September 29th, 2022
In the world of equestrian sports, the Nations Cup is the flagship team event of a season and a federation for the Olympic disciplines (show jumping, dressage and eventing). The Nations Cup is the only team competition in of this mainly individual sport with of course the Continental, World and Olympic Team Championships. Each year, a national federation can organize only one Nations Cup per country
This concept, which is highly publicized, did not yet exist in polo, even though it is a team sport par excellence! The prospect of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games has inspired the French Polo Federation (FFP) and the Chantilly Polo Club: the Polo Nations Cup will be held in June 2023 (from 8 to 18). It will oppose, at a 12-goal level, teams representing a nation, a region or a state selected by their federations with a maximum of two foreign players per team.
In 2024, this Polo Nations Cup will be part of the events held outside the official program organized in the wake of the Paris Olympic Games.
Polo has always been part of the Olympic family and the FIP is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Polo has been an official discipline of the Olympic Games five times. First played at the 1900 Summer Olympics, it was dropped from the program after the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. It was an Anglo-American team that won the first gold medal in 1900, then Great Britain twice (1908 and 1920) before Argentina took over (1924 and 1936).
The Polo Nations Cup will perhaps allow a gradual return to this beautiful era of polo at the Olympic Games, but above all to attract the public around the fields to continue to develop polo in France and in Europe!