Horse Illustrated Magazine

The 33rd modern Olympics being hosted by Paris is fitting since the city will host the Games for a third time in 2024. Paris first hosted the Olympics in 1900, then again 100 years ago in 1924 and both years have significant ties to equestrian sports. Hosting for the third time ties Paris with London at the top of the list in number of times a city has hosted the Games.

The year 1900 was the first modern Olympics to include horse sports. Although records indicate the ancient Olympics in Greece did include horse racing and chariot racing, the first modern Games in 1896 did not have any horse events.

Four years later, the 1900 Games staged five Olympic-medal equestrian events, as well as exhibition polo matches (with four mixed teams of players from Great Britain, France, Mexico, Spain and the United States). The five Olympic-medal contests were: individual jumping; high jump; long jump; hacks and hunter combined (included a flat class followed by a course of jumps), and mail coach (driving).

For more news, visit our 2024 Paris Olympics main page.

Five nations competed in those 1900 Olympic jumping events, with three more (Germany, Spain and Austria) in the driving classes. Interestingly, even though we think of female riders competing for the first time in the Olympics at a much later time (the 1950s), there were three female riders who competed in 1900, all in the “hacks and hunter combined” event: Italian Elvira Guerra and Frenchwomen Jane Moulin and Blanche de Marcigny.

In 1924 at the second Paris Olympics, equestrian competition took on a look more akin to today’s disciplines. And, that year marked the appearance of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) as the governing body for the international equestrian sports. Dressage (individual medals only), eventing (individual and team medals), and show jumping (individual and team medals) were contested. Seventeen nations fielded equestrian teams and a total of 97 riders and 126 horses competed.

Notably, the 1924 Olympics marked the the first-ever Olympic individual equestrian medal for the USA when U.S. Army Major Sloan Doak won individual bronze in eventing aboard Pathfinder. He also competed in eventing in the 1920 and 1928 Olympics and was multi-talented, competing in the dressage competition at the 1920 Games and in show jumping in the 1920 and 1924 Games as well. Later, he served as the Chairman of the Olympic Equestrian Jury, the first American to serve in that capacity. He was co-designer for the Olympic show jumping course at the 1932 Olympics.

This was also the first year that an Olympic Games was broadcasted live. They used the Eiffel Tower as a radio broadcasting structure to report on the competition. The show jumping and eventing jumping that year were held in the Olympic Stadium in Paris.

Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.