LEXINGTON, KY— The World Games 2010 Foundation today announced that it has selected Jamie Link as the new Chief Executive Officer of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.
Link has been serving as Deputy Secretary of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet since December 2007 and prior to that spent several months as the Deputy Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park. In his current role, he has served as an ex officio member of the World Games 2010 Foundation board of directors and has been actively involved in the ongoing construction projects at the Kentucky Horse Park and major vendor selections related to the Games.
“I am honored to be selected as CEO of the World Games 2010 Foundation and look forward to working with the wonderful staffs of the Foundation and the Kentucky Horse Park,” Link said. “It is going to take all of us working together and we are committed to showcasing to our visitors not only the world’s finest equestrian venue that is the Kentucky Horse Park, but also the many amazing attractions we have throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”
“I have watched Jamie participate in many of the meetings and was impressed with his ability to get things done. The planning for the Games is at a critical juncture and we need to have a full time CEO to manage the process for the next 21 months,” said John Long, board chairman and acting CEO. “Jamie’s familiarity with the Games planning means he will be able to jump in immediately and make an impact.”
Long also added that the Games proactively recruited Mr. Link. There was no pressure from the state. In fact, Long said that Secretary Marcheta Sparrow—also a board member—politely reprimanded him for stealing Link.
Secretary Sparrow added “although I am sorry to lose Jamie as my co-worker in state government I am confident in his abilities to lead the Games at this critical time. His knowledge of the Kentucky Horse Park and the importance of this event to our state’s image throughout the world is tremendous.”
John Nicholson, Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park said “having known and worked with Jamie Link for a number of years, I can state with confidence that he is uniquely qualified for this position and I am delighted that he has accepted the Board’s offer. Everyone at the Kentucky Horse Park has witnessed firsthand Jamie’s uncommon talent, integrity and dedication during his time as Deputy Director. He understands the Park’s day-to-day operations and the special needs of the Park for the 16 days of high level championship competition. In addition, it is helpful to have someone familiar with all of our key community and state leaders involved in this project to help streamline our efforts. I look forward to once again having the pleasure of working with him as we build toward, not only this epoch moment in our history, but for the great legacy it will provide.”
Link will officially begin serving as CEO on January 12, but has already begun the transition and attending meetings as needed to be up-to-date on all operations when he joins the staff full-time.
The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games are the world championships of eight equestrian disciplines recognized by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), and are held every four years. The Games have never before been held outside of Europe; nor have all eight disciplines competed at a single site—both firsts that will be achieved at the Kentucky Horse Park.
The Games will be broadcast on NBC Sports, which has marked the largest commitment to network coverage of equestrian sport in U.S. television history. The 2010 Games are expected to have a statewide economic impact of $150 million, and other current sponsors include Alltech, Rolex, John Deere and Ariat International, Inc. For more information on the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, pleasevisit
Its going to be a busy and exciting year with only 631 more days until the start of the Games. We always use the first 16 days of the year for organizational purposes so we will not have any further updates until after that but part of our organizational efforts will be to bring additional support online for our efforts.
LEXINGTON, KY – Sixteen days of eight world championships are officially scheduled for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The competition schedule was released today by the World Games 2010 Foundation.
A detailed competition schedule is now available online at www.feigames2010.org.
“This schedule is certain to provide an exciting variety of top sport on each of the 16 days of the Games”, said Competition Director Kate Jackson. “Spectators will find events of interest every day and will be entertained by the beauty and spectacle that is inherent to equestrian competition at this level”.
“I am particularly happy that we are able, for the first time, to include Para-Equestrian as an integral part of the World Equestrian Games. We are pleased and honored to do so”, Jackson said.
The Games will begin with opening ceremonies on September 25, 2010. The first weekend of competition will include Vaulting and Endurance.
The Vaulting competition will continue into week one, along with Dressage and Eventing.
In week two, Jumping, Para-Dressage, Driving and Reining will be contested. The Games will end with closing ceremonies on October 10, 2010.
“We are excited to share these details with competitors and spectators who are already making their plans to join us in Kentucky”, said Rob Hinkle, Foundation Chief Operating Officer. “We know that many local communities, businesses, volunteers and others have also been waiting for this schedule to begin making plans for 2010″.
The schedule may still experience minor changes, but no major shifts to the individual discipline schedules are expected.
The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, to be held at the Kentucky Horse, are the world championships of the eight equestrian disciplines recognized by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), and are held every four years. The Games have never been held outside of Europe; nor have all eight disciplines competed at a single site? both firsts that will be achieved at the Kentucky Horse Park.
The Games will be broadcast on NBC Sports, which has made the largest network commitment to coverage of equestrian sport in U.S. television history. The 2010 Games are expected to have a statewide economic impact of $150 million, and current sponsors include the Rolex Company and an unprecedented $10 million title sponsor, Alltech. It is anticipated that more than 600,000 tickets will be sold for the 16-day competition.
Happy Labor Day, you don’t probably here that often. Labor Day is the last hurrah of the Summer and so its understandable that the idea of celebrating Labor not something we think about. I won’t even step into the conversation of Labor = Job. No I want to talk about the concept of Doing, of applying human mental and physical force to a task at hand and getting it accomplished, that is my broad definition of Labor. That can be a Labor of Love or a Labor of Need, but ultimately Doing something is at the core of us as humans, pretty much because it is at the core of survival.
So today I want to Celebrate Labor, a Labor of Love, my Labor of promoting the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010, and pursuing a goal of seeing some form of the Kentucky World Equestrian Games continue past 2010 and of seeing Kentucky’s involvement in hosting a Summer Olympic Games sometime in the future, if not in my lifetime then in my son’s.
I prefess that these are honorable goals and I seek your support and Labor in seeing that we accomplish those goals for the benefit of all.
