The USA’s Fiona Howard and Diamond Dunes, going next to last, in the Grade II Freestyle order this afternoon laid down another dominate gold-medal performance at the Paris 2024 Paralympics. They glided around the arena to the soundtrack from Avatar to wow the judges and the audience. Their score, 81.994%, was another personal-best performance for Howard.
Diamond Dunes is an 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding (De L’Or x Wibella) owned by Dressage Family LLC and Hof Kasselmann, and cared for by Helen Claire McNulty. Howard said her parents, two sisters, and a large group of friends are here in France to cheer her on.
After winning gold in the Grade II Freestyle and posting another personal-best score, Howard spoke about her horse and her goals coming doing into the Paralympics, “My horse felt really great! This is the last day, so you have to dig a little deeper; by this point my muscles are definitely tired. But, I have such a great partner in Diamond Dunes. He really knows his job. He went out there, and again, gave me everything like he did the past two days. Whatever the results, I’m so proud of him. I couldn’t have asked him for any more. It was my first Paralympics, so I really came into it just wanting to do my best, and if I could help out the team, I really wanted to do that. So, this has kind of gone above my expectations.”
Great Britain’s Georgia Wilson came back today fighting after the disappointment of Team GB not winning a team medal yesterday. She and Sakura scored 79.374% to win silver. Germany’s Heidemarie Dresing and Dooloop turned in a nice performance, too, winning bronze on 76.127%.
View the full Grade II Individual Freestyle Para Dressage results here.
Watch all of the Paris 2024 para equestrian action livestreamed or played back on demand (subscription required). For more information, go to NBCOlympics.com. For more coverage, visit our Paris 2024 Paralympics main page.
Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.
