August 3, 2024 
Team Germany was the favorite to win team gold in dressage, but they’ve never worked as hard for it as in Paris.
Just 0.121 points separated the top two spots on the podium in Saturday’s Team Final.
The Germans reclaimed team gold with a score of 235.790 in the Grand Prix Special. Denmark took the silver medal on 235.669 with a standout 81.216 performance by Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Freestyle, the only 80+ score on the day. Great Britain took the bronze on 232.492.
It’s Denmark’s second Olympic team medal and Germany’s 15th team gold medal.
Germany has long dominated in dressage, but never as consistently as in their Werth era.
The black, red and gold have won team gold at every Olympic Games since 1984 but one: the London 2012 Olympics. Werth has been on every Olympic team since 1992, but one: also, the London 2012 Olympics.
She has also taken individual medals—one gold and five silver—at every Games.
At age 55 and already the most decorated Olympic equestrian athlete of all time, Werth is now seven for seven in Olympic team gold medals.
“She’s possibly the best fighter for sport we’ve ever seen,” said team bronze medalist Carl Hester (GBR), noting that Werth’s new partnership with Wendy makes their performance in Paris all the more impressive.
“If you haven’t had a long partnership with your horse, you don’t quite know what you’re going to get. But it doesn’t matter what what goes on in there, Isabell still does it.
“Hats off to her. I never try and, match Isabell. She is the undisputed queen of dressage.”
Werth took over the ride on the 10-year-old mare from disgraced Denmark rider Andreas Helgstrand earlier this year. They contested just five shows before the Paris Games, sweeping the CDIO5* division at Aachen last month.
According to Werth, it was a fit from the start:
“It is really a perfect match between us and I think we both feel really confident, which makes it so easy. She’s so uncomplicated.”
In Paris, the pair scored a new personal best in the Grand Prix Special of 79.89. It was just fractionally lower than teammate and defending Olympic champions Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB’s score of 79.954. Frederic Wandres and Bluetooth OLD lead the team off with a 75.942.
“I have to say Wendy is really outstanding and she doesn’t make mistakes, so it was up to me,” said Werth.
“I was a little bit too careful and too much backwards today because in Aachen [their most recent competition] we were a little bit too forward, so those are the little details we have to figure out. But she was so fantastic with the passage and the last centre line and the pirouettes today and everything is really improving.”
Werth will get one more chance in Paris to add to her record-breaking medal collection. The top 18 pairs advance to the Individual Final on Sunday, August 4.
