The making of an Olympic champion

Born on 5 May 1965 in Herefordshire, Leslie Law grew up in a council house and did not start riding until he was 10 — to compete with his younger brother, Graham, who also still events. Their father drove a lorry for a living, and, while giving his sons all the support he could, financially, this wasn’t easy.

Through his school years, Leslie rode at Bill Bryan’s point-to-point and showing yard, and was on the Golden Valley branch Pony Club teams. In 1982, he rode in his first affiliated event at Crookham.

Between Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, Leslie has racked up eight top-five placings at four-star level. He has been a mainstay of the British team with the two grey brothers, Shear H2O and Shear L’Eau, picking up two European Championship team golds (2001 and 2003) and a team bronze at the 2002 World Championships. But until the final verdict handed him gold in Athens in the summer of 2004, he’d never won an individual championship medal.

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