British Olympic riders in numbers

H&H brings you some facts and figures for Team GBR…

• 2 riders have been to 5 previous Olympics – Mary King and Nick Skelton (who also rode in the ‘alternative Olympics’ in 1980)
• 57 is how old Richard Davison will be, making him, at the time of going to press, the oldest GBR athlete at the Games (sorry, Richard!)
• 39.92 is the average age of GB’s riders
• There are 4 riders over 50: Richard Davison, Mary King, Nick Skelton and Peter Charles
• It’s 36 years since we fielded an Olympic showjumping team without a single Whitaker on it
• 3 of the team (Nick, Peter and Mary) have broken their necks and Nick has also had a new hip
• 23 past Olympics have been contended by Equestrian Team GBR collectively

The next generation:

• the squad has 9 sons and 4 daughters between them
• Nick Skelton’s son Dan is assistant trainer to Paul Nicholls and his other son, Harry, is a jockey
• William Fox-Pitt and wife Alice have two young boys and another child on the way
• Richard Davison’s son Tom was in rock band Dakota
• Mary King’s daughter Emily is also an eventer

In this week’s issue of H&H (5 July) find out why Richard Davison is relieved to be back on the team and what our chances of a showjumping medal are

Catch up with all the latest Olympic news