Germany’s superstar equestrian Michael Jung etched his name into the record books again today by winning his third Olympic individual eventing gold medal, the first person in Olympic history to do so. His three gold medals came riding only two horses, first La Biosthetique-Sam FBW (London 2012 and Rio 2016), then this year on Chipmunk FRH.
Jung and Chipmunk dropped a rail in the individual qualifier round earlier in the day, but stayed atop the leaderboard anyway going into the final. The final was jumped in reverse order of accumulated score, making them last to enter the arena.
Others ranked just behind them in the order had put the pressure on. If Jung and Chipmunk had dropped a rail, it would have tied them for third on 25.8 with Britain’s Tom McEwen and JL Dublin, who had just laid down a double clear a few rides before. But they left the rails up and slid between the timers with plenty to spare, earning Jung his third gold medal and putting horse and rider in the history books in more ways than one. Their final score was 21.80; having gone double clear on cross-country yesterday, the only thing keeping them from finishing on their dressage score was that rail in the first show jumping round.
Australia’s Christopher Burton riding Shadow Man captured silver with a double clear as well to finish on 22.40. Laura Collett and London 52 also rallied from 0.8 time faults on cross-country, as well as a rail down and time faults in the first show jumping round, to jump cleanly and quickly in the final to nab bronze.
The USA’s Boyd Martin and Fedarman B achieved two double-clear show jumping rounds today and over the entire event only added 1.6 time faults on cross-country to their dressage total. They finished in 10th place. This was Martin’s fourth U.S. Olympic Team (London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020/21 and Paris 2024) and was his highest Olympic individual placing to date.
Elisabeth Halliday and Nutcracker from the USA, in Halliday’s Olympic debut, also jumped in the individual final round. After jumping clear but having 0.8 time faults in the first round, they dropped one rail and had 1.2 time penalties in the final to finish on 40.00.
The third member of the U.S. Eventing Team, Caroline Pamukcu riding HSH Blake in her first Olympic Games, did not qualify for the individual final jumping round, but ranked 37th in the final results.
Find the 2024 Paris Olympics eventing individual final results here.
Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.
