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| Born | 24 April 1976 Camberwell, United Kingdom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Fiona Bigwood (born 24 April 1976 in Camberwell, United Kingdom) is a British dressage rider and winner of a silver medal in the team dressage event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Bigwood was born on 24 April 1976. [1] By the time she was 10, Bigwood rode Tanya Larrigan's old Grand Prix horse Salute on lease. She soon competed at the 1993 Junior European Championships and the Young Rider European Championships. [2] As a teenager, she trained in Denmark [3] and was educated at Croydon High School. [4]
In 1997, Bigwood became the youngest British rider to be selected for a Senior European Championships. [5] In the same year, she won the British National Elementary title with Afrikka and was shortlisted for the 1998 World Equestrian Games. [3] Afterwards, she competed at the 2010 World Equestrian Games and four European Dressage Championships (1999, 2005, 2007 and 2015). [5] In 2014, she suffered a concussion after a fall while riding. As a result of her injury, Bigwood experiences double vision, which means that she wears an eye patch while riding. [6]
Upon returning to competitions, Bigwood earned a silver medal for Great Britain in the team dressage event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. [7] However, she would later sell her silver medal-winning horse "Atterupgaards Orthilia" to Danish rider Agnete Kirk Thinggaard. [8]
She was married with three children; her ex-husband, Anders Dahl, is also a dressage rider. [9]
In 2016, Bigwood and her ex-husband relocated from Bourne Hill House in Horsham in West Sussex to Brantridge Park, where she is in the process of establishing a new world-class equestrian centre. [10]
Phillip Peter Dutton, OAM is an Australian-born Olympic-level equestrian rider competing in eventing for the United States of America. He is a dual Olympic gold medalist who formerly competed for his country of birth but now competes for the USA.
Eva Maria "Evi" Pracht was a Canadian equestrian who competed in dressage in the 1984 Summer Olympics and was part of the bronze-medallist team at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Andreas Helgstrand is a Danish dressage rider. He won four consecutive Danish dressage championships, from 2005 through 2008.
Isabell Werth is a German equestrian who has competed in dressage at seven Olympic Games —1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2016, 2020, 2024— winning the gold medal in the team event in all seven, and one gold and six silver medals in the individual event. She stands alone in having medals from seven Olympics, or across a span of 32 years; her 14 medals are the most for any German or equestrian. She also has numerous titles in the World and European Championships and World Cups.
Yvonne Losos de Muñiz is an Olympic athlete and international Grand Prix dressage rider. Born in Nigeria to Canadian parents, she represents the Dominican Republic internationally. She belongs to the elite Dominican Olympic athlete program CRESO.
Hans Peter Minderhoud is a Dutch dressage rider.
Adelinde Cornelissen is a Dutch dressage rider.
Ingrid Klimke is a German eventing rider. She appeared at five Olympics from 2000 to 2016. With her horse Abraxxas, she won two gold medals in team eventing at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won a team silver with Hale-Bob.
Ulla Salzgeber is a German equestrian and Olympic champion who competes in the sport of dressage. Competing in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, she won two team gold medals, one individual silver and one individual bronze. She also won numerous medals at the World Equestrian Games, Dressage World Cup and European Dressage Championships. After the retirement of her Olympic horse, Rusty, after the 2004 Games, and unexpected death of her second international-level mount in 2005, Salzgeber struggled to find a new Grand Prix-level horse.
Edward Gal is a Dutch dressage rider. He and the stallion Totilas, were triple gold medalists at the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games, becoming the first horse-rider partnership ever to sweep the three available dressage gold medals at a single FEI World Games. Going into the 2010 Games, they had amassed multiple world-record scores in international competition, leading one American journalist to call them "rock stars in the horse world". After the World Equestrian Games, Totilas was sold to German trainer Paul Schockemöhle. Gal continues to be successful training and competing dressage horses at the international level. Despite the success, he has been criticised to be harsh trainer who creates stressed and fearful horses.
Laura Tomlinson MBE is a German-British dressage rider competing at Olympic level. As of 30 June 2012 the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) ranked her 3rd in the world riding Mistral Højris and 36th on Andretti H. In that year, Tomlinson, riding Mistral Højris under her maiden name of Laura Bechtolsheimer, won two medals in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London; gold for Great Britain in the team dressage with Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin, the first ever Olympic team gold in the discipline for her country, and bronze in the individual dressage behind gold medalist and compatriot Dujardin.
Ashley Holzer is a Canadian-born equestrian specializing in dressage, who has been representing the United States since 2017. She was born in Toronto, the daughter of Moreen and Ian Nicoll, and is married to Charles Holzer. Representing Canada, she won a bronze medal in team dressage at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, together with teammates Cynthia Neale-Ishoy, Eva Pracht and Gina Smith. She also competed at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.
Sara Anneli Algotsson Ostholt is a Swedish equestrian. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she competed in both the team and the individual eventing. Algotsson won a silver medal in the individual eventing.
Michael Jung is a German equestrian who competes in eventing and show jumping. A four-time Olympic gold medallist, he won individual and team gold at the 2012 London Olympics, followed by individual gold and team silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and the individual gold for the third time at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He was inducted into the Eventing Rider Association Hall of Fame in 2013, and in 2016 he became only the second rider in history to win the Grand Slam of Eventing.
Dorothee Schneider is a German dressage rider competing at Olympic level. On 7 August 2012 Schneider was a member of the team which won the silver medal in the team dressage event.
Megan Lane is a Canadian Olympic dressage rider. She participated at two World Equestrian Games. Her best results were achieved during the 2014 edition, when she placed 9th with the Canadian team in the team competition, and 37th in the individual competition aboard Caravella.
Heather Blitz is an American dressage rider. Blitz won team gold and individual silver in the 2011 Pan American Games, and was an alternate for the U.S. Olympic team for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Blitz taught Annie Peavy, who competed in the 2016 Paralympic Games.
Sönke Rothenberger is a German Olympic equestrian. He represented his country at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where he finished in 19th place in the individual dressage competition. He was also part of the German dressage team which won the gold medal in the team dressage competition. In 2024 he was the first traveling reserve for the German dressage team at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Anders Dahl is a Danish Olympic dressage rider. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where he finished 30th in the individual and 6th in the team competition.
Catherine Durand-Henriquet is a French equestrian. She was twice selected for the Equestrian at the Summer Olympics. She brought the first Iberian horse to International and Olympic levels and was also the first rider in the Versailles tradition to ever ride in the Olympic Games. She was national dressage champion multiple times. Together with her husband, famous equestrian and dressage master Michel Henriquet, she wrote a number of major dressage and horse training books and released a young horse training DVD series showing how the Henriquets take young horses from their first time under the saddle to the Grand Prix. Catherine Henriquet still actively shows Hanoverian horses and Lusitano horses at Grand Prix level and has trained dozens of horses to the Grand Prix. She currently rides two horses on the Big Tour: 18.7 hands Hanoverian gelding Lexus Gold and 15.7 hands Lusitano gelding Diabeau du Coussoul. Henriquet is also a retired dermatologist and always maintained professional practice while showing internationally. Having a full time profession aside from riding sometimes got in the way of being able to attend international shows and selections.
