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15 Olympic showjumping facts

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Ben Maher rides Explosion W at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Image credit: FEI/Christophe Taniére

  1. 35 countries will be represented
  2. 20 teams will compete
  3. There is a total of 75 horse/athlete combinations
  4. 15 countries are sending individual riders (having not qualified a team).
  5. Teams consist of three athlete/horse combinations with all scores counting.
  6. The youngest competitor is 21-year-old UAE team member Omar Abdul Aziz Al Marzooqi.
  7. The oldest competitor is Swedish team member Rolf-Göran Bengtsson who is 62.
  8. No female athlete has ever won Olympic individual gold in Jumping, but Great Britain’s Marion Coakes and the amazing pony, Stroller, claimed individual silver at Mexico in 1968, and at Munich in 1972 her compatriot, Ann Moore, took silver with Psalm.
  9. Three female athletes have won individual jumping bronze – Heidi Robbiani (SUI) at Los Angeles in 1984 riding Jessica V, Alexandra Ledermann (FRA) at Atlanta in 1996 riding Rochet M and Beezie Madden (USA) at Beijing in 2008 riding Authentic.
  10. Three former Olympic individual gold medallists are competing – Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa (Athens 2004), Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat (London 2012) and defending Olympic champion Ben Maher.
  11. 33 riders will be competing at their first Olympic Games in Paris.
  12. 65 horses will compete at Olympic level for the first time.
  13. Pierre Jonquères d’Oriola from France is the only athlete to win the individual Olympic jumping title more than once. He won at Helsinki in 1952 riding Ali Baba and at Tokyo in 1964 with Lutteur B.
  14. Brazil’s Rodrigo Pessoa is the most experienced equestrian Olympian at this year’s Games, making his eighth appearance. The 51-year-old previously competed at Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Tokyo in 2021.
  15. A total of seven former Olympic team gold medallists have been listed – USA’s McLain Ward (Beijing 2008), Great Britain’s Scott Brash and Ben Maher (London 2012), French rider Kevin Staut (Rio 2016) and all three members of the victorious Swedish side at Tokyo 2020 – Henrik von Eckermann, Malin Baryard-Johnsson and Peder Fredricson. Baryard-Johnsson is this time listed as team alternate.

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