Check out Horse Illustrated’s latest updates from the 2024 Paris Olympics on equestrian sports for the three disciplines of dressage, eventing, and show jumping.
◆ U.S. Olympic Eventing Team ◆ U.S. Olympic Dressage Team ◆ U.S. Olympic Jumping Team
Photo courtesy US Equestrian
The Paris 2024 Olympic equestrian stadium on the grounds of the French Palace of Versailles has gone quiet for now. The throngs of spectators, and the riders, grooms, officials and horses have all gone home to rest. Over the last two weeks, the competition has been top-notch and the setting breathtaking.
In less than a month’s time, the world’s top para-dressage riders and horses, and their entourages, will once again fill the stadium during the Paralympics. After that, the task for Games organizers will be to restore the grounds to original condition―pristine parkland.
But for just one more moment, let’s savor the Paris 2024 Olympic Games equestrian action. Here’s a recap of what was.
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Photo courtesy FEI/Benjamin Clark
The 2024 Paris Olympics equestrian competition closed with the Show Jumping Individual Final today, a dramatic end to 11 days of equestrian competition here at the Château de Versailles southwest of Paris. The huge course, co-designed by Santiago Varela Ullastres from Spain and Grégory Bodo from France, was higher, wider, longer and required a faster pace than previous courses in the last week.
Photo by Cealy Tetley
The 30 riders returning for the 2024 Paris Olympics individual jumping final today faced a really tough track co-designed by Santiago Varela from Spain and Grégory Bodo from France―higher, wider, longer and requiring a faster pace. Only three went double clear in the first round, requiring a jump-off for medals: Germany’s Christian Kukuk on Checker 47; the Netherlands’ Maikel van der Vleuten on Beauville Z, and Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat on Dynamix de Belheme.
When the last fence of the jump-off had been jumped, the medals were set: Kukuk gold, Guerdat silver, and van der Vleuten bronze. The USA’s Laura Kraut was eighth with Baloutinue and Karl Cook was 16th with Caracole de la Roque.
In an exciting first day of individual show jumping competition, two of the three U.S. riders qualified to move on to the Paris 2024 Olympics individual jumping finals tomorrow. Seventy-three riders attempted the course co-designed by Santiago Varela from Spain and Grégory Bodo from France today.
Two U.S. riders qualified for to tomorrow’s Paris 2024 Olympics show jumping final: Karl Cook aboard Caracole de la Roque, and Laura Kraut aboard Baloutinue.
The final day of the Paris 2024 Olympic dressage schedule dawned blessedly cool and a bit overcast, in the high 60s (Fahrenheit), a nice break after the extreme heat and humidity of the Grand Prix Test days last week. Earlier this morning, all 18 horses to go in today’s Grand Prix Freestyle Test were inspected by the Ground Jury again for fitness to compete and all were accepted without issue.
So the stage was set for an enjoyable day of dancing in the sand. With the gorgeous backdrop of the Palace of Versailles (with its glittering fountains and manicured gardens) shining behind the entrance at A, the day felt a bit like attending a classical ballet performance in one of the great halls. The huge crowd was ready. The first horse and rider, Patrik Kittel and Touchdown, had warmed up and stepped into the arena. Anticipation and excitement filled the air.
Dressage competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics concluded this afternoon with riders from Germany taking the top two of the three individual medals and Great Britain taking bronze. Reigning Olympic Champions from Tokyo 2020/21, Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and the amazing 17-year-old Trakehner mare TSF Dalera BB repeated in wining gold here in Paris, finishing on a score of 90.093 percent. The pair rode to a medley of French songs in a nod to the host city Paris.
The top ten dressage teams, based on scores in the Grand Prix Test competition from July 30 and 31, returned to the main arena for the FEI Grand Prix Special Test here at the Château de Versailles today for the 2024 Paris Olympics. After a string of four hot, humid days dotted with intermittent thunderstorms, the skies were mostly overcast (but without rain) and temps were in the high 60s (Fahrenheit) when competition began. The stands were full to witness today’s battle for team medals.
In a close finish, Germany secured a third straight gold medal in dressage and 15th ever in Olympic history.
The U.S. Jumping Team captured their third consecutive Olympic silver medal today in the Show Jumping Team Final here at the Château de Versailles in France. In addition to Paris 2024, they also won silver in the Tokyo 2020/21 Olympics Games and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. Great Britain won gold today with a total of two penalties (their last Olympic jumping team medal was gold in 2012 in London). Home country France took the bronze on a score of seven penalties (their last Olympic show jumping medal was gold in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro).
