Britain Defends Team Gold, Japan Earns First Ever Olympic Medal in Eventing

Just one rail separated the No. 1 and No. 2 teams, Great Britain and France respectively, going into the final day of competition of three-day eventing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Great Britain’s substantial lead was stripped from them on Sunday, when the FEI World No. 1 rider Rosalind Canter and Lordships Graffalo were given 15 penalty points for a missed flag on cross-country at fence 21d.

Despite protesting the penalty, the ground jury kept it in place. This put France in striking distance of securing a gold medal on home turf.

It was a nail-biting day of show jumping: Canter dropped a rail in the team round. French rider Nicolas Touzaint with Diabolo Menthe had two rails.

France’s Karim Florent Laghouag with Triton Fontane and Stephane Landois with Chaman Dumontceau each added a rail (and Landois, some time). British rider Tom McEwen and JL Dublin went double-clear. But Laura Collett and London 52, who is also in contention for an individual gold finish, dropped a rail at the final fence and added a bit of time.

Nonetheless, Great Britain was victorious, retaining their team championship title secured at the Tokyo Games. They were the only team to finish under 100 penalties with a final score of 91.30. France was the silver medal winner on a score of 103.60 and Japan was third on a team score of 115.80.

“He felt incredible,” said McEwen after show jumping. “He was sensational. He was class from start to finish. He jumped his socks off. He’s a great Olympic horse.”

Japan’s historic bronze medal finish was a testament to strong riding across the entire team. And it came about even as the team took on a replacement penalty to bring in another rider Toshiyuki Tanka on Jefferson for the stadium jumping phase.

Two horses were held during the final jog before the jumping competition and Cekatinka, ridden by Ryuzo Kitajima, was withdrawn.

Next up, another round of show jumping will decide the individual rider medalists, as Germany’s Michael Jung and Great Britain’s Collett have now dueled over three days to finish on top individually.

Collett and London 52 broke the Olympic record when they scored a 17.5 in dressage on day one. Jung was always closing in, however, after scoring 17.8 in dressage and going double-clear to take the lead after cross-country. Collett added just two seconds to her score after cross-country, coming into the final day of stadium jumping on a 18.3 score.

Jung and Chipmunk FRH put in a beautiful, balanced performance but dropped one rail in the team round. Collett’s rail and few seconds of time put her into third behind Australia’s Christopher Burton and Shadown Man going into the individual jumping round.

“It’s difficult. The atmosphere is nothing like anything I’ve ever ridden in, the French crowd is extremely noisy,” said Canter after her team round. “It was nerve wrecking honestly.”

American rider Caroline Martin and the mere 9-year-old HSH Blake closed out her Olympic debut in Paris with touching just one rail, to end on a score of 66.80. After some trouble with the ditch on cross-country Sunday, she did not make the cut to join the top 25 to jump again for the individual medal round.

Liz Halliday pumped a fist in the air after jumping clear on Nutcracker just to add a bit of time to her final team score. Boyd Martin and Fedarman B went double-clear in the team show jumping round. Both Halliday and Martin will join the top 25 individual riders in the next round.

Catch up on the final team and individual results for eventing here.