David O’Connor celebrates Sydney 2000 Gold – from: eventingnation.com
Article by Giovanni Manenti
Despite boasting a good tradition in equestrian sports – so much so that in the relevant overall Olympic medal table they are second only to Germany in terms of number of laurels – However, the United States sins with regards to Ori, given that out of 54 podiums on only 11 occasions their representatives climbed to the top stepobviously in a figurative sense, given that in these Disciplines the awards ceremony takes place on the saddle of the respective horses…
A circumstance that emerges more and more in the Eventing specialty – event which takes place over three days and includes Dressage, Cross Country and Show Jumping – in which, although leading the relevant ranking in terms of overall number of medals, equal to 25, the victories are reduced to six, two of which in the individual race and the others in the Team Competition.
The first to secure individual Gold for his country is Edmund Coffin at the Montreal Games, an edition in which the United States dominated the scene, matching Michael Plum’s silver as well as winning the Team Competitionand then, after the success of the Italian Mauro Checcoli four years later in Moscow, having to suffer the undisputed superiority of the riders from the southern hemisphere, who monopolized first place in the following four editions, which saw the affirmation, in chronological order, the New Zealander Mark Todd in Los Angeles 1984 and in Seoul 1988, and then it was the turn of the Australian Matthew Ryan to do the same in 1992 in Barcelona, before New Zealand returned to excel in 1996 in Atlanta thanks to Blyth Taitalready bronze four years earlier…
Although obvious, such superiority also has repercussions in terms of the Team Competition, with Australia winning both the Barcelona 1992 Games (with New Zealand silver…) and the Atlanta 1996 Gameswhere New Zealand won the bronze, preceded by the United States.
It is therefore difficult to think that such hegemony could be undermined precisely when theEnd of the Millennium Games” take place in Sydney and which, as far as equestrian specialties are concerned, represent a novelty, as in the previous edition of Melbourne 1956, they took place in Stockholm due to the quarantine that the Australian authorities would have imposed on the horses …
To attempt this sort of “Mission Impossible” is the protagonist of our story today, that is David O’Connor, who was born on January 18, 1962 in Washington with a curious family history involving horse riding, as his mother Sally had a history as a rider in Dressage, and then worked as a Judge and logically initiated her son into a similar practice.
But there’s more, that is at the end of June 1993 the 31 year old David got married to Karen Lende, four years older and also practicing the same discipline, so much so that she participated in the 1988 Seoul Olympicsdespite not completing the test…
More unique than rare case, The O’Connor couple showed up together at the 1996 Atlanta Games where, for the first time, the individual and team events were held separatelyobviously with different horses so as not to subject them to excessive fatigue, with the United States lining up in the individual race David O’Connor, Kerry Millkin e Mara dePuy, while in the Team Competition only O’Connor remains, supported by his wife, Bruce Davidson and Jill Henneberg.
As already mentioned, the individual race sees New Zealand dominate with Tait winning the Gold Medal ahead of compatriot Sally Clark, but also United States perform admirably, with a team result that sees Millikin win bronze, while O’Connor and dePuy finish in fifth and sixth positionrespectively…
A circumstance that is also confirmed in Team competition, in which the members of the US quartet obtain the best result in Dressage, only to be penalized in Cross Country which launches Australia to the Gold Medal, while still managing to precede New Zealand in the challenge for silvera placing that the United States had not achieved since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where they had also won the top step of the podium.
It goes without saying that, in the following four-year post-Olympic period, the often mentioned New Zealanders also monopolize one of the three most important international events, namely the “Burghley Horse Trials”, which take place at Stanford, in Lancashire and which saw Mark Todd succeed in 1997 and 1999, Blyth Tait in 1999 and Andrew Nicholson in 2000, while theBadminton Horse Trials“there is more”democracy“, given that in 1997 David O’Connor excelled and in the three subsequent editions the British duo were preferredwhich lead to the triumph, in chronological order, of Chris Bartie, Ian Stark and Mary King…
The “remains”Kentucky Three-Day Event”, which takes place on American soil and emerges here Mrs. O’Connor, winning the event in 1997 and 1999, with New Zealand drawing even in 1998 with Nick Largin and in 2000 with reigning Olympic Champion Taitideal “business card” in view of the Olympic event, also considering that ai World Championships held at the beginning of October 1998 in Rome, New Zealand’s supremacy was certified by the first two places of Tait and Todd in the individual competition as well as the team title, with the O’Connors earning at least the bronze.
