July 15, 2024 
Sandra Auffarth is the stuff of eventing legend.
At age 37, the German rider has contested three Olympic Games and laid claim to a compete set of medals. Auffarth took home team gold and individual bronze in 2012, team silver in 2016, and finished just off the team podium (4th) at Tokyo 2020.
Later this month, she’ll attempt to add to her count in Paris aboard her Tokyo Games partner, 15-year-old Selle Francais gelding Viamant du Matz.
And that’s just a fraction of her medal collection.
Auffarth also has team and individual gold medals from the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games. She won team gold at the 2022 World Championships in Pratoni. And she has six medals—two team gold and one silver and two individual silver and one bronze—from the European championships as well.
In short, she’s a champion. And then some.
But if Auffarth was looking for a boost of confidence heading into the Paris Games, she found it this weekend in Falsterbo, Sweden. The German rider won her first 5* title—in show jumping.
That’s right. Auffarth is not just an eventing superstar. Like her Paris teammate Michael Jung, she also competes at the highest level in show jumping on occasion. And by “on occasion” we mean precisely six times prior and that she currently has one horse capable of jumping the height. (Jumpr stats.)
Sunday’s CSI5* Agria Grand Prix 1.60m in Sweden wasn’t an un-jumpable track that one pair managed to squeak through, either.
Of the 42 starters, 11 advanced to the jump off and two jumped double clear. Auffarth and Quirici H stopped the clock in 52.56 seconds. Their closest runner ups were Olympians Cian O’Connor (IRL) and Fancy de Kergane in 53.62 and Abdel Saïd (BEL) on Figueras de Laume on one time fault in 62.36.
In fact, only three riders posted faster times—among them, speed demon Daniel Coyle on Incredible (51.81) and world no. 1 Henrik von Eckermann on Iliana (52.03). Which is to say, she was in good company.
And beat it.
