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Charlotte Dujardin suspended from 2024 Paris Olympics due to ‘miscarriage of justice’: NPR

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Britain's Charlotte Dujardin competes in the individual dressage final at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo on July 28, 2021. Britain's Dujardin has withdrawn from the Games in Paris after a video emerged that she says shows her behaving inappropriately while training other riders.

Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin competes in the individual dressage final at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo on July 28, 2021. Dujardin withdrew from the Paris Games after a video emerged that she said showed her behaving inappropriately while training other riders.

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David Goldman/AP

PARIS — Charlotte Dujardin, one of Britain’s most successful Olympians, has withdrawn from the Paris Games after a video emerged showing her “making an error of judgement.”

The six-time Olympic dressage medalist said in a statement posted on Instagram that the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) was investigating the matter and that she would “withdraw from all competition while this process takes place.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin was once a major player in the Olympic movement, spending tens of billions of dollars to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Now his country is barely participating in the Summer Olympics in Paris. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

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“A video from four years ago has surfaced showing me making a mistake during a training session,” she said. “What happened was completely out of character for me and does not reflect how I train my horses or train my students, but there is no excuse. I am deeply ashamed and should have set a better example in that moment.”

The FEI, which confirmed the investigation, said it had suspended Dujardin from competitions after being provided with a video two days earlier that appeared to show the rider engaging in “behaviour that runs counter to the principles of horse welfare”.

The video was sent to the FEI by a lawyer representing an unnamed complainant, the regulator said in a statement. “According to the information received, the footage was allegedly recorded several years ago during a training session led by Ms Dujardin at a private stable.”

It is not the first time that an alleged breach of a horse’s welfare has prevented a rider from competing in the Olympic Games. In 2021, a German trainer was banned from the Tokyo Games for hitting a horse.

Dujardin was pulled from her competition less than a week before she was due to compete. She is just one medal away from becoming Britain’s most successful Olympian and Paris – what would have been her fourth Olympic Games – offered her the chance to break that record.

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