In a nail-biting climax, which saw Team GB clutching onto the lead before the final group of riders, Britain’s Scott Brash and Jefferson pulled off the perfect round, securing coveted gold for the British showjumping squad at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In a thrilling highlight to the equestrian Olympics action so far, Scott was last to go of all the combinations, and managed to finish with just one time penalty, ahead of the silver medal winning team, USA, followed by France who secured bronze.
All three British riders — Scott, Harry Charles and Ben Maher — left the fences on the challenging 1.65m course intact, with just two time penalties in total for the team.
This is only the third time that Britain has won the Olympic team showjumping title, their first victory in Helsinki in 1952 and the last on home ground in London in 2012, when Scott and Ben were also on the team, as well as Harry’s father, Peter.
Ben and Dallas Vegas Batilly were first to go for Team GB and performed an impressive round with just one time penalty. They were the only combination of the first group to leave all the fences up, so Britain was in the lead as compatriot Harry Charles entered the Versailles arena for the second group of riders.
Cool and calm Harry did not disappoint with Romeo 88 and allowed Britain to hold onto their lead with his faultless clear and no time penalties.
Scott entered the arena last, with the USA and France leaving him under plenty of pressure. Just one fence down would have dropped Britain to silver, and more than one out of medal contention.
When asked about winning the second Olympic team gold medal of his career, Scott said:
“A gold medal doesn’t get old! It’s incredible, obviously, to win in London in front of our home crowd, which was one of the best days of my life, but here is right up there. I mean what an unbelievable setting, what a beautiful venue for our sport and facilities for the horses were incredible.”
He explained how he stayed calm amid the huge pressure.
“You’ve got to stay focused on your horse, it’s a partnership, you really need to know your horse inside out to be able to jump that course, it’s technical, it’s big, you’re jumping at the highest level and there’s questions all around that course,” Scott said. “So you really need to know your horse inside out and ride the best way possible for them to jump clear. You stay focused and then try and execute your plan and that’s what I tried to do, and thankfully it paid off.”
Eleven-year-old mare Dallas Vegas Batilly was a last minute switch for Ben from Explosion W, his individual gold medal winning ride from the Tokyo 2020 Games three years ago, in a swap that clearly paid off.
“She’s been very consistent and won already some really good Grand Prix all over the world,” Ben said of the 11-year-old mare. “We did the championship indoors back in April to give us some experience. There were some question marks over my change of horse last-minute but I’m in a very fortunate position, she is the more experienced horse in the stable at the moment and I just felt that she was really on form and ready at the right time, and she’s certainly shown that today.”
Meanwhile 25-year-old Harry was recovering from a recent fracture to his wrist, and it was touch and go if he would be able to compete at the Games. Thankfully he recovered just in time.
Harry said he initially thought today’s course was not too tough, “but that’s how good these course builders are – it rode completely differently to how it walked,” he explained.
“It’s probably much more difficult than yesterday but suited my horse better with striding in between the jumps. He likes to jump from a collected canter rather than an open one, so I could get to most of the jumps in a holding stride which was a big benefit. And I wasn’t really too concerned with the time allowed. He was really quick yesterday, so I thought if I just do my normal pace I should be inside and just was. So I was pretty happy about that.”
Silver for USA and bronze for host nation
Team USA, consisting of Laura Kraut and Baloutineue, Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque, and McClain Ward and Ilex, completed the day with just four faults between them. Laura and McLain were both on the silver-medal winning team in Tokyo three years ago where Laura’s Baloutinue also competed.
Laura said she was surprised by her horse’s single mistake today at the ‘bogey’ triple combination.
“He kind of looked at it a little bit and I had maybe too much momentum, but other than that he didn’t put a foot wrong,” she said. “What’s been really nice is there’s been no eliminations, no disasters, lots of poles down and time faults and they have been very crafty with the time allowed. I felt like I was flying, and I only came in a second and a half under the time, so I think it’s just as you would expect — we’re at the Olympics after all.”
France followed in bronze with Simon Delestre and I Amelusina R 51, Olivier Perreau and Dorai D’Aiguilly, and Julien Epaillard and Dubai du Cedre. The French finished on the same score as The Netherlands, with seven faults on the board, but the hosts claimed the third step of the podium when their combined times were 0.57 seconds faster than the Dutch.
For Olivier, bronze was particularly emotional because he earned it on a homebred mare he has produced himself and who only began to show her real potential over the last year.
“I took her to the European Championship last year and my aim was always to have her here in Paris — I’m so proud of her and so very, very happy,” he said.
British Chef d’Equipe, Di Lampard, reflected this evening on the success of her side.
“The plan has come together after four years and I’m completely overwhelmed,” she said. “They were outstanding, the lads were ice-cool and delivered on the given day. We always put Ben out first, he’s the pathfinder and he’s so good at it. To put Harry in the middle was an obvious one and his clear round was joyous and probably put even more pressure on Scott. But we know he has ice-cold veins and he delivered in real style.”
The showjumping action at the Paris 2024 Olympics continues on Monday (5 August) with the individual qualifier, with the individual final and medal decider the following day (Tuesday 6 August).
Between now and then will be the dressage championships, the Grand Prix Special tomorrow (3 August), followed by the Freestyle on Sunday (4 August). Team GB have qualified for both the team and individual finals.
Images by FEI/Benjamin Clark
