Top course designer Roger Haller has died at the age of 70 ©USEA

Roger Haller, designer of the eventing course for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, has died at the age of 70, it has been announced.

The American, who also designed the course for the 1978 International Equestrian Federation (FEI) World Championships in Kentucky, died on Wednesday (March 30) from cancer.

Haller was a former vice-chair and member of the FEI Eventing Committee and an FEI technical delegate.

He played a major role in the evolution of the sport and, as a member of the FEI Eventing Committee, played a key role in the redrafting of the discipline rules, including the introduction of the star-system for international events.

Haller had started competing in equitation classes at the age of nine and was riding at the United States equestrian team headquarters by the time he was 17.

In 1972, he was selected as the alternate rider for the US Olympic squad in Munich and was also shortlisted for the 1974 FEI World Championships on Golden Griffin.

He served as vice-president of the United States Eventing Association (USEA) and was a long-standing member of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) High Performance Committee, the USEF Licensed Officials Committee, and the USEF Eventing Technical Committee, serving as its chairman for two years.

He was also executive director of the Pan American Equestrian Confederation’s General Assembly.

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Roger Haller designed the eventing course for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta ©Getty Images

The high point of his career, though, was designing the course for Atlanta 1996 at International Horse Park in Conyers in Georgia.

New Zealand's Blyth Tait on Ready Teddy won the gold medal in the individual event and Australia claimed the team title. 

The USEA acknowledged Haller's contribution to the sport in 2012 when they inducted him into their Hall of Fame.

“Roger was hugely influential in the development of the sport of Eventing”, FEI Eventing and Olympic director Catrin Norinder said.

“Roger’s contribution to Eventing as an FEI Official has been invaluable.

"During his four-year term on the FEI Eventing Committee he established the blueprint for a much more direct cooperation between technical delegates and organising committees, and was instrumental in the redrafting of the rules book and the development of Continental Cups for eventing.

"He was such a great character with a really wonderful sense of humour.

"He will be sadly missed by all of us in the eventing community.”