BAD COACH

German Coach Disqualified for Punching a Horse During Olympic Pentathlon

Kim Raisner was caught on video urging a German rider to hit her misbehaving horse. She eventually did it herself.

A German coach was disqualified Saturday after a video showed her punching a horse before the women’s modern pentathlon show jumping event. “The UIPM Executive Board (EB) has given a black card to the Germany team coach Kim Raisner, disqualifying her from the remainder of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,” the UPIM, the organization that oversees pentathlons, said in a statement. “Her actions were deemed to be in violation of the UIPM Competition Rules.” Modern pentathletes are assigned a horse at random for the show jumping discipline and only have 20 minutes to warm up with it. Annika Schleu, who was in a strong lead, drew an unpredictable horse, Saint Boy, who misbehaved during warmup. Raisner encouraged Schleu to hit the horse before eventually punching it herself in its back leg.

Germany’s Olympic team chief Alfons Hoermann said he agreed Raisner should be removed but believes there should be a review to protect animal safety and athletic fairness in the future, according to Reuters.