Equ: German Hoy snubbed by angered French losers

AAP General News (Australia)
08-20-2004
Equ: German Hoy snubbed by angered French losers

By Erik Kirschbaum

ATHENS, Aug 19 Reuters - Germany's Bettina Hoy said on Thursday she had been repeatedly
snubbed by her defeated French rivals after she won controversial Olympic gold medals
in the three-day eventing competition.

Hoy's contested golds in the team and individual eventing yesterday have turned the
normally genteel and well-mannered world of equestrian sport into an arena of contention.

"I tried to congratulate the French riders afterwards but they turned away from me
and wouldn't shake my hand," Hoy said at a news conference today. "That was very disappointing.

"I tried again later at the press conference but they shook their heads at me and looked
away. They wouldn't talk to me."

Hoy lives in Britain, rides for Germany and is married to Australia's three-time gold
medallist Andrew Hoy.

Yet her efforts to promote international relations through sport were shattered by
the row over her two gold medals, which are being challenged by Britain, France and the
United States.

"I guess when medals are at stake different rules come into play," Hoy said when asked
if she thought the losers' challenge would harm to the clubby sport.

Britain's silver medal winner Leslie Law and American Kimberly Severson, who won bronze,
did offer congratulations, although their federations later joined France in calling in
the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the highest appeals body.

Hoy said Law's greeting, however, "was not especially warm."

France won the silver but got gold after Hoy was penalised, more than an hour after
her ride, for an error by the starting timer in the show jumping stage of the three-discipline
event.

Germany objected and an appeal committee ruled organisers, not Hoy, made the error,
restoring the gold to Germany. That pushed France back to silver with Britain getting
bronze. The ruling also made it possible for Hoy to take the individual gold moments later
ahead of Law and Severson.

French riders said at the news conference they had nothing against Hoy but felt they
were robbed by the appeals committee.

"To a certain degree I can understand their disappointment," said Hoy, 41. "We were
the outsiders, no one expected us to win. We shocked the favourites with our strong rides.

The French had a great performance but they weren't the best. We were better."

Reuters nh

KEYWORD: OLY EQN HOY

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