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Canadian show jumper Eric Lamaze withdraws from Tokyo short list

Canadian show jumper Eric Lamaze withdraws from Tokyo short list
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Canadian show jumper Eric Lamaze withdraws from Tokyo short list

BRUSSELS — Canada’s most decorated show jumper won’t compete in the Tokyo Olympics.

Eric Lamaze, owner of Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals, has withdrawn from Equestrian Canada’s short list for the Summer Games.

Three years of treatment for a brain tumour, the global COVID-19 situation and the inability of Canada to send a full show jumping team to Tokyo factored into his decision.

“My health is something that I take very seriously, and I’ve decided that Tokyo is not the best venue for me,” Lamaze said Monday in a statement.

“While my health is stable at the moment, there are several risk factors that have to be taken into consideration.”

Canada won’t compete in the team event in Tokyo and will send just one horse-and-rider combination.

Lamaze was among five athletes Equestrian Canada announced for its short list.

The 53-year-old from Montreal won individual gold and team silver in 2008 in Beijing aboard Hickstead, and an individual bronze in 2016 in Rio with Fine Lady.

Lamaze and Hickstead were inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.

Lamaze, who lives in Brussels, Belgium, feels the world remains in a precarious position because of the pandemic. Equestrian events are only now starting to return to the European calendar.

“With all that we’ve lived through this past year, and what we are still seeing with so many people living through horrible situations both in Canada and around the world, I’m not sure I would even feel right winning a medal,” Lamaze said in his statement.

“The Olympics are a celebration of the athletes and I don’t think we’re going to have a true celebration in Tokyo. It’s not the time to celebrate.”

Canada can’t send a show jumping team to Tokyo because it was stripped of its fourth-place finish at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

Nicole Walker tested positive for a cocaine metabolite. She said she inadvertently ingested the substance drinking coca tea, which is a common drink in Peru.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed Walker didn’t intentionally take a banned substance, but said it didn’t have the authority to overturn the Pan Am disciplinary commission’s decision that dropped Canada out of the fourth and final Pan Am qualification berth for Tokyo.