Martin Fuchs may be one of the youngest European Champions there has ever been, but it’s not like he hasn’t been around for a while. When he was just a teen and the World Equestrian Games were taking place in Lexington, Kentucky, Martin was winning individual gold at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. Since then, hardly a year has gone by that did not include a medal of some colour. To date, the tally is 12 medals in 12 years of international championships; perhaps not overly surprising, since the name Fuchs is synonymous with Swiss show jumping. His father, Thomas, competed at the Barcelona Olympics, his mother, Renata, was an elite show jumper, and his uncle Markus represented Switzerland at five Olympics. This particular Fuchs, leading contender for the FEI’s Athlete of the Year, hopes to emulate his great friend and teammate Steve Guerdat and become the first Fuchs to win an Olympic gold.
How many generations of your family have been involved with horses?
My grandfather built everything for the Fuchs family. He was a farmer originally, then he bought a few horses, started a riding school and began dealing horses. All four of his kids, my father and uncle and their sisters, were riding and competing quite successfully from a young age.