August 4, 2024 
There were tears in Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s eyes as she dropped her reins after the final halt in the Grand Prix Freestyle.
An agonizing ten minutes later, the German riders hands flew to her face again in the hitching ring of the Paris Games as the scores for Denmark’s Catherine Laudrup-Dufour and Freestyle, the final combination in the ring, came in. With her individual gold medal was confirmed, an ecstatic von Bredow-Werndl leapt into her husband’s arms.
By the prize giving, her tears were flowing freely. The years of hard work, determination and hope etched on her face as she climbed the top step of the podium once again. von Bredow-Werndl gave a brief disbelieving head shake as the German anthem played at Versailles.
“I’m overwhelmed and exhausted. I had to cry too much today,” said the German rider.
“Today I woke up and I thought, ‘it’s all about trust’. We are enough. I can trust myself. I can trust Dalera, I can trust us and it’s about letting go. This was a mental game change from yesterday to today. I didn’t change anything about the equipment, or about Dalera–about anything.”
“It was just in here,” she said, tapping her head, “[I had] to let go, to trust and to tell her that she is enough.”
Few athletes will ever experience the extremes of pressure and performance that come with defending double gold medals at an Olympic Games, let alone realize accomplishing it.
Just qualifying for the Olympics is the lifelong dream of most international riders. Capturing back to back team and individual gold medals? That’s the stuff of legend.
Only two riders in dressage history have accomplished the feat.
Sweden’s Henri Saint Cyr did it in 1952 and 1956 on two different horses, Master Rufus and Juli. Germany’s Nicole Uphoff did in 1988 and 1992 on Rembrandt.
And now von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB.
More impressive still: the reigning world no. 1 rider has only contested two Olympics.
Just three years ago, von Bredow-Werndl competed in her first Games in Tokyo with TSF Dalera BB and topped both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special to help the Germans to the 14th team gold medal.
They went on to captured individual gold with a whopping freestyle score of 91.732%. It was a performance called “close to perfection” by one judge.
On Sunday, in Paris, the mare now 17 years old, they did it again.
von Bredow-Werndl and Dalera were the top performing pair for Germany in both the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special, clinching the team gold. In the Individual Final, they delivered the only 90 score of the Games riding to their French-themed freestyle music, to reclaim the individual gold medal with a 90.093.
“She knows everything. She’s the most intelligent horse I’ve ever had,” said an emotional von Bredow-Werndl.
“She was 1000% with me. She had no ear or eye anywhere else than me. She was listening so carefully and she really showed me that that’s what she wants to do. This is what it makes me so emotional because I don’t know if I will ever get a horse like her…she is out of this world.”
Countrywoman Isabell Werth took the individual silver, as she has six times before, riding Wendy to an 89.614 score. Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry and Glamourdale secured the bronze with an 89.614.
