German pentathlon coach thrown out of Tokyo Games for ‘punching a horse’

Published 10:17 7 Aug 2021 BST

Kieran Galpin

German pentathlon coach thrown out of Tokyo Games for ‘punching a horse’

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Many are saying the horse was visibly distressed.

German modern pentathlon coach Kim Raisner has been thrown out of the Tokyo Olympics after she punched a horse during the competition. https://twitter.com/barliewine/status/1423783987219156992 Athletes are only given twenty minutes to bond with an unfamiliar horse, but champion Annika Schleu was in tears as she began her event. Raisner was reportedly attempting to help Schleu gain control over the the horse, named Saint Boy, but chose to "strike the horse with her first."

The world governing body for modern pentathlon, the UIPM, has released a statement:

"The UIPM Executive Board (EB) has given a black card to the Germany team coach Kim Raisner, disqualifying her from the remainder of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games," they said. "Her actions were deemed to be in violation of the UIPM competition rules, which are applied to all recognised modern pentathlon competitions including the Olympic Games. "The EB decision was made today at the Tokyo Stadium before the resumption of the men’s modern pentathlon competition." https://twitter.com/FFreeman/status/1423925340875984905 In videos shared online, Olympic watchers are understandably angry. "Annika Schleu and Kim Raisner beating up a scared, horrified and panicked horse just to win a medal is the most disgusting thing I've seen for a long time. I don't care that she "loves horses"... if you truly love them you don't force them to do this shit," writes one particularly angry Twitter user. "Modern pentathlon... they are just using horses as a tool for transportation. All they care about are medals, not the well being of the horses they get assigned. I really hope they'll finally stop with this category... or at least get finally the poor horses out of there."