Thomas Demond
Founder
Kentucky World Equestrian Games .ORG
Wanted to post some quick information about another organization that I am a founding member of called the Fort Harrod Back Country Horsemen. This is a group of horse trail enthusiasts in Central Kentucky that recently formed this non-profit organization as a 501(c)3 corporation. The founding of this organization is largely the brain child of Emily Dennis of Big Red Stables, who is also now our President by unanimous vote. We held our first trail ride/maintenance out at Eagles Nest in Mercer county this past Saturday and had some two dozen members turn out for it. Members of this group have also been involved in GPS mapping of trail areas in Central Kentucky which most likely be part of the trail system across that State that hopefully will be useable in time for the Games. Emily actually testified before the State Legislature on SB 196 (Kentucky Adventure Toruism Initiative) which was the bill that provided the mechanism for the State to negotiate with land owners to create this trail system.
I will provide more information here soon on joining this group, if you want information quicker then that jut drop me an email, thomas at kentuckyworldequestriangames dot org (spam bot shielding).
The World Games Foundation has activated the Volunteer Recruitment website. I was able to register the first day it was up, not sure the reason, but was able to register today. I signed up as a General Volunteer for now, but you have the ability to pick the specific discipline(s) you would like to work with. They do ask for your background in each of the disciplines in order to judge your suitability for those positions. The link to the registration site is provide below and as always I recommend volunteering out at the Horse Park now prior to the Games. I will have further updates on my own volunteering and the needs of our organization.
Happy New Year to everyone. 2007 was a good year for us and 2008 is going to be a GREAT year. With less then a 1000 days to go until the start of the Games the excitement continues to build. We are working on some initiatives to continue to educate the public about the importance of their input and efforts in making these Games successful.
The 1000 day countdown has begun to the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. A pair of clocks were started today in downtown Lexington that will countdown to September 25, 2010, the start of the equestrian championships. One of the clocks can be seen from eastbound Vine Street, the other from westbound Main Street.
So with a 1000 days to go now the pace starts to pick up and with a new Governor and the 60 day regular legislative session to begin everyone is getting busy.
We have reached the T minus 3 years mark so things are really starting to pick up now and the Excitement is building. I was lucky enough to get to attend Media Day for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ Kentucky 2010 at the Kentucky Horse Park on September 13th. This was a great experience and all modes of media were represented from traditional print and television to those of us strictly in the online media formats. The weather couldn’t have been better and the Horse Park personnel did a wonderful job of showing off all the Horse Park had to offer while making the day go very effortlessly. I am sure all of us that were claiming this was a working event to our bosses and colleagues fill just a little guilty about just how much fun we had.
I will admit, this was the first time I had the opportunity to hear John Nicholson in person and I will have to say it was a treat in the sense that his enthusiasm for the Games is palatable. Of course I would of been disappointed if it hadn’t been as so much of the success of the Games rides on his shoulders. Of course it has always been my belief that those people who get involved in the Games will very quickly develop a pride and sense of well being that comes from being involved in something that you quickly realize is bigger then yourself and will make an ever lasting impact on the Commonwealth of Kentucky. So let the Excitement Build.
The announcement was made today that Jim Host was resigning as chairman of the 2010 World Games Foundation, Inc and that Tandy Patrick was named as his interim replacement. Ms. Patrick’s involvement in landing the games for Kentucky was significant and she would seem to be a fine choice in my opinion to go forward as board chairman for the Foundation, though there are many considerations that go into deciding that position. Business First of Louisville had a lengthy article on her and her involvement in the bid process for the Games back in January, 2006.
The 2006 elections are over as are the distractions over who we would be working with to make the 2010 Kentucky World Equestrian Games a success. We offer congratulations to Jim Newberry on his win in the Lexington Mayoral race and look forward to working with him.
Mayor Isaac has said she will provide Mayor-Elect Jim Newberry with total support during the transition period which is wonderful news, though we are not surprised by her attitude. Though the Governor’s race won’t be decided for another year and it could prove quite contentious the hope would be that Mayor Newberry would be able to set the direction for what was needed in the way of infrastructure that the outcome of the Governor’s race would not affect all the work that has to be completed in a short time afterwards.
The members of this group believing in the responsibility of citizen’s of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to be active in the betterment of Kentucky, wishes it be known that our goal in supporting the Kentucky World Equestrian Games Organization(KWEGO) is our belief that the endeavors set forth here serve that purpose.
We believe that what is good for the horse community(horses) in Kentucky is good for Kentucky because horses have always been good for Kentucky. Our first mission is to see that the FEI 2010 games are successful both in execution and presentation of the Commonwealth of Kentucky while utilizing tax payer monies in a way that benefits all citizens of the Commonwealth. A key to the success of these games is to educate the citizens of the Commonwealth that these games benefit all Kentuckians not just horse owners and enthusiasts and not just those people local to the Kentucky Horse Park and Lexington.
Our second mission is to develop the Kentucky World Equestrian Games as an ongoing event occurring every 4 years starting in 2015 there by not coinciding with the FEI games or the Summer Olympic games. The future Kentucky World Equestrian Games would continue to show case Kentucky for all the world to see and would continue to bring benefits to the citizen’s of Kentucky for many generations to come.
Our third mission would be to pursue a host bid for the Summer Olympic games with a desired target date of the 2032 or 2036 games. The first two missions would go a long way to show Kentucky’s capability to host a Summer Olympics as well as to establish much of the infrastructure and logistics requirements to win a bid.
Kentucky’s proud heritage has always been interconnected with that of the horse. And going forward it should be expected that our collective well being as citizen’s of the Commonwealth of Kentucky be built on that great foundation that has been so wonderfully laid down by those who have come before us.
