The US is breathing a sigh of relief after securing a showjumping ticket to Paris 2024 at the 11th hour as the final team places for next year’s Olympics are decided.
The Pan American Games, and the eventing and showjumping Nations Cups, were the last chance for countries to collect team tickets to Paris 2024 this autumn. There is one outstanding dressage team spot, which H&H understands is likely to be allocated to the highest-ranked country not already qualified.
The US, which has won six showjumping medals over the last five Olympics, had missed qualification via Nations Cup finals and the 2022 World Championships. This meant that the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games was the final opportunity for the US – one of the world’s strongest showjumping nations – to bag a Paris team ticket. After ending the first day in provisional fifth, the side clawed their way up the leaderboard to win gold and Paris qualification.
“There’s a huge sense of relief,” said US chef d’equipe Robert Ridland. “We really brought this down to the wire in terms of qualification and the team produced today, especially with three clears in the first round and four in the second.
“I don’t think people have talked about how competitive the Pan American Games has become and it’s very stiff competition for all of the teams. For us, this gold is just the icing on top because our priority was to secure our qualification, so now the team can enjoy this moment, but we have to immediately start shifting our focus and planning to Paris.”
Canada swiped team places in all three Olympic disciplines in Chile. Brazil, which had already qualified for Olympic showjumping at the 2023 Nations Cup final, collected team dressage and eventing places, while Mexico secured a team showjumping spot.
“I needed the defibrillator, but other than that I’m fine!” said Canadian showjumping chef d’equipe Ian Millar.
Mike Winter, part of Canada’s gold medal-winning eventing team at Santiago, credited the achievement to “two years of complete high performance restructuring”.
“We executed today but that foundation is what made it happen. It’s been a really positive environment and it has allowed us all to do our best and that is so key,” he said. “It’s not one thing that’s magical or exceptional, it’s all the small things. I’ve been in the high performance programme since 1995 and I’ve been in the team since 2003 and this is the most solid, productive structure we’ve had.”
Argentina, Chile and Colombia have secured one individual showjumping place each, and there were also two individual dressage places available. One of these was secured for Ecuador by history-makers Julio Mendoza Loor on Jewel’s Goldstrike, who won the nation’s first Pan American Games dressage gold medal, and the other for Chile by Svenja Grimm aboard Doctor Rossi.
Italy scooped its Paris eventing spot through the Nations Cup series. The Italian team’s results this year meant the country knew it had secured an Olympic ticket ahead of the Boekelo final (5 to 8 October).
“It’s great for the country, to be qualified for the Olympics now we need to try to have the best possible horses to go there and try to do the best we can,” said Giovanni Ugolotti, who has five horses with the required results to be in consideration for Paris.
Britain booked its Paris team places in all three disciplines at the 2022 World Championships.
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