Equality with a big question mark
In equestrian sports, women and men compete against each other – also at the Olympics, which gives the sport a certain special status. Equal treatment ends, however, if a rider is pregnant and therefore takes a break. Then she loses 50 percent of her world ranking points, which are after all the basis for permission to start at international tournaments. According to the rules, she is treated like sick or injured riders who can be absent from competitions for between six and twelve months under the same conditions. That alone is a disadvantage for women, who are neither sick nor injured, according to the EqualEquest website.
Baby break too short: crash in the rankings
But it becomes serious if the previously announced break (either six or twelve months) is not observed, which Meyer-Zimmermann did when she started in Oliva (Spain) in March – almost two months after the birth of her son Friedrich. The result: Because she was back in the saddle too early, the FEI also canceled the remaining 50 percent of her world ranking points.
“After the insane loss of points, I slipped from 107th place in the world rankings to 270th place and now I have to slowly fight my way up again,” said the multiple German champion as well as European and world champion with the German team. Together with her husband Christoph, she also runs the Waterkant riding stables in Pinneberg.
Disadvantages in sport and economic damage
If Meyer-Zimmermann had kept the agreed break, she would not have been allowed to ride at the German Show Jumping and Dressage Derby in Klein Flottbek and would not have been able to take second place with Chesmu in the Hamburg Championships. But she would have kept at least half of her points from the previous year. Now she bears not only the sporting, but also the economic damage. Among other things, it is about the possible loss of sponsorship money and horses that were made available to the riding entrepreneur by the owners before her pregnancy.
Female riders want flexibility and self-determination
“We would like more flexibility without losing ranking points,” says Meyer-Zimmermann. But, according to the policy paper of the “EqualEquest” initiative: “The right to a flexible break of four to twelve months should only exist in the case of pregnancy and thus only compensate for the gender-specific disadvantage of women.” Rulofs would also like an adequate handling of such CVs and says: “What sports associations sometimes try to regulate does not correspond to the realities of life, especially of female athletes.”
In short: the gender-related disadvantages of women in top-class sport should be abolished. “The women get the babies,” says Meyer-Zimmermann, “and accordingly we also need a little support when we take a break due to pregnancy.”