In an exciting finish to the 2024 Paris Olympics team show jumping final, Great Britain’s riders all jumped clear, but incurred two time penalties to grab the gold ahead of the U.S. team, who captured silver with only four penalties. The home nation, France, finished on seven penalties for bronze.
Laura Kraut and Baloutinue, the lead-off pair for the USA, brought down only one rail and stayed within the time allowed to start the U.S. team out with four faults. The USA’s Karl Cook riding Caracole de la Roque, the middle rider to go for the U.S. team this afternoon, jumped clear and was the fastest (75.88) for the team. Team anchor rider McLain Ward on Ilex jumped clear as well in 76.57 to add no penalties to the team’s score.
Changes were announced to the U.S. Show Jumping Team roster for today’s 2024 Paris Olympics Jumping Team Qualifier Class before the sun came up (at 3:55 a.m.). US Equestrian (USEF) issued a press release saying that, due to a slight allergic reaction, Kent Farrington’s mare Greya would be replaced.
This did not deter the American team, though, as they posted the second best score in the qualifier. With that, they will advance to compete against nine other countries in tomorrow’s Jumping Team Final.
With great rides by all three U.S. riders, the U.S. Show Jumping Team here at the 2024 Paris Olympics have qualified to move into tomorrow’s jumping finals on a score of only 6 faults. They were the second best team in the rankings today, behind Germany who finished in the top spot on zero faults.
US Equestrian has announced a pre-competition change prior to the start of team competition for the U.S. Olympic Jumping Team today at Versailles. Kent Farrington and Greya will be replaced by Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque for today’s Team Qualifier competition, which begins at 11:00 a.m. GMT+2/5:00 a.m. ET.
“There is a small question mark with Greya, which is allergy related, and erring on the side of extreme caution and with the no drop score in the format, we have made the decision to bring in Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque,” said Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland.
Photo by Allen MacMillan/MacMillan Photography
Tomorrow, Thursday, August 1, is the 2024 Paris Olympics show jumping debut, beginning with the team qualifier. There will be 20 teams of three riders each for a total of 60 competing in the qualifier class. Competition runs from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Central European Time (5:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time).
Then, the next day, Friday, August 2, is the jumper team finals and medal ceremony. For the team final, the number is whittled down to 10 teams of three for a total of 30 riders. Competition runs 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Central European Time (8:00 a.m. -10:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time).
Then the jumpers will take two days off while the dressage horses finish up. Finally, jumping returns to close out the 2024 Paris Olympics equestrian competition with the individual qualifier (75 starters) on Monday, August 5, 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. CET (8:00 a.m. – Noon U.S. ET) with the individual final (30 riders) and medal ceremony on Tuesday, August 6, from 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CET (4:00 a.m. – 6:30 a.m. U.S. ET).
Photo by Sarah Miller/MacMillan Photography
As the calendar closed on July 2024, so did the Paris 2024 Olympics schedule for Grand Prix Dressage. Day two of competition saw more international stars enter the ring at the Château de Versailles and the level of energy ramped up even further as did the scores. Luckily the day wasn’t quite as hot as yesterday, but after a grey start this morning, the sun did reappear and temperatures soared near 88.
Three more groups (D, E, and F) of ten horse and rider combinations took their turn performing the FEI Grand Prix Test, which serves as both a team and individual qualifier. The team medals will be decided by the Grand Prix Special (top ten teams including any ties for tenth place qualified from today) on Saturday, August 3. Then, the top 18 horse and rider combinations (including any ties) after today will return to contest individual medals in the Grand Prix Freestyle on Sunday, August 4.
Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and the Trakehner mare TSF Dalera BB wowed the judges again today, scoring 82.065 percent for the best Grand Prix score of both days of dressage competition here at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Not only did this put them in good stead going into the individual medal competition in next Sunday’s Grand Prix Freestyle competition, but it boosted the German dressage team past Denmark in the team standings. The Germans sit on 237.546 going into the team medal finals, the Grand Prix Special Test, on Saturday.
