Well ahead of the Olympics in Mexico, Gordon Atkinson began to suspect that Canada would come away with the gold. At the time, all the riders – Jim Day, Jim Elder and Tom Gayford – were doing extremely well in competition, but what was so magical about them was how they operated together.
“As a team, these riders just had such a cohesiveness, such an understanding, of what was required to make a team work,” said Atkinson. “They weren’t just a group of four individuals. I saw the team grow closer together in the months that led up to the Olympics. I saw there was a mutual admiration society going on among the four of them, and among the horses’ owners, and among all their support group, the grooms and the rest of the stable staff. I could just see the entire thing coming together, and each competition just reinforced what I was thinking, that this team would make it.”
So convinced was Atkinson of the team’s probable success that he persuaded the CBC television team, after some strong resistance, to film the equestrian events at the Olympics in their entirety.
“CBC had originally planned not to cover any of the equestrian stuff,” said Atkinson. “But it was the night before the Nations Cup was to begin, and I refused to let anyone go to bed until they’d come to their senses. I said, ‘You do realize that I’ve been saying now for over a year that this team is going to win the gold medal?’ And everybody just replied, “Oh yeah, sure, we’ve heard you shooting off your mouth before.’
“‘But this isn’t shooting off my mouth,’ I replied. ‘It’s based upon a very sound appraisal of the competition, and the only ones we might have to worry about are the Brits, but I don’t think they have the team spirit.’
“Well, to make a long story short, at about two a.m. CBC finally agreed to do it, just to get me off their backs.” ‘Okay,’ they said, ‘We’ll do the whole damned thing.’ I told them that they wouldn’t regret it. We filmed all the competition, and it took 11-12 hours, and there wasn’t one horse or rider that we missed from any nation.”
In the individual jumping, the Americans were victorious, with Bill Steinkraus and Snowbound capturing the gold. Young Marion Coakes of Great Britain and her amazing 14.2-hand pony, Stroller, took the silver, and the bronze went to her countryman David Broome with Mister Softee.
But in the team competition the British did not fare so well. “It had rained the night before and the ground was quite spongy,” Atkinson recalled. “I don’t think Coakes’ horse liked it.” Stroller refused and had a fall, collecting multiple time faults; the British team of three were eliminated. That left Canada, who had been second to the British up to that point, in striking position. And they did not disappoint.
“As the competition unfolded, I kept referring in my broadcast to the ‘ifs’ – if Canada can do this, if Jim Day can do that, if, if, if … then we will have the gold medal. By the end of the first round I said there was no way we were going to leave that site without a medal.
“When Tom Gayford’s horse, Big Dee, came into the ring, I was almost in a panic. But Tom did an absolutely masterful job. The team members were all standing watching at the in-gate and you could just see them willing that horse over the jumps.”
Then it came down to Jim Elder and The Immigrant. “As this pair was going around I was saying, ‘If they knock down two more … one more … we will lose the gold medal. I was just sitting on the edge of my seat; I could hardly contain myself with willing The Immigrant over those jumps. Then, of course, it all happened, and we took the gold medal.”
The team had been faced with considerable adversity, not just from the competition itself, but also from some other unfortunate incidents: Big Dee had suffered a bout of colic a few days earlier and the team rookie, Torchy Millar, had injured his ankle in a fall several weeks before the Olympics, suffering through the pain and not being able to ride during the Nations Cup. “That’s what was so impressive,” recalled Atkinson. “It was just that sacrificing of personal ambition for the ambition of the team. That aspect, to me, came out more strongly than anything else.
“It was a great moment, and when they played our national anthem, I had tears streaming down my face. I’ll never forget it. I was just so proud of them all.”
