the ride.

Competition format

Three judges gave scores. Each judge gave a score between 0 and 10 for each test. The competition was held over two rounds; the top 5 horse and rider pairs in the first round advanced to the second round. The total score for both rounds determined final ranking.

Results

17 riders competed.[2]

Rank	Rider	Nation	Horse	Round 1		Round 2		Total
				Score	Rank	Score	Rank
	Sergei Filatov	Soviet Union	Absent	1074	1	1070	1	2144
	Gustav Fischer	Switzerland	Wald	1052	3	1035	2	2087
	Josef Neckermann	United Team of Germany	Asbach	1071	2	1011	4	2082
4	Henri Saint Cyr	Sweden	L'Etoile	1036	4	1028	3	2064
5	Ivan Kalita	Soviet Union	Korbey	1010	5	997	5	2007
6	Patricia Galvin	United States	Rathpatrick	995	6	Did not advance
7	Rosemarie Springer	United Team of Germany	Doublette	985	7	Did not advance
8	Henri Chammartin	Switzerland	Wolfdietrich	978	8	Did not advance
9	Yngve Viebke	Sweden	Gaspari	975	9	Did not advance
10	António, Viscount de Mozelos	Portugal	Greek Warrior	948	10	Did not advance
11	Lilian Williams	Great Britain	Little Model	939	11	Did not advance
12	Jessica Newberry-Ransehousen	United States	Forstrat	927	12	Did not advance
13	Johanna Hall	Great Britain	Conversano Caprice	838	13	Did not advance
14	František Šembera	Czechoslovakia	Ivo	832	14	Did not advance
15	Jorge Cavoti	Argentina	Vidriero	828	15	Did not advance
16	Krum Lekarski	Bulgaria	Edgard	799	16	Did not advance
17	Luís Silva	Portugal	Adonis	775	17	Did not advance

References

1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Equestrianism at the 1960 Rome Equestrian Games: Mixed Dressage, Individual". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
2. Official Report, p. 901.