Olympic Gold Medalist Charlotte Dujardin Suspended for Horse-Whipping Scandal

Olympic champion equestrian Charlotte Dujardin has been banned from the game for one 12 months, months after she withdrew from the Paris Olympics after a video surfaced that confirmed her whipping certainly one of her horses.

The Federation for Equestrian Sports activities (FEI) handed down the ban on Thursday, Dec. 5, in response to the BBC.

The 39-year-old British athlete and six-time Olympic medalist will have the ability to compete as soon as once more in July 2025, because the ban is backdated to July 2024 when she was provisionally banned.

“I totally respect the decision issued by the Federation for Equestrian Sports activities (FEI), launched right this moment,” Dujardin stated in an announcement on her Instagram. “Because the federation has recognised, my actions within the video don’t replicate who I’m and I can solely apologise once more. I perceive the duty that comes with my place within the sport, and I’ll without end goal to do higher.”

She added,  “This has undoubtedly been one of many darkest and most tough intervals of my life, and I wish to take this chance to thank everybody who has supported me throughout this time.”

In its ruling, the FEI stated it aimed to “ship a transparent message” to anybody who “compromises the welfare” of animals, and that Dujardin’s video appeared to be an remoted incident, in response to the Related Press.

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The video in query surfaced after a 19-year-old former scholar of Dujardin’s noticed the alleged abuse and filed a criticism, The Guardian beforehand reported.

Dujardin claimed the video — during which her accuser stated that she beat “the horse greater than 24 occasions in a single minute” — was from 4 years in the past and that it was “an error of judgment throughout a training session.”

“Nonetheless there isn’t a excuse,” she stated in an announcement on the time. “I’m deeply ashamed and may have set a greater instance in that second.”