Great Britain is the favorite to win Eventing team gold in the Paris Olympics (2)
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July 25, 2024
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By Staff Writers
PARIS, France--The defending champions from Great Britain are trying to become the first ever five time Eventing team gold medalist when the equestrian events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games begin July 27.
Boyd Martin on Fedarman B at Kentucky 4* (Photo by Beth Harham)The British victory in Tokyo three years ago was followed by their complete domination at the European Championship 2021 in Avenches, Switzerland a few months later where they won team gold and the entire set of individual medals.
At the World Championship in Praton, Italy in 2022, the team had to settle for fourth place, but 25-year-old Yasmin Ingham on Banzai du Loir claimed the individual title.
They then won team gold and individual gold and silver at last summer’s European Championship in France.
The team in Paris includes world number one Rosalind Canter riding Lordships Graffalo, Laura Collett on London 52, Tom McEwen on JL Dublin and Ingham and Banzai du Loir as reserves.
Canter’s 12-year-old gelding Lordshhips Graffalo won the coveted Badminton trophy in May 2023 before taking the individual European gold three months later, Collett and her 15-year-old gelding were on the gold medal winning team in Tokyo in 2021, posted a record winning score at Badminton in 2022 and won Luhmühlen 5* last June before becoming European team gold medallists in August.
McEWEN was also in the victorious Tokyo team three years ago with Toledo de Kerser and this time is riding the 13-year-old gelding JL Dublin that carried compatriot Nicola Wilson to European double-gold in 2021.
Caroline Pamukcu on HSH Blake at the Pan Am Games (Photo by Sarah Miller)
The new pairing got off to a flying start last year when runners-up at 5* Lexington in April, parted company at the European Championship in August, finished third at 5* Pau in September and were second again at Lexington this year.
No matter how strong Great Britainlooks, the Olympic three-per-team with no drop-score format, first introduced in Tokyo three years ago, will ensure they will have to be at their very best from the outset in Paris.
And they have plenty of super-tough competition.
Like Great Britain, Germany has four Olympic team gold medals, and when Julia Krajewski won individual gold with Amande de B’Neville in Tokyo she was the first female rider to do so.
She is back on the tram again in Paris following the late withdrawal of Sandra Auffarth’s Viamant du Matz, and joins Christoph Wahler on Carjatan S and Michael Jung on Chipmunk FRH as they also try for that record first five-time team victory.
Jung is likely to be particularly hungry for success, as the man who took double-gold in London in 2012 and team silver along with the individual title again in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 has been out of luck at more recent championships.
Will Coleman on Diabolo in Kentucky 4* (Photo by Allen MacMillan)
Krajewski’s brilliant mare, Amande de B’Neville, was retired after winning that historic individual gold in Tokyo and then carrying her to team gold and individual silver at the 2022 World Championship.
Originally the team reserve, she has moved onto the team with the talented 10-year-old gelding Nickel 21 with which she won the CCIO4*-S at Aachen earlier this month.
Wahler and Carjatan were on both the world championship winning team in 2022 and the silver medal winning team at last year’s European Championship.
Australia won team silver in Tokyo and they return with two of the same combinations in Kevin McNab on Don Quidam and Shane Rose on Virgil, while completing the team is Christopher Burton riding Shadow Man.
Rose’s reputation for courage and tenacity, even when the odds are stacked high against him, is second to none.
He rides Virgil in Paris who he rode to 10th place individually in Tokyo having previously won team silver at the Beijing 2008 Games and bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
McNab and Don Quidam finished 14th individually in Tokyo while third team member, Christopher Burton, joined Rose on that bronze medal winning team in Rio eight years ago before turning to the Jumping discipline in 2022.
However when offered the ride on British eventer Ben Hobday’s Shadow Man in the spring of this year, he turned his focus back to Eventing, and he will be riding in his third Games.
The French won team bronze in Tokyo and field two members of that team who are also former gold medallists.
It’s the same team of riders that took bronze at last year’s European Championship but there is one change of horse, as this time 2004 team champion Nicolas Touzaint rides the 11-year-old Diabolo Menthe.
Rio 2016 gold medallist Karim Florent Laghouag will ride his Tokyo 2020 mount Triton Fontaine, and completing the team will be Stephan Landois on Chaman Dumontceau, who joined Touzaint and Laghouag to win the European bronze last summer on home ground at Haras du Pin.
There are many more strong nations also bidding for a place on the podium including the USA and New Zealand, who took world championship silver and bronze respectively in 2022, and many exciting individuals too.