On day one of Grand Prix Dressage at the 2024 Paris Olympics, thirty horse and rider combinations from 19 countries took their turns performing the FEI Grand Prix test in the arena, including two from the USA, Marcus Orlob and Jane and Adrienne Lyle and Helix. The riders competed in three groups of 10 each with each group being assigned a letter (A, B, C). Other countries represented today were: Australia; Austria; Belgium; Brazil; Canada; Denmark; France; Finland; Great Britain; Germany; Ireland; Lithuania; the Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Singapore; Sweden, and Venezuela.
Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg Merrald and Zepter topped the leaderboard.
With the elimination of U.S. rider Marcus Orlob aboard Jane, the U.S. team has also been eliminated. Now, Adrienne Lyle (Helix) and Steffen Peters (Suppenkasper) will compete as individuals only.
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.
Great Britain took team gold in eventing for the second Olympics in a row. In individual competition, Michael Jung made history by becoming the first eventer to ever win three individual gold medals.
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.
Germany’s superstar equestrian Michael Jung etched his name into the record books again today by winning his third Olympic individual eventing gold medal, the first person in Olympic history to do so. His three gold medals came riding only two horses, first La Biosthetique-Sam FBW (London 2012 and Rio 2016), then this year on Chipmunk FRH.
Great Britain held on to win gold in team eventing this afternoon at the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning by 12.3 points (91.3) over France in silver position (103.6). Tom McEwen and JL Dublin jumped double clear for Great Britain to finish on their dressage score of 25.8, while their overall scoring top rider, Laura Collett aboard London 52, dropped one rail and added 0.8 time faults to finish on 23.1. Rosalind Canter and Lordships Graffalo dropped one rail, but jumped within the time to finish on 42.4.
After two days of rain here in the Île-de-France at the 2024 Paris Olympics, it was sunny and cool-ish with temps beginning in the high 50s and ending the day near 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) yesterday during the cross-country phase of eventing. Although there was plenty of mud in the walking paths for the estimated over 40,000 spectators arriving here, the galloping track on course looked to be fairly nice―not too hard, not too muddy, but perhaps sticky in a couple of spots.
As always in this sport, especially with the current super-intense format of Olympic eventing, the story of the day boiled down to “it was the best of times and worst of times” to paraphrase Charles Dickens. There were some spectacular rounds, the current leader Germany’s Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH among them; they pulled ahead of Great Britain’s Laura Collett and London 52 by 0.5 going double clear when Collett and London had 0.8 time penalties.
With the stunning backdrop of the Palace of Versailles, eventers took to the cross-country course for the second day of eventing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Two-time Olympic individual gold medalist Michael Jung (GER), riding Chipmunk FRH, now tops the individual leaderboard as Great Britain holds onto its lead in team rankings. The U.S. Eventing Team is now ninth, with Boyd Martin aboard Fedarman B the top-ranked American rider in 17th.
Olympic records were broken during the team and individual eventing dressage competition today at the Palace of Versailles, located about half an hour southwest of Paris, during the 2024 Paris Olympics. Home to several generations of French kings, and now the venue for equestrian sports in the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, the iconic chateau and manicured gardens served as a beautiful backdrop behind letter A of the dressage arena. Though rain fell the entire day, crowds still mostly filled the stands by midday and few left early.
For the first time in recent memory, and perhaps ever, the eventing dressage competition was completed all on one day. Sixty-four horse and rider combinations from 27 different countries cantered down centerline from 9:30 a.m. until just after 6 p.m.
The day was soggy and grey, but the competition today in the 2024 Paris Olympics eventing dressage phase was as hotly contested as it gets. Two horse and rider combinations, Laura Collett (GBR) on London 52, and Michael Jung (GER) on Chipmunk FRH, bested the Olympic record score set in 2000 at the Sydney Olympic Games by gold medalists David O’Connor and Custom Made (USA).
Team USA sits in sixth with a 88.9. The top rider for the USA was Elisabeth Halliday on Nutcracker; they currently stand in 19th place (28.0). Second best scorers for the USA were Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake in 25th (30.4). Boyd Martin and Federman B scored (30.5) for 26th.
The good news is that all of the U.S. Olympic Eventing Team horses (including their reserve horse) presented this morning at the Olympic equestrian venue in Versailles passed the first inspection today. The bad news is that the last two days here in France have been a roller coaster of ups and downs for the members of the U.S. Olympic Eventing Team, with Will Coleman having to withdraw. Traveling reserve pair Liz Halliday and Cooley Nutcracker have now moved onto the team, and Sydney Elliot and QC Diamantaire will now become the traveling reserve combination.
