August 14, 2021 
Winning an individual gold medal at the FEI North American Youth Championships is an impressive feat accomplished only by a select few.
Winning that gold medal after leading through five rounds of competition and without accruing a single fault is an even more rare and notable achievement, but that’s exactly what Mia Albelo did on her way to the Pre-Junior individual gold medal this week in Traverse City, MI.
The 16-year-old from Zone 4 and her mount, Cocominka EST, led the competition from beginning to end, never relinquishing their spot atop the leaderboard since the show began on Thursday. That meant that as soon as Albelo crossed the finish line of Saturday’s second round, she knew the gold medal was hers.
“Going through those timers and keeping all the rails up was a pretty emotional moment for me, knowing that I had just won the gold, and I would be wearing the gold medal today,” said Albelo. “I want to thank ‘Coco’ for jumping her heart out today and over the last two days, because obviously without the best partner in the world, I couldn’t be here.”
While Albelo held the lead going into the final round, the pressure was still on, as a single dropped rail would cost her the victory. To keep her cool, Albelo focused on advice from her coach, Olympian Margie Engle.
“Margie said, ‘get everything out of your head,’” explained Albelo, who has trained with Engle for the past four years. “She said, ‘you ride each jump like a single jump. Each jump just a single jump. Everything else out of your head. That was exactly the plan we rode.”
While Engle’s pep talk helped Albelo, Cocominka was also receiving pep talks of her own.
“My groom, Alex, told me that every night when she did night check, she would give Coco a pep talk. I think the pep talks really worked!” said Albelo.
With both Albelo and Cocominka heeding their good advice for the gold, the silver medal went to one of Albelo’s closest friends, Caroline Mawhinney aboard Stella Levista. The duo finished on only a 1.46 differential score from the opening day of competition for the second-place honor, while the bronze medal with a differential score of only 2.37 went to Mexico’s Xaviera Maurer Buch riding Con Rouet.
For full results of the FEI NAYC Pre-Junior individual competition, click here. The NAYC action concludes on Sunday, August 15. Catch all of the action live on USEF Network. (Use promo code ‘nayc21’ for a free fan membership.)
