October 1, 2023 
The Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final wrapped in Barcelona, Spain on Sunday and there’s good news and bad news for North Americans.
The bad news: the U.S. Jumping Team did not qualify for Paris 2024.
There was a single Olympic qualification spot available in Barcelona for the highest ranked team not qualified and only two countries were in contention for it on Sunday: the U.S. and Brazil. When the last horse crossed the timers at the end of the second round, a single time fault but Brazil ahead and on their way to the city of love.
The good news (for fans): the 2023 Pan American Games just got a lot more exciting.
There are three qualifying spots on offer in Santiago later this month. Canada, the United States and Mexico all have yet to book their tickets to the Paris Games and will be making their 11th hour bids in Chile—it’s their final opportunity to qualify. Pressure and expectations will be running high.
For the U.S., that’ll mean bouncing back from disappointment in Spain.
“We knew coming here we were going to face talented opposition. We knew Brazil was going to be tough and we were right. They were a better team than us on Thursday, and we had always said this was a team of five, and we didn’t want to leave anything on the table, so we brought in a fresh horse today,” said chef d’equipe Robert Ridland.
That horse was Eddie Blue and Devin Ryan, who replaced Jessica Springsteen and Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, to ride alongside teammates McLain Ward, Karl Cook and Laura Kraut.
Both Ward on Callas and Cook aboard Kalinka van’t Zorgveit fell the ‘c’ element of the triple, just a fence from home, to finish on four, while Ryan collected two rails on course. Kraut delivered the best performance on the day for the U.S.A., finishing on a single time fault with Dorado 212. Ironically, it was what tipped the scales in Brazil’s favor. Brazil finished on eight faults. U.S.A, on nine.
“We barely missed [on Sunday] and of course it’s frustrating. It was a very close contest between us and Brazil, and we both finished in the top six of the fifteen teams here, which shows the competitiveness of both our teams. We have to get it done in Santiago. It’s pretty simple what our job is there. We wanted to seal the deal today, but it wasn’t meant to be, and now we focus all our efforts on Santiago.”
Team Germany took the 2023 Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final title on a team total of zero. They were two-fences better than second, third and fourth place finishers France, Belgium and Brazil—with combined team time separating the four fault teams. U.S.A. took fifth.
