December 11, 2024 
Barry Bonds. Michelle Kwan. Jim Kelly.
Three of the greatest athletes in their respective sports during their respective eras. And yet, all three missed out on a coveted major championship win.
Barry Bonds set records for the most home runs in a career, a single season, and alongside base stealing—but never won a World Series with the San Francisco Giants. Five-time World Champion Michelle Kwan took silver and bronze Olympic figure skating medals, but was plagued with injuries at the 2006 Winter Games and never earned her gold.
And Bills quarterback Jim Kelly famously led his team to four, consecutive, Super Bowl appearances, but never took the title in the early 90s—a sore spot that can still get you kicked out of certain bars in Buffalo if you harp on it too loudly.
At just 32, Swiss show jumper and current World No. 9 Martin Fuchs already has three Olympic appearances on his resume and the luxury of time in a sport where most athletes don’t hit their prime until their 30s and 40s. (By contrast, the average ages for pro baseball players, figure skaters, and football studs are all under-30).
But there is one thing that Fuchs has in common with these three disparate champions of the past: He’s been a Rolex Grand Slam Live Contender more times than any other show jumper in history, but never earned back-to-back wins at two of the four Majors—let alone a Grand Slam.
This week, at storied CHI Geneva, Fuchs will get yet another chance to right that wrong.
A Major Player
Fuchs earned his first Major title at CHI Geneva back in 2019 with the legendary Clooney 51. At that time, he was just 27, and still a month away from reaching the World No. 1 position for the first time in 2020. Then, COVID-19 hit, the Dutch Masters was canceled, the Rolex Grand Slam was put on hiatus for a full year.
Unfortunately for Fuchs, when the series re-launched in 2021, Austria’s Max Kühner won the Dutch Masters and became the new Live Contender, albeit for a much shorter duration. Not only that, the pandemic would permanently derail Fuchs’s Grand Slam hopes with Clooney 51 after the gelding broke his shoulder in the field that summer and was forced to retire.
But if the Swiss rider was down, he wasn’t out for long.
Fuchs was back on top of the leaderboard at CHI Geneva again in 2021, this time with a 9-year-old Leone Jei. The pair was unseated by Germany’s Daniel Deusser and Killer Queen Vdm (more on them in a minute) at the Dutch Masters in 2022, and they didn’t win another Major until the CSIO Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ the following year.
Fortunately, that class, the CPKC ‘International’ Grand Prix, has been decidedly good to Fuchs and the 12-year-old KWPN gelding, who famously won it again in 2024, despite having four faults in the opening round.
That victory makes Fuchs the Live Contender once again, and the timing couldn’t be better.
Not only is he heading into one of his favorite horse shows, CHI Geneva, with the home country advantage, its a major he’s triumphed in already two times before. And if Fuchs does make history by taking the Rolex Grand Prix again this weekend, he’ll be in good company.
Only the USA’s McLain Ward has won two, consecutive, Grand Slam Majors in a row after Great Britain’s Scott Brash famously won three—and the Grand Slam title—for the first and only time in history in 2014/2015.
With four opportunities to date, Fuchs has more Rolex Grand Prix wins than almost any other rider in history, tying only Brash (after taking the Grand Slam, the Scottish rider won the Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ with Ursula XII in 2016). Countryman Steve Guerdat and German riders Daniel Deusser and Marcus Ehning are just behind him with three wins a piece.
Geneva or Bust
If CHI Geneva is a notorious showcase for the best combinations in the world, than its Rolex Grand Prix is a virtual Hunger Games of champions.
According to Jumpr Stats, Leone Jei ranks at #10 for all time grand prix wins, with six, 5*, 1.60m+ victories to date. No other horse still competing has more, but—and that’s a big BUT—two horses currently tie his record: Karl Cook’s (USA) Caracole de La Roque and Henrik von Eckermann’s (SWE) King Edward.
Yep, you guessed it. Both are on the list for CHI Geneva this week.
What’s more, Leone Jei also ranks at #4 for all-time prize money earnings. That’s a great stat, until you consider that the only two horses still competing rank higher—King Edward (curses… foiled again!) and Deusser’s Killer Queen Vdm. And yes, “the Queen” will also be in residence at Geneva.
But Fuchs should keep the faith. Not only have we bet on him before, but after more than five seasons, mounted on one of the best horses in the sport, he couldn’t be better poised to end his perpetual Live Contender streak by becoming only the third rider in history to win two Majors in a row.
The only problem? No one on that startlist is going to make it any easier for him.
The Rolex Grand Prix of CHI Geneva will take place on Sunday, December 15 at 2:30 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. EST). Watch all the drama go down on the Rolex Live Stream!
