 Marc Houtzager with Claimer, Wiesbaden 2015 CSIYH* | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Dutch | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 9 January 1971 | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Country |  Netherlands | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | Equestrian | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Marc Houtzager (born 9 January 1971 in Rouveen) is a Dutch equestrian whose specialty is show jumping. [1]
Houtzager began riding when he was 10 years old. His parents were caterers and he began to ride ponies at a place where they worked. [2]
At the 2012 Summer Olympicsin London, Houtzager rode Sterrehof's Tamino as was part of the Dutch team that won the silver medal in the team jumping event.
Houtzager competed in the 2002 Show Jumping World Cup circuit and won the meeting in Dublin. After that he kept on riding international tournaments, but never succeeded on World Cup level again. In 2008 he and his teammates became Dutch national champion in Mierlo. Houtzager himself won an additional silver medal at the event in the individual competition. He was selected to represent the Netherlands at the Super League meeting in Rome where they finished fourth. At the CHIO in Rotterdam he became fifth in the individual competition. Later that year he finished fourth at the Grand Prix in Aachen with his horse Opium.
Due to injuries of former Olympic champion Jeroen Dubbeldam and Albert Zoer he and Angelique Hoorn were selected by coach Rob Ehrens to represent the Netherlands at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Houtzager and Hoorn competed in both the individual as well as the team competition in which they formed a team with Gerco Schröder and Vincent Voorn. [3]
Cian O'Connor is an Irish equestrian who competes in show jumping. He has competed at three Olympic Games, four World Championships and six European Championships, and has attained 133 senior caps for his country. He placed first at the 2004 Olympics, but his horse was later discovered to have a banned substance in its system, and O'Connor was stripped of the gold medal. He won an individual bronze medal at the London Olympic Games 2012 and was a member of the Irish team that took a gold medal at the European Championships in Gothenburg in 2017. O’Connor also won a bronze individual medal at the latter event. At the Tokyo Summer Olympics, Cian and his Irish-bred mount Susan Magnier’s Irish bred Kilkenny finished seventh in the individual class.
Theodora Elisabeth Gerarda "Anky" van Grunsven is a Dutch dressage champion who is the only rider to record three successive Olympic wins in the same event. Along with her Olympic successes, she has won numerous medals at the World Equestrian Games (WEG), and is the only rider to have competed at every WEG since they began in 1990. Between 1990 and 2006, she competed at the Games in dressage, but in 2010 she was named as part of the Dutch reining team, marking a major change in discipline.
The equestrian events at the 1956 Summer Olympics were held in Stockholm due to the Australian quarantine regulations and included dressage, eventing, and show jumping. All three disciplines had both individual and team competitions. The competitions were held from 11 to 17 June 1956 at Stockholm Olympic Stadium. There were 158 entries from 29 National Olympic Committees: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA and Venezuela. This would be the first appearance for Australia, Cambodia and Venezuela in equestrian events.
Rodrigo de Paula Pessoa is a Brazilian equestrian specialized in show jumping. The son of fellow equestrian Nelson Pessoa, Pessoa is considered one of the most talented of his generation, being an Olympic Games gold medalist in individual jumping and having over 70 Grand Prix wins. He has represented Brazil at seven Olympic Games.
The Netherlands competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. This was announced in an official statement on the NOC*NSF website. In the statement they named the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games as a highlight in sports to which a lot of sportspeople, coaches and the Dutch sports fans would look forward. The Netherlands aimed for a top 10 nations ranking in the Olympics as well as a top 25 ranking in the Paralympics; they ended up ranking 12th at the Games.
Elizabeth Madden is an American Olympic champion equestrian competing in show jumping. She has two Olympic golds and one silver in team jumping, and an individual bronze. She won the FEI Show Jumping World Cup twice; won two silvers and two bronzes at World Championships; and won two golds, one silver and two bronzes at the Pan American Games. She was the first American to break into the international top three show jumping ranking, and the first woman to win over one million dollars in show jumping prize money.
Hans Peter Minderhoud is a Dutch dressage rider.
Angelique Hoorn is a Dutch show jumper.
Vincent Voorn is a Dutch show jumper. His father is Albert Voorn who also competed as an international show jumper.
Leon Thijssen is a Dutch show jumper.
Adelinde Cornelissen is a Dutch dressage rider.
Eric Lamaze is a Canadian retired showjumper and Olympic champion. He won individual gold and team silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, riding his famed horse Hickstead. Lamaze has won three Olympic medals, as well as four Pan American Games medals and one World Equestrian Games bronze. He is considered one of Canada's best showjumpers.
Benjamin Richard Maher MBE is a British show jumper. He represented Britain at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2009 European Championships in Windsor, 2012 London Olympics, 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He won the team jumping gold at the London Olympics with Team GB, their first team jumping gold medal for 60 years, and an individual gold for Great Britain at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He also won bronze at the 2011 Europeans Championships in Madrid, Spain. He has won many international Grand Prix, including the Olympia Grand Prix, the King George V Gold Cup at Hickstead and an FEI World Cup Qualifier Grand Prix at Wellington with various rides.
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.
The individual jumping in equestrian at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held at Greenwich Park from 4 to 8 August. Like all other equestrian events, the jumping competition was mixed gender, with both male and female athletes competing in the same division. There were 75 competitors from 26 nations. The event was won by Steve Guerdat of Switzerland, the nation's first victory in individual jumping since 1924 and second overall. Gerco Schroder of the Netherlands took silver. Cian O'Connor of Ireland, who had been stripped of a gold medal in the event in 2004, earned bronze—Ireland's first medal in the event.
Michael Jung is a German equestrian who competes in eventing and show jumping. A three-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. 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.
Maikel van der Vleuten is a Dutch show jumping rider. He was born in Geldrop. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where he won a silver medal in team jumping and finished 37th in the individual.
Bertram Allen is an Irish show jumping rider. Originally from Wexford, he has won international medals at the pony, junior, and senior level. He won the opening round of the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy at age 19, receiving international recognition. Allen is the youngest winner of a Grand Prix on the Longines Global Champions Tour, and was a team gold medalist at the 2017 European Championship in Gothenburg.
Martin Fuchs is a Swiss Olympic show jumping rider. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he finished sixth in the team and ninth in the individual competition. In 2019 he won the individual gold at the 2019 European Championship in Rotterdam. As of 31 May 2022, he is ranked as the World Number 1 showjumper by the FEI.
Pieter Devos is Belgian show jumping rider from Diest, Belgium. He is a regular on the Belgian team and has won team gold medals at the 2019 European Championships in Rotterdam (NEL) and 2018 FEI Nations Cup Final in Barcelona (ESP), both on Claire Z. He runs his family's fruit farm and he and his brother share Devos Stables BVBA. He married Caroline Poels in 2015 and the couple have a daughter, Lisa, born in 2017, and a son, Vic, born in 2019.