US Equestrian has announced a change to the U.S. Olympic Eventing Team prior to the start of competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Traveling reserve combination Liz Halliday and Cooley Nutcracker will move into the three-member team, replacing Will Coleman and Diabolo.
Check out the full schedule of equestrian sports at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Find times listed in Central European Time (Paris local time) and then converted to U.S. Eastern Time. Equestrian competition will take place July 27 through August 6.
The Olympic torch is currently winding its way through France on the way to the “City of Lights” to ignite the cauldron on the evening of July 26 during the opening of the 33rd Modern Olympiad in Paris. Meanwhile, in national equestrian federation offices and training stables around the world, strategies are being formed for the best possible performances at the Olympics. It’s all about representing one’s country, achieving personal bests, and Olympic dreams now. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games take place July 26-August 11 (with equestrian events July 26-August 6).
Read on to find out who’s representing Team USA, which competitors to watch, schedule details, how to watch, and more.
US Equestrian is pleased to announce the athlete-and-horses combinations selected to represent the U.S. Olympic Jumping Team as a part of Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, to be held in Versailles, France, from July 27 – August 9, 2024. The jumping competition will begin on August 1, 2024, and continue through August 6, 2024, at the equestrian grounds of Versailles.
The athlete-and-horse combinations are Kent Farrington and Greya; Laura Kraut and Baloutinue; McLain Ward and Ilex; and the traveling reserves, Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque.
US Equestrian is pleased to announce the four athlete-and-horse combinations selected to represent the United States as a part of Team USA at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games hosted from July 26 – August 11, 2024. The dressage competition will begin on July 30, 2024, and continue through August 4, 2024, at the equestrian grounds of Versailles.
The athlete-and-horse combinations are Adrienne Lyle and Helix; Marcus Orlob and Jane; Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper; and the traveling reserves, Endel Ots and Bohemian.
US Equestrian is pleased to announce the athlete-and-horse combinations selected to represent the U.S. Olympic Eventing Team at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games hosted from July 26 – August 11, 2024. Eventing competition will be the first equestrian discipline on the overall Paris 2024 sporting schedule and held at the equestrian grounds of Versailles, beginning on Saturday, July 27, and concluding on Monday, July 29.
The athlete-and-horse combinations are William Coleman and Off The Record (direct reserve Diabolo); Boyd Martin and Fedarman B (direct reserve Commando 3); Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake; traveling reserve Elisabeth Halliday and Cooley Nutcracker; and various team alternates.
Get ready for the Games with these Olympic equestrian fun facts and trivia. You’ll enjoy interesting tidbits of history about equestrian sports at the Olympic Games, from the early days of modern Games to more recent years of competition.
The Olympic equestrian competition, as well as the pentathlon, will all take place at the iconic Château de Versailles estate (Palace of Versailles). Not since the London 2012 Olympics, when the Queen’s House and Greenwich Park hosted equestrian sports, has an Olympic venue backdrop been so breathtaking. Learn more about the venue and its history.
A member of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) team since 2011, Hallye Griffin was appointed as the Director of FEI Sport in March 2023. With that role, she assumed position as Chef de Mission at the Olympic, Paralympic, and Pan American Games, as well as the FEI World Championships. In taking this post, Griffin has made history as the first female US Equestrian Chef de Mission.
Horse Illustrated had a quick chat with Griffin ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics to discuss this year’s Games and what her role as Chef de Mission entails.
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. Dive deeper to Olympic history’s ties to both Paris and horse sports.
Making her third Olympic appearance for the U.S. Olympic Dressage Team, Adrienne Lyle will arrive in Paris with two new additions: her new mount, Helix, and her 9-month-old daughter, Bailey. A 2012 Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by Zen Elite Equestrian Center and cared for by Marina Lemay, Helix was purchased with the Olympics in mind for Lyle in late 2023. The horse and rider team competed together on just a handful of occasions in spring 2024, but quickly made it clear that they make for an impressive duo.
Horse Illustrated had a quick chat with Lyle ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics to discuss this year’s Games.
Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.
Horse Illustrated is the magazine for people who are passionate about horses. Each issue offers advice on horse health and care, plus user-friendly training tips for both English and western riders and engaging lifestyle features for horse lovers.
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