British equestrian Charlotte Dujardin, 39, who has won three Olympic gold medals, has been disqualified from the Paris 2024 Games. She has been disqualified from the Paris Olympics after revelations that she abused horses in the past, including whipping them.
“Dujardin has been disqualified from the Olympics for flogging a horse,” The Guardian and other British media outlets reported on Thursday.
According to the report, Dujardin was teaching a student-athlete to ride at a private training center in 2020 and abused the horse because it wouldn’t lift its legs high enough.
“Using a long whip, Dujardin struck the horse 24 times in one minute,” the student-athlete’s attorneys said, ”as if he was treating an elephant in a circus.”
The student-athletes recently forwarded a video of Dujardin’s abusive behavior to the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) to report the incident.
The FEI, which saw the video, launched an investigation and suspended Dujardin from international competition.
Dujardin took to social media on Thursday to apologize for the incident, saying, “There is no excuse. I am deeply ashamed,” Dujardin said on social media on Thursday.
Dujardin is a British equestrian icon who won gold in the individual and team dressage at the London 2012 Olympics, gold in the individual and silver in the team event at Rio de Janeiro 2016, and bronze in the individual and bronze in the team event at Tokyo 2020.
He was considered a strong medal favorite in Paris and was mentioned as a possible candidate to lead Team GB’s opening ceremony.
Great Britain announced that reserve rider Becky Moody will compete in Paris in Dujardin’s place. 파워볼게임