Many athletes prepare and train for a better part of their life, trying to qualify to compete at the Olympics.
So you could probably imagine the excitement and joy one goes through when they’re told that they’ve qualified!
That’s exactly how Adelinde Cornelissen felt!
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This summer, Adelinde Cornelissen, a Dutch dressage rider, had decided quit in the middle of competition. She had to go back home without even finishing the event that she had been preparing for years.
As a rider, Adelinde had been having great seasons.point 197 | In the past, she won an Olympic silver and bronze, in addition to World and European gold medals.point 277 |
Her horse, Parzival, had been a faithful teammate the whole time.point 55 |
This year, this duo was going to compete in the Olympics in Rio.point 107 | Initially, everything seemed fine.point 138 | Then, when she was checking up on Parzival, Adelinde noticed something was wrong with her horse.point 219 |
On Facebook, she wrote: “the right side of his head was swollen.point 59 | he had been kicking the walls.point 84 | I took his temperature: he had a fever of over 40 degrees Celcius.point 138 | ”
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littlethings.point 13 | com/adelinde-saves-parzival/">Image via LittleThings
In order to see what was going on, Adelinde immediately called the clinic for help.point 132 | They checked his blood, and gave him fluids.point 169 | Even though Parzival’s fever gradually went down, Adelinde wasn’t completely sure whether it was ok for her to compete.point 282 |
So, she requested to see if she could change the order with the team, so that her horse could get an extra day to recover.point 98 | However, the request was denied.point 126 |
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At that point, Adelinde writes that she didn’t want to compete anymore.point 192 | On the day of the event, she had to make the final decision.point 240 |
Even though Parzival’s condition got much better, Adelinde decided to quit for the sake of his health.point 92 | 1
“But in order to protect him, I gave up.. My buddy, my friend, the horse that has given everything for me his whole life does not deserve this.. So I saluted and left the arena.”
What a difficult decision she had to make! If you were moved by Adelinde’s choice, share this post with your friends and family.
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