A nearly full stadium watched 16 countries and the top 25 individuals fight for Olympic honours with the stunning Palace of Versailles as a backdrop. Canada finished in 11th position while Great Britain maintained their lead to earn a record-breaking fifth team gold, France earned silver in front of an adoring home crowd, and Japan won bronze, their first Olympic equestrian medal since Jumping gold at the 1932 Los Angles Games.
Jessica Phoenix got the day started off right with a clear round aboard Freedom GS. (Cara Grimshaw photo)
Canada’s day started brightly with Jessica Phoenix and Freedom GS as the first of the team to compete. The paired earned the first clear round of the day, one of only seven entries to do so, and finished in 38th with a score of 67.80.
“Freedom is just such a competitor and she’s so quick and she’s so careful,” gushed Phoenix after the competition, attributing her success to her work at show jumping competitions. “We’ve done a lot of Grand Prix show jumping up to metre-five levels. So for her to go in there at that level, she feels very comfortable and very at home. So it felt like we could really execute the plan, like to the mark. She just loved the French crowd! They are amazing. They’re so loud and I think she feeds off of it.”
Mike Winter and El Mundo were second for Canada and were clear until the last jump to finish in 35th position on a score of 53.60. Winter explained that El Mundo was really strong, which was challenging to manage on course, but was pleased that his horse still had so much energy.
“That he’s that enthusiastic about the job on the last day as he was on the first day, I feel like at least I’ve done something right,” Winter noted. “Maybe I didn’t get a personal best, which is what I came here looking to do, but I’m not that far off that and Canada is definitely in a rebuilding process.”
Karl Slezak and Hot Bobo were Canada’s last to go and although they had a disappointing 12 faults, they were still Canada’s top-placed combination, finishing in 32nd with a score of 52.60.
“I’m thrilled for the whole weekend, obviously would have loved a slightly better result in there today, but just a little tired I think.”
The last time Canada fielded an Eventing team was at the London Olympics in 2012 where they finished 10th. Although the team had aimed to finish eighth at these games, Technical Advisor Rebecca Howard is pleased with the potential she sees in the team.
“We are so close really. They each put in some strong performances, spread out throughout the competition. That is just really the trick with our sport in putting in three solid performances across three different disciplines. So, yes, we were really close in all of them but just a couple mistakes put us further down.
Mike Winter and El Mundo were clear until the last jump to finish in 35th spot. (Cara Grimshaw photo)
“Even though there are some results we were hoping to be better, in the scheme of the program and the scheme of Canada, it is still very much a positive victory for us,” she continued. “They all showed some very strong performances in various phases and I think that will continue to grow as we go into future Championships. These were Games that there was a lot to be happy and proud with these athletes this weekend.”
The Eventing team’s High Performance co-chair Emily Gilbert shared Howard’s views.
“We feel like our goal has been this idea of marginal gains and a positive trajectory for the athletes, for the program, for the technical expertise. Just across the board, it’s about making those marginal gains to improve competitiveness on a global scale, and this is certainly a step in that direction. So, I think for me and for Rebecca, we’re already planning those next steps, already talking about what Nation’s Cups we can get these guys to, and really just making a name for Canada on the global stage again.”
Both agree that building on the team’s performance will require more international exposure. Both riders and their horses need to see more top level competition to achieve the next level of performance.
Team Great Britain (l-r) Ros Canter, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen; individual gold medalist Michael Jung with Chipmunk FRH. (Cara Grimshaw photo)
“We really are wanting to continue to build our international exposure and experience,” explained Howard. “Some of these guys just need more exposure on the international stage. We really hope to have a team at Aachen next year in preparation for the World Championships in two years’ time. Then it’s just building towards LA where we just want this steady increment of progress and consistency of results. We don’t expect to be from here to there overnight and that is fine, but we are confident that steady increase will land us with some strong, consistent results in another few years’ time.”
The team competition finished with Great Britain claiming the gold with a solid lead over the French who earned the silver. The Japanese team earned their first-ever Eventing team medal after an astounding Olympic performance in all three phases and despite incurring 20 penalty points for replacing a rider for the final phase. (Interesting to note that Japan only drew in when China’s Alex Hua Tian tested positive at an event.)
None of the Canadians made it into the individual final, where Germany’s Michael Jung maintained his lead to become the first rider to earn three individual Olympic gold medals. Laura Collette, who made history the first day in dressage with the lowest-ever Olympic dressage score, collected bronze to add to her two team gold medals (she earned her first one in Tokyo). Christopher Burton, who also competes as a show jumper, earned the silver on Shadow Man, a horse loaned to him for the Games.
Results here.
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