Dujardin free to compete after whipping ban

Three-time Olympic dressage gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin plans to return to competition after serving her one-year ban from the sport.

Dujardin, 40, was banned in December by the FEI - the world governing body of equestrian sports - and fined 10,000 Swiss francs (£8,886) for "excessively" whipping a horse.

Video footage emerged in July - days before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympics - of her repeatedly striking the horse with a long whip around its legs.

The international ban, also backed by British Equestrian and British Dressage, was backdated to 23 July 2024, when she was provisionally suspended.

While BBC Sport understands Dujardin does plan to return to competition, it is not yet known when or where that will be.

From Thursday, she can re-apply for British Dressage membership, which will permit her to enter its affiliated competitions.

She was ineligible to receive public funding and publicly funded benefits through UK Sport while she served the ban, and she also lost sponsorship deals and ambassadorial roles.

A UK Sport spokesperson told BBC Sport it is "in the process of reviewing Charlotte's future eligibility to receive public funds" - the outcome of which will determine if she can return to British Equestrian's World Class Performance Programme.

It is understood representatives of Dujardin have spoken with British Equestrian and British Dressage about her return to the sport in recent days.

British Dressage confirmed to BBC Sport it is in contact with Dujardin's team, while British Equestrian said it could not discuss its correspondence with athletes.

Dujardin is not among the initial eight British entries put to the FEI to compete at August's Dressage European Championships.

The final squad - of four rider and horse combinations from those initial eight - will be confirmed by British Equestrian later this month.

Dujardin had been set to bid for a fourth gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

But last July, just before the start of the Games, she released a statement saying she was withdrawing after a video emerged showing her "making an error of judgement".

She was later provisionally suspended by the FEI, which said it had received footage showing Dujardin "engaging in conduct contrary to the principles of horse welfare - during a training session conducted at Ms Dujardin's private stable".

The FEI said Dujardin confirmed she was the individual in the video, which was "filmed several years ago" and "requested to be provisionally suspended pending the outcome of the investigations".

In announcing her ban in December, the FEI tribunal stated that the video showed Dujardin whipping the horse more than 20 times, mostly from behind on the hind legs, and also in between and from the front on the front legs and shoulders of the horse.

It added the footage of the training session did not constitute any other rule violations and that there had not been any further complaints raised against Dujardin's conduct since the video emerged.

At the time, she said she fully respected the FEI's verdict and would "forever aim to do better".

Dujardin shot to prominence at the London 2012 Olympics on Valegro, winning gold medals in team and individual dressage.

The pair picked up individual gold and team silver four years later in Rio.

On a different horse, Gio, Dujardin won two bronze medals at the Covid-delayed Tokyo 2020 Games.

History beckoned at the Paris Olympics, where a medal of any colour would have made her Britain's outright most decorated female Olympian - a title she shares with former cyclist Dame Laura Kenny, with both having six Olympic medals.

She was set to compete on Imhotep, known as Pete - her first horse since Valegro to score more than 90% in international competition. The pair had been unbeaten since the 2023 European Championships.

Imhotep has since been sold, as was always planned for, external after the Games, while Times Kismet, who Dujardin had identified as her next Olympic horse, has also been sold to Germany's Jessica von Bredow-Werndl - who successfully defended her individual dressage title in Paris.