Please allow me to share with you the response I received from EC regarding the rationale for making the Rio criteria secret  -and yes this policy is across the disciplines. Here is what I was sent:

‘The decision not to publish CET selection criteria was made to protect Canadian athletes seeking to achieve the necessary qualifications to represent Canada on the world stage. Publishing selection criteria opens the door for exploitation by other countries and has the potential to negatively impact Canada’s athletes. In addition, EC respects the time, effort and expertise provided by our expert volunteers and is committed to protecting their intellectual property.’

Seriously? Well if the world of elite equestrian sport has become a land of Tonya Hardings running around with knee-level baseball bats looking to sabotage the competition, someone needs to tell the Americans. Because all their criteria are up online for the world to exploit:

You can peruse the dressage criteria here, and Google the other disciplines if you care to read them.

I’m going to say something that might be perceived as harsh, but it’s a little reality check, nevertheless. No one outside our country gives a flying fark about Canada’s selection criteria, especially in Dressage, the only discipline not qualified to send a team to Rio.

Who on our merry planet is going to exploit the Canadian athletes? And why? The US is already qualified with a team. Olympic Group D doesn’t include any other dressage nations in the Americas (sorry Caribbean folks but just telling it like it is), so Canada is competing against no one for the second individual spot. And in its uphill quest to get a third spot via the global Olympic rankings, it’s the smaller European nations that pose the only threat. Is Austria going to send a squadron of exploiters to North American CDIs for the sole purpose of stymieing our athletes? Are you kidding? Even if they were planning to do so, they wouldn’t need to see the criteria anyway. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to have at least a rough idea of what the criteria would contain.

EC’s defense of the secret criteria is an argument based on false premises, also known as a fallacy. I know some of you think of me as cynical, but is there nothing more cynical than a national sport federation treating its members like stooges and feeding them mushroom fertilizer such as ‘protecting intellectual property’? Since when are criteria equivalent to literature? As one astute reader pointed out in the comments to my previous post, there seems to be confusion between criteria and strategies. Obviously rivals would do well to keep their strategies to themselves. Criteria are not ‘strategy’, they are the rules. And everyone deserves to know those.

I suppose it’s possible to also suspect not cynicism on the part of EC’s decision makers, but gross naivete. That advice has been given by someone from outside the sport (and accepted) without adequate research into the past and current dynamics of equestrian sport in Canada.

I have requested to receive the criteria based on the fact that I own a horse that is FEI registered that was declared for the 2015 Canadian Dressage Team. Surely EC doesn’t think it’s reasonable for owners to declare their horses without knowing what the rules of qualifying are? If owners are denied access to the criteria, how can they be expected to invest considerable funds to paying for their horses to travel and compete in order to qualify for the next Olympics? How are they, or any potential supporters, supposed to get behind the fundraisers in this state of ignorance? How is anyone to get interested in the coming months if we are not permitted the information that we need in order to know who is on their way to qualifying? And how are the judges to know what marks to give? Hm? Protecting our athletes? I think not. It’s preposterous to think this is a good idea.

And on that note, I’ve  talked to quite a number of people about the secret criteria, including several potential dressage team members. To a person, no one understands or agrees with the policy. I have heard a rumour that someone in jumping thinks it’s a good idea, but I have not yet followed up to ask that person myself.

I’ll be back with you when I’ve received an answer from EC regarding the secret dressage criteria. So far I’ve received responses to other questions sent in the same email, but not even acknowledgement that I’ve asked this particular question. Nary a whisper of a peep.