Global Champions Tour Marks 20 Years In Valkenswaard
Tops Built The Sport's First Arena
The Global Champions Tour (branded commercially as the Longines Global Champions Tour) returns to Valkenswaard from 4 to 6 September 2026 for a milestone stop in its 20th anniversary season, bringing the circuit back to the Dutch town where Founder and President Jan Tops built the sport's first 5-star arena. Tops, a Dutch former show jumper, won Olympic team gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games riding Top Gun, alongside Piet Raijmakers, Jos Lansink and Bert Romp, and competed across four consecutive Olympics from 1988.
The Global Champions Tour of Valkenswaard 2026 runs at the Tops International Arena (known commercially as the Longines Tops International Arena), the venue Jan Tops created in his home town, which staged its first international 5-star competition in 1994. The Championship, launched by Tops in 2006, has since taken show jumping to Paris, Monaco, Shanghai and Cairo, with the 2026 calendar also featuring Doha, Miami Beach, Mexico City, Madrid, London, Riesenbeck, Rome, the Rabat Finals and the GC Playoffs in Riyadh.
Tops said his riding background shaped the Championship's founding principles. “Over the past 50 years, my time as a rider has shaped everything,” he said. “It gave me a deep understanding of what the sport needed - not just from a competitive point of view, but also in terms of presentation, media and sponsorship opportunities, and long-term sustainability.”
That understanding, Tops said, translated directly into the values underpinning the Tour's launch. “Our values have always been about innovating and working hard to do the maximum for everyone involved in the sport,” he said. “That mindset naturally led to building something that could take the sport to a new level - bringing show jumping to new countries and new audiences.”
The original ambition was to build a genuinely international championship. “The idea behind LGCT was to create a truly global circuit - taking the best riders in the world to iconic locations and presenting the sport at the highest level, while also giving young talent the opportunity to become the stars of the future,” Tops said. Two decades on, that reach spans continents and includes stops built specifically around emerging markets for the sport, among them Doha and Riyadh.
GCL Added A Team Format In 2016
A decade after the Tour's launch, the Global Champions League introduced a team format to the top level of the sport in 2016, following the Belgian Competition Authority's suspension of an FEI exclusivity clause that had previously blocked its launch. The inaugural season featured twelve teams competing for a share of €7.5 million (US$8.7 million) in prize money, beginning in Miami Beach.
“GCL was a natural next step, introducing a team format that added a completely new and exciting dimension,” Tops said. “Innovation has always been at the heart of what we do. The extraordinary journey of LGCT over 20 years and GCL over 10 years is built on solid foundations, based on decades of experience in equestrian sport, and we will continue to innovate for the next 20+ years.”
Tops pointed to the format's influence beyond the Tour's own events. “We are proud that many countries around the world - including Brazil, Africa, Australia, Qatar, the United States and Italy - have taken inspiration from us in the team GCL format,” he said. “We take that as a great compliment.”
GC Playoffs Launched In Riyadh Era
The GC Playoffs, co-created by Tops and American businessman Frank McCourt Jr., launched in 2018 as a season finale combining elite sport with production values new to the sport at the time. “Another breakthrough came in 2018 with the launch of the unique GC Playoffs with entertainment and special effects never before witnessed in show jumping and over €10 million in prize money in one weekend,” Tops said.
The Championship has also expanded its visibility well beyond the arena, building broadcast partnerships that Tops credits alongside the sporting programme itself. Reflecting on the 20-year arc from a single home venue to a multi-continent calendar, he said: “I always believed in the vision and the plan. What we set out to do was create something that could transform the sport - and today, seeing the global reach, fans we have and impact is incredibly rewarding. It has been an extraordinary journey.”
International stars including Harrie Smolders, Maikel van der Vleuten, Scott Brash, Edwina Tops-Alexander, Daniel Deusser, Christian Ahlmann, Simon Delestre, Max Kühner, Pieter Devos, Katrin Eckermann, Victor Bettendorf, Denis Lynch, Olivier Philippaerts, Gregory Wathelet and Sanne Thijssen are set to compete in Valkenswaard this week, a field that underlines how far the Championship has travelled from its first 5-star arena in this same town.