March 17, 2022 
Each week on #HallOfFameThursday, Horse Network recognizes members of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame with an inductee’s plaque, historical photos and, on the first Thursday of every month, an historic article about a Show Jumping Hall of Famer. This week’s featured inductee, in celebration of Women’s History Month, is Mary Mairs Chapot, Class of 1992.
Mary Mairs Chapot has a number of “firsts” to her credit.
She was the first West Coast rider to win the ASPCA Maclay Championship; the first woman to win a Pan American Games Gold Medal; the first woman (with Kathy Kusner) to ride for the United States in the Olympic Games, in 1964; and she teamed with Frank Chapot as the first husband-wife combination to ride for the United States Equestrian Team (USET).
Chapot was a pupil of Jimmy Williams. In 1960, she won both the Maclay and AHSA Medal Championships, the first woman and still one of only a few to have done so. One year later, at the age of 17, she became the youngest woman to ride for the USET.
Internationally, Chapot achieved her greatest success riding the great mare Tomboy. In 1963, the pair won individual and team Gold Medals at the Pan American Games in Sao Paulo, Brazil; in 1965, they won the first U.S. Grand Prix, in Cleveland. Riding White Lightning, Chapot earned a team Silver Medal at the 1967 Pan American Garnes in Winnipeg.
Chapot rode on twenty-two winning Nations’ Cup squads. Her many individual triumphs include the Imperial Cup, John Player Cup, and Queen Elizabeth Cup in England, in addition to wins at Lucerne, Essen, Wiesbaden, and Ostend. She won consistently on the North American indoor circuit from 1962 through 1968, and she won the Grand Prix at The National Horse Show in 1966 and 1968. In 1963 she was named American Horse Shows Association Horsewoman of the Year and Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year.
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