For those who have had the patience to read us up to now, they will have understood how the hopes of success on Australian soil were reduced to a minimum for anyone who had the intention of “oust“the New Zealanders (and, possibly, subordinately the Australians…) from the throne they had deservedly conquered, but in Sport, as in life, moreover, “never say never …”, as James Bondo teaches…
The program – which follows what already happened four years earlier in Atlanta with the separation between the individual test and the team competition – sees the latter take place first, from 16 to 19 September 2000in the fascinating scenario constituted by the “Sydney International Equestrian Centre”, made in Horsley Park, with the hosts Australians finished in command after Dressage with 112.6 penalty points compared to 115.2 of the British quartet (the scores of the three best pairs are taken into consideration…), with the United States third at 125.4 while the New Zealanders surprisingly accumulate 143.6 penalties which relegate them, at the moment, to fifth position.
The latter would redeem themselves in Cross Country (or Endurance, whatever you want to call it…) except that Tait’s horse, Ready Teddy, fails the veterinary check at the end of the race, so that New Zealand, left with only two pairs, is ousted from the race which, vice versa, sees Australia still in command, but with an unchanged margin of 12.80 points compared to the British quartet, so that the show jumping event is decisive…
In the last specialty of the three days, the United States are clearly the best, with David O’Connor making a clear run, while Nina Fout stops at just 5 penalties and Karen O’Connor at 10, good only to secure the bronzewhile the pairs of Australia and Great Britain obtain almost identical results (32 penalty points for the former and 34 for the latter…), which allow the hosts to celebrate the third consecutive Olympic Gold with a total penalty of 146.80 points compared to 161.00 of the British.
Once the team competition is over, the individual test begins the following day, with O’Connor – who had ridden Giltedge – rely on his inseparable Custom Made, a 15-year-old Irish horse that he has already ridden at both the previous Olympics and the aforementioned World Championships From Rome …
“Anyone who starts well is already halfway there…“, goes an old adage, although in this case it would be more appropriate “a third of the way through…”, but in any case taking a good margin during the first event can be very useful, even more so if Custom Made expresses himself like no one before him in the Olympic Panorama, scoring a record score of just 29 penalties compared to Todd’s 39 and Tait’s 40.8, with Australian Andrew Hoy also lagging behind with his 39.8 penalty points.
Situation that changes at the end of the Cross Country as the German Marina Koncke and the Swedish Sofia Andler (second and fifth respectively…) are eliminated, while 10 pairs finish without penalties, including O’Connor who now sees himself threatened by the Greek Heidi Antikatzides, who follows at 37.4 while Todd and Hoy, also with zero penalties, climb back to third and fourth position at 39 and 39.8 respectively, unlike the defending champion Tait, forced to retire…
The “succession race” is therefore delegated to the last test of the Show Jumping, with the pairs presenting themselves in reverse order of ranking and which sees Hoy complete a clear path, so as to put pressure on Todd who follows the same performance, but going beyond the time expected for the conclusion of the raceso as to suffer 3 penalty points which lead him to be overtaken by the 41 year old Australian (39.8 to 42.0) while waiting for the last two competitors to define the podium.
Emotion plays a bad shot from the just 23-year-old Hellenic, who ends up with 13 penalty points for a total of 50.40 which makes her slip to sixth position, also overtaken by the Frenchman Rodolf Scherer and the Italian Fabio Magni who, with 5 penalties each, precede her at 46,40 and 49 respectively, but now all eyes – and of the home crowd in particular – are turned towards the American who makes his entry onto the track astride Custom Made…
As a result of the provisional ranking, O’Connor can afford up to 10 penalty points, risking even the silver in the event of more errorsbut with prudent race conduct, is limited to a single error which is worth 5 penalty points and, with a total of 34, brings the Gold Medal back to the United States for what, to this day, is the last in this specialty, which subsequently recorded the handover between the riders of the southern hemisphere and the Germans.
O’Connor completed his career by winning the team world championship at the 2002 World Championships in Jerez de la Fronterawhile family records derive from being the first husband and wife couple to compete on the same Team USA when they participated in the Atlanta Games, and then establishing, vice versa, an Olympic record four years later in Sydney for being the first married couple to win two medals in the same event in two different editions…
Maybe they won’t be the “Most beautiful couple in the world”, but certainly among the most medallisted…
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2023-09-13 17:40:21
#SYDNEY #GAMES #DAVID #OCONNOR #BRINGS #USA #TOP #EQUESTRIAN #EVENTS #SportHistoria