Will Coleman is ridng Diabolo, who won the Kentucky 4 star this spring, Boyd Martin will ride Fedarman B, who was fourth in Kentucky, and Caroline Pamukcu is on HSH Blake, who was fifth in Kentucky after winning individual and team gold at the pan Am Games last year.
So the stage is set for a fascinating three days of superb sport starting with Dressage on Saturday,July 27, which will be followed by Cross-Country on Sunday, July 28 and the final Jumping phase on Monday, July 29.
Eventing has already stolen the spotlight at these Games.
Two weeks ago Thibaut Vallette, who joined Laghouag on that gold-medal-winning team in 2016, carried the Olympic Torch through Paris in an emotional celebration on Bastille Day dressed in full uniform and flanked by other horsemen from the world-famous Cadre Noir.
It was a symbolic image and a fitting tribute to the enduring legacy of Eventing which has been embedded in the story of the Olympic program for well over a century.
Eventing has been an Olympic sport since 1912.
The Team and Individual competitions will run concurrently over three consecutive days from July 27 to 29.
TThe Dressage Test is the 2024 Olympic Games 5* test (short).
The top 25 will qualify for the Individual Jumping Final which will take place after the Team Jumping Final on July 29.
Horses can be substituted for the team competition, and a horse/rider combination may be substituted by a reserve combination for medical/veterinarian reasons in any of the three tests after the start of the competition.
Substitution will incur a penalty for the team of 20 points., and one substitution per team is permitted.
The rider rides the same horse throughout all three tests for the Individual classification.
There will be two horse inspections - on Friday, July 26, the day before the Dressage phase begins, and on July 29 before the final Jumping phase takes place.
A drawn starting order will be used for the Dressage and Cross-Country tests, but in the final Jumping test horse/athlete combinations will go in reverse order of merit.
Some Facts and Figures:
27 countries
16 teams
65 horse/rider combinations
11 countries represented by individuals
Australia, Germany, Great Britain and USA share the biggest number of team victories in Olympic Eventing history with four each.
Australia, victors in Rome in 1960, has the unique record of winning three team titles in a row - at Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996 and on home ground in Sydney in 2000.
Team Great Britain are the defending Olympic team champions.
Sweden claimed a hat-trick of team gold. Their last victory was posted in Helsinki in 1952.
Both France and The Netherlands have claimed the team title twice while Italy stood top of the team podium just once, in Tokyo in 1964 when team member Mauro Checcoli and Surbean also clinched individual gold.
Germany holds the record for most individual Olympic Eventing titles with a total of five.
The first German rider to win was Ludwig Stubbendorf, who rode Nurmi to victory in Berlin in 1936.
German riders have won all of the last four Olympic individual titles - Hinrich Romeike, riding Marius, won in Beijing in 2008, Michael Jung and Sam won at both London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Julia Krajewski on Armande de B’Neville won in Tokyo three years ago.
When the Olympic Games were last staged in Paris in 1924, The Netherlands won team gold and team member Adolph van der Voort van Zijp won the individual title on Silver-Piece.
History was made when the USA’s Lana du Pont was the first woman to compete in an Olympic three-day event in Tokyo in 1964.
Julia Krajewski made history as the first female rider to win the Olympic individual Eventing gold at the Tokyo 2020 Games held in 2021.
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a total of 23 female riders (31.51%) will compete in Eventing alongside 42 (68.49%) male athletes.
Germany’s Michael Jung is one of three back-to-back individual Olympic Eventing champions.
The first was The Netherlands Charles Pahud de Mortanges who rode Marcroix to victory on home ground in Amsterdam in 1928 and again in Los Angeles four years later.
Kiwi legend, Sir Mark Todd, was back-to-back champion with Charisma in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988.
Jung recorded his back-to-back double in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The Officials
Technical Delegate: Marcin Konarski (POL)
Assistant Technical Delegate: Gaston Bileitczuk (FRA)
Ground Jury President: Christina Klingspor (SWE)
Ground Jury Members:
Xavier Le Sauce (FRA)
Robert Stevenson (USA)
Course Designer: Pierre Le Goupil (FRA)
Countries fielding teams:
Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.
Countries fielding individuals:
Austria, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, South Africa and Spain.
Complete List of Nations:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.
A total of 81 horses, including alternates, came before Ground Jury President Christina Klingspor (SWE) and Ground Jury Members Xavier Le Sauce (FRA) and Robert Stevenson (USA) at this morning’s first Horse Inspection which began with some gentle rain in the air.
The U.S. Olympic Eventing Team drew sixth in the order out of 16 international teams, with Caroline Pamukcu of Springtown, Pa., on HSH Blake slated to lead off the team, going sixth overall at 4:00 a.m. ET.
