Horse Illustrated Magazine

Olympic eventing’s final phase, show jumping, took place today at the 2024 Paris Olympics. With sunny skies above and the stunning backdrop of the Grand Canal and the Palace of Versailles behind, it couldn’t have been a better setting for the roughly 16,000 people who filled the stands for two rounds in the arena today.

The first jumping round, in which 58 horses competed, determined team medals and served as an individual qualifier for the final round. When the final rider had gone through the timers in that round, it was Great Britain hanging on for their second gold medal in two successive Olympics (they also won gold in the Tokyo 2020/21 Games). The home nation France proudly claimed their silver hardware and Japan moved up from fourth to win their first-ever team eventing medal.

Twenty-five of the world’s best eventers returned for the final individual round, jumping in reverse order of their accumulated score to determine eventing individual medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Among them were the three Brits who had won the team gold earlier today (Laura Collett and London 52, Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, Rosalind Canter and Lordships Graffalo), and the three from France who had just won team silver (Stephane Landois and Chaman Dumontceau, Nicolas Touzaint and Diabolo Menthe, Karim Florent Laghouag and Triton Fontaine). Beyond that there were two competitors each from Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and the USA. One competitor each from China, Ireland, Switzerland and the Netherlands, completed the group for the finals.

Michael Jung proved once again that he is an equestrian superstar, taking his third Olympic individual gold medal, with Chipmunk FRH. Individual silver went to Australia’s Christopher Burton and Shadow Man; not bad for a guy who had wanted to compete on his country’s show jumping team instead. And, Laura Collett picked up an individual bronze to go with her team gold riding London 52.

Interesting to note that several riders in the final finished on their dressage score (although none of the top three did): Tom McEwen and JL Dublin (GBR) 25.80, fourth; Kazuma Tomoto and Vinci de la Vigne (JPN), 27.40, fifth; Janneke Boonzaaijer and Champ de Tailleur (NED), 31.90, ninth; and Frida Andersen and Box Leo (SWE), 33.30, 12th.

The U.S. Eventing Team finished seventh. Two of the U.S. riders made it to the final individual round, Boyd Martin on Fedarman B (10th) and Elisabeth Halliday on Nutcracker (19th). The third U.S. rider, Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake, did not qualify for the final round, but finished 37th individually.

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

Dressage Begins Tomorrow

As the eventers go home, the dressage specialists will take center stage tomorrow, July 30, in the first of two days of Grand Prix tests. A total of 60 competitors from 30 nations (15 teams of three and 15 individuals) will compete in dressage; 30 compete tomorrow and the final 30 the next day. The nations of India, Lithuania, Moldova and Venezuela will compete in equestrian dressage for the first time in this Olympics.

Then, the dressage horses will have two days off while show jumping begins with their qualifying rounds. The dressage horses return to perform their Grand Prix Special tests on August 3 with 30 starters that day with the team medals to follow. Then, on August 4, the top 18 qualifiers return for the Grand Prix Freestyle to determine individual medals. (Unlike in World Championships where they also award a third set of medals for freestyle, there are only team and individual dressage medals in the Olympics.)

All of the U.S. horses were accepted by the Ground Jury to start competition during yesterday’s (July 28) first horse inspection. Five horses from other countries were sent to the hold box during inspection (Austrian reserve horse Amplemento, Spain’s Malagueno LXXXIII ridden by Jose Daniel Martin Dockx, the French horse Gotilas ridden Corentin Pottier, Polish horse Love Me ridden by Zaneta Skowronska-Kozubik, Moldovian horse Abercrombie ridden by Alisa Glinka). Two were re-inspected and accepted that day (Gotilas and Abercombie), but three (Amplemento, Malagueno LXXXIII and Love Me) were to be represented again the next day. Malagueno LXXXIII and Love Me were finally accepted to compete.

The U.S. Dressage Team members are:

◆ Adrienne Lyle (Wellington, Fla.) and Helix, a 2012 Dutch Warmblood (Apache X Zeester T) gelding owned by Zen Elite Equestrian Center and cared for by Marina Lemay

◆ Marcus Orlob (Loxahatchee, Fla.) and Jane, a 2014 Dutch Warmblood (Desperado x Zandra) mare owned by Alice Tarjan and cared for by Allison Nemeth

◆ Steffen Peters (San Diego, Calif.) and Suppenkasper, a 2008 KWPN (Spielberg x Upanoeska) gelding owned by Four Winds Farm and Akiko Yamazaki and cared for by Eddie Garcia

◆ Traveling Reserve: Endel Ots (Wellington, Fla.) and Bohemian, a 2010 Westphalian (Bordeaux x Sunshine) gelding owned by Zen Elite Equestrian Center and cared for by Caroline Hoerdum.

The U.S. Olympic Dressage Team will be led by Chef d’Equipe Christine Traurig, alongside Team Leader Laura Roberts, and supported by Team Veterinarian Dr. Laura Faulkner, Team Human Physiotherapist Jennifer Mitchell, and Team Farrier Chuck Jones.

Grand Prix dressage runs 11 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Central European Time (5:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time) tomorrow, July 30, and 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Central European Time (4:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time) on Wednesday, July 31. Check NBCOlympics.com for broadcast information.

Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.