The Margins Behind the Medals: The Last 10 European Champions
None of the last 10 European Champions completed the Championships on 0 penalties.
Consistency is key at the FEI Jumping European Championship, gold medals are won through smart, consistent riding and score management over five challenging rounds. As we look ahead to La Coruña 2025, a deep dive into the data from the last ten editions shows that finishing on a perfect score of zero hasn’t been necessary to stand on top of the podium. Instead, the story is one of tight margins, steady performances, and how riders absorb pressure as well as penalties.
The Story Behind the Scores
None of the past ten European Champions completed the week on a zero score. Even more interesting: only two went on to finish the championship on their Day 1 score: Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum & Shutterfly in 2007, and defending champion Steve Guerdat & Dynamix de Belheme in 2023.
Both Roger-Yves Bost (2013) and Jeroen Dubbeldam (2015) avoided knocking down a single rail all week but picked up time penalties throughout the week. The trend is clear: faults are likely to happen, whether rails or time faults, and winning is about keeping those penalties under control across multiple rounds.
While scores have varied; from Guerdat’s low 0.43 penalties to Kevin Staut’s 9.42 in 2009, what remains consistent is how small the margins between gold and silver tend to be. The average winning margin across the last ten editions is under two penalties. In 2019, Martin Fuchs won by just 0.16 penalties, while Guerdat’s 3.88-penalty cushion in 2023 was the largest of the past two decades. These fine margins mean that every time fault or pole down carries real weight at this level.
How important is Day 1?
Day 1 doesn’t dictate destiny at the European Championships. Among the last 7 champions, only Peder Fredricson & H&M All In were leading after the opening round in 2017, while 2 years later Martin Fuchs and Clooney 51 ranked as low as 20th place after Day 1 before climbing to gold. Even Steve Guerdat and Dynamix de Belheme, who would go on to win by the largest margin of the past decade, started their week in fourth. The data shows that while a strong start helps, riders don’t need to be at the top from the outset to finish there.
