David O’Connor set to be new US chef d’equipe

David O’Connor has been selected to follow in Mark Phillips’ footsteps as US eventing chef d’equipe.

The decision now just needs to be rubber stamped by the USEF High Performance working group before being presented to the USEF executive committee.

Both O’Connor and former Olympic gold medalist for Great Britain, Leslie Law, were shortlisted for the position at the beginning of the year.

O’Connor was individual gold medalist at the Sydney Olympics and he coached the Canadian eventing squad to team silver at last year’s World Equestrian Games.

A press release from USEF read: “The depth of quality of the applicant field was impressive — it included some of the biggest legends in the sport and after extensive research, thorough discussions and candid interviews the Eventing Eligible Athlete committee unanimously voted to recommend O’Connor.”

Under Mark Phillips’ leadership, the US eventing team has won medals at four Pan American Games, four World Equestrian Games and four Olympic Games.

O’Connor will take over at the helm from 2013.

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