The Nations Cup is the most prestigious team event in equestrian sports and includes Olympic disciplines such as show jumping or dressage. The Nations Cup, composed of the Continental Championship, World Championship and Olympic Team Championships, is the only team competition of an individual sport. Every national federation is able to host just one Nations Cup per country.
There has never been a Nations Cup for polo, the equestrian team sport par excellence, until now. In 2024, the Olympic Games will return to Paris, one hundred years after the unforgettable event that has been immortalised in the legendary movie, Chariots of Fire, which not only details the remarkable achievements of two British athletes, Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, but also because in those games, polo gave Argentina their first ever Gold Olympic Medal. The lineup that won the medal was composed of Arturo J. Kenny, Juan D. Nelson, Enrique Padilla and Juan B. Mile. So, to launch the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the French Polo Federation (FFP) and the Polo Club du Domaine de Chantilly have created the first Polo Nations Cup, which will run from June 8th to 18th.
The tournament will see teams up to 12 goals compete. Each lineup must have two nationals representative of the country and a maximum of two foreign players.
Polo has been no stranger to the Olympic Games; in fact, the Federation of International Polo (FIP) are members of the Olympic International Committee (OIC). The sports of kings was an olympic discipline on five occasions. The first was in 1900, in Paris; then in London (1908), Amberes (1920), Paris (1924) and finally, in Berlin (1936). The first ever Olympic Gold Medal was presented to an Anglo-American team in 1900; England claimed the gold medal on the two following occasions. Then Argentina won gold in 1924, and in 1936, polo was dropped from the Olympics.
Both the FIP and the IOC are now working hard to have polo back in the most remarkable sports competition in the world. Perhaps, the Polo Nations Cup could be a gradual comeback of polo to the Olympic Games!