FEI SPORTS FORUM 2019: Gender equality, Tokyo 2020, the FEI legal system, Reining and Endurance

Wrap up: Gender equality, Tokyo 2020, the FEI legal system, Reining and Endurance take centre stage at FEI Sports Forum 2019 (15-16 April).

The eighth edition of the FEI Sports Forum, held at the IMD Business School in Lausanne (SUI) on 15-16 April, attracted 265 delegates for a two-day programme covering a diverse array of topics.

The Forum began with a thought-provoking session dedicated to gender equality and female representation in governance-related positions (Committees, National Federations, etc.) and the benefits of diversity at the decision-making level. Among the guest speakers on this panel, Caitlyn Kraft-Buchanan, Founder/Executive Director of Women@The Table and Co-Founder of the International Gender Champions Network, shared her valuable experience and expertise in the area and detailed techniques that can be applied to address imbalance and encourage greater diversity and gender equality.

The Tokyo 2020 session provided delegates with an update on the progress of the two equestrian sites and scheduling as well as a detailed presentation on optimising performance in a challenging climate, for both equine and human athletes, as well as officials and spectators, using planned climate mitigation protocols in Tokyo.

Consultation and transparency were at the core of the third session of the day with proposed reforms to the FEI Legal System in order to achieve greater clarity and harmonisation as well as more cost-effective processes.

Reining and Endurance were the two discipline focused sessions for the 2019 FEI Sports Forum. Discussions on the future of Reining, in the closing session of the first day, revealed a general interest in rebuilding the discipline from the grassroots level, with youth as the central building block.

The second day was devoted solely to Endurance. Proposed rule changes based on horsemanship and horse welfare were presented to delegates and generated lively discussion. The feedback from the Sports Forum will be incorporated into proposed rule modifications which will go through a full consultation process with National Federations and stakeholders prior to a vote at the FEI General Assembly 2019 in Moscow (RUS) in November.

** Watch on Replay, executive summaries, supporting documents and photos:

each session has a dedicated page on Inside FEI with a player so that you can watch on replay alongside extensive supporting documentation such as key quotes and takeaways from the session, reference documents, photos and background information as well as the newly published executive summaries. The executive summaries for all the sessions are included at the end of each dedicated page as PDF attachments. Note that for the topic of Endurance, as this was covered over sessions 5,6,7 and 8 – each of these session pages have their own dedicated executive summaries.

* Opening by FEI President and IMD Professor (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-opening)

* Session 1: Gender Equality (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-session-1)

* Session 2: Tokoy 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-session-2)

* Session 3: Review of the FEI Legal System (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-session-3)

* Session 4: Future of Reining (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-session-4)

* Session 5: Endurance - Qualification of Horses and Athletes: reducing welfare risks (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-session-5)

* Session 6: Endurance - Educating Officials and correct application of the rules (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-session-6)

* Session 7: Improvements and Innovations to reshape Endurance (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-session-7)

* Session 8: Endurance - Open Q&A and wrap-up by FEI Secretary General (https://inside.fei.org/fei/fei-sports-forum-2019-session-8)

All the images can be found here (https://inside.fei.org/fei/about-fei/sportsforum/2019) .

Press release