First Racing Network learned that on the evening of November 13, local time, the annual FEI Awards Gala was held in Cape Town, South Africa, and each award also had its own belonging.
Among them, the most talked about and weighty is the Athlete of the Year award. The final prize went to Charlotte Fry, a 26-year-old British dressage rider. She won two gold medals in the dressage individual special Grand Prix and the individual music free interpretation Grand Prix at this year's FEI World Championships in Haining, Denmark, and also won a team silver medal for Team British. Fry, a bronze medallist in the dressage team competition at the Tokyo Olympics, beat her rivals to win her first World Championships. The 26-year-old also won her first individual gold medal in the senior race and the second British rider ever, winning gold at the World Dressage Grand Prix. She also won a ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics for Great Britain with her outstanding performance in the team competition.
Image from the FEI
Alice Casburn, a 20-year-old British triathlete, won the Best Rookie Award, which recognises young athletes between the ages of 14 and 21 who have demonstrated outstanding talent for equestrian sports. The winner of the Best Horse Worker Award was Kerryn Edmans of New Zealand. The South African dressage Solidarity Stars project won the 2022 FEMA Together Award, also known as the Equestrian Development Project Award, which recognises equestrian-related development projects where the organizers or organizers of the projects have made outstanding contributions or invested a lot of effort in the promotion of equestrian sports. Kenyan show jumper Muthoni Kimani received this year's Courage Award, which is given to people who still pursue their equestrian dreams despite extremely difficult circumstances. It is worth mentioning that the winners of the five awards are all women, which also creates the history of the International Equine Federation, and also represents that female power is occupying an increasingly important position in equestrian sports!
The FEI Awards were established in 2009 to recognize participants in various fields of equestrian sports, including athletes, equestrian workers and organizers, and were established in 2009 to encourage positive values such as fair play and team spirit in equestrian events. The winner of the grand prize is determined by a combination of 50% public vote and 50% jury vote. Last year, Beijing Tianxing Dioliang International Equestrian Club, a member of the Chinese Equestrian Association, won the "Work Together" award. The Chinese Horse Association said that the award of Chinese riders and the award of the Tianxing Tuning Equestrian Club are inseparable from the efforts made by the Chinese Horse Association in recent years to promote the development of equestrian sports, which is not only the recognition of individual riders and groups by the International Horse Federation, but also the respect and encouragement for the development of equestrian sports in China.
Image from the FEI
Previously, at the 2019 FIMA Awards, Zhang Xiaoning, president of the Chinese Equestrian Association, and Zhong Guowei, secretary general, were invited to attend the award ceremony held at the Kremlin Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and witnessed Chinese rider Li Zhenqiang winning the 2019 FEI "Courage Award" (details: Chinese rider Li Zhenqiang won the "Courage to Advance" award of the IFHP annual award).
Ingmar DeVos, who has just been re-elected as president of the IFHP for the third time, said that more than ever, this year's FEI Awards represent the essence of the sport and highlight the values of equality, determination and courage.