Background
This was the 11th appearance of the event, which had first been held at the 1900 Summer Olympics and has been held at every Summer Olympics at which equestrian sports have been featured (that is, excluding 1896, 1904, and 1908). It is the oldest event on the current programme, the only one that was held in 1900. [2] There were two separate jumping competitions for individual and team medals, the first time this had occurred since 1920.
Eight of the top 10 riders from the 1956 competition returned: gold medalist Hans Günter Winkler of the United Team of Germany, silver medalist Raimondo D'Inzeo of Italy, bronze medalist Piero D'Inzeo of Italy, fourth-place finisher Fritz Thiedemann of the United Team of Germany, sixth-place finisher (and 1952 gold medalist) Pierre Jonquères d'Oriola of France, eighth-place finisher Carlos César Delía of Argentina, ninth-place finisher Mohamed Selim Zaki of Egypt, and tenth-place finisher Pat Smythe of Great Britain.
All three of the World Champions to date were competing. Raimondo D'Inzeo had followed his Olympic silver with the 1956 World Championship, with Spain's Paco Goyoaga, the inaugural World Champion in 1953, had finished second and Thiedemann third. Winkler had two World Championships (1954 and 1955) along with his 1956 Olympic gold.
New Zealand, the United Arab Republic, and Uruguay each made their debut in the event. France and Sweden both competed for the 10th time, tied for the most of any nation; Sweden had missed only the inaugural 1900 competition, while France missed the individual jumping in 1932.
Summary
The individual medals were fought out between the two d'Inzeo brothers, Raimondo and Piero, David Broome, and Argentinean Naldo Dasso. The first round saw Raimondo d'Inzeo and Posillipo with the single clear, followed by Naldo Dasso with 4 penalties, and Piero d'Inzeo and his mount Max Fresson with eight. David Broome (7 penalties) had the best ride of the second round, while Piero d'Inzeo and Hans-Günter Winkler each had 8 faults, and the leader, Raimondo d'Inzeo had 3 rails down for 12 faults. Raimondo d'Inzeo's final score of 12 was still enough to win the gold, followed by his brother Piero and David Broome.
The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1952. The course was 840 metres long with 14 obstacles, including one double jump and one triple jump for a total of 17 jumps. The time limit was 2 minutes and 5 seconds; every second over the limit incurred a 0.25 point penalty. There were also penalties for obstacle faults. Each horse and rider pair completed the course twice, with the two scores summed to give a final total for ranking.
The individual and team events were separate, with the individual scores not used for team competition.
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