Star line-up at the start of the World Cup season in Oslo

The opening leg of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup 2022/2023 Western European League next Sunday in Oslo (NOR) starts with a top line-up: With two World Cup winners and five of the top 10 riders in the world ranking list, including the number one, the Swede Henrik von Eckermann, the opening tournament is more than top-class.
The new season will be quite busy for the showjumpers with 14 CSI5* World Cup stages in 11 countries between October 2022 and the end of February 2023. Oslo will be followed by Helsinki (FIN) and Lyon (FRA) later this month, and then it's off to Verona (ITA), Stuttgart (GER) and Madrid (ESP) in November.

La Coruña (ESP) is on the calendar in December, followed by the British stage in the London ExCel Arena. The year will end with the World Cup stage in Mechelen, Belgium.
The year 2023 will start with a trip to Basel in the St. Jakobshalle (SUI). Stages in Leipzig (GER) and Amsterdam (NED) will follow. The last two will take place in Bordeaux (FRA) and Gothenburg (SWE) in February, then all eyes will turn to Omaha (USA), where the final of the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup 2023 will take place from 4 to 8 April.

Eleventh time

This is the eleventh time since the first Final in 1979 that the Final has returned to the USA, and the second time it has been held in Omaha. US riders have only ever won the title twice on home soil. The first time, Conrad Homfeld won with Balbuco at the second edition in Baltimore in 1980. Exactly 37 years later, McLain Ward won with HH Azur in Omaha in 2017.
With the top seven scores counting for each rider and the top 18 earning a ticket to the 2023 Finals, early points in the Western European League standings are always an advantage. But they won't be easy to come by this weekend because so many of the sport's biggest names will be in the hunt for points.

On fire

Ever since he took team gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with King Edward and fourth place in the individual classification, world number one Henrik von Eckermann has been almost unstoppable. This summer, the pair also won double gold at the FEI World Championships in Herning (DEN). Von Eckermann will also be chased by Daniel Deusser this weekend. The current number 13 in the world ranking list recently won the Rolex Grand Prix in Spruce Meadows with Killer Queen and then the Grand Prix of the Global Champions Tour in New York, there in the saddle of Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z. Gerrit Nieberg and Philipp Weishaupt are also hoping for a good start to the World Cup leg from the German perspective.
But also the Dutch riders Harrie Smolders (4th place) and Maikel van der Vleuten (8th place), the Brazilian Marlon Zanotelli (7th place) and the French star Kevin Staut (10th place) will want to have a say in the first decision on Sunday. So will Belgium's Gilles Thomas and veteran Gregory Wathelet.
The final podium of the 2022 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final was an all-European affair, led by Switzerland's Martin Fuchs, and for the second time in his career Harrie Smolders was second, while Sweden's Jens Fredricson was third.

Listed

Fredricson, who is currently ranked 99th, is listed for Oslo with Markan Cosmopolit, the horse with which he was part of the winning team at the World Championships in Herning. This combination is also always to be reckoned with. Also competing in Oslo is the Swiss rider Steve Guerdat, who has already won three FEI Jumping World Cup titles.
The Norwegian Geir Gulliksen is back in the saddle after a fall that put him out of action for several months, so that the home riders will also be competing with a strong line-up next Sunday at 3.30 p.m. local time.