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.
Isabell Werth is a German equestrian and world champion in dressage who competed in the Olympics six times winning twelve medals, seven of them gold. She holds the record for the most Olympic medals won by any equestrian athlete.
Yvonne Losos de Muñiz is a Nigeria-born Dominican Republic Olympic athlete and international Grand Prix dressage rider that represents the Dominican Republic. She belongs to the elite Dominican Olympic athlete program CRESO.
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.
Annemieke Marileen Bes is a sailor from the Netherlands, who represented her country for the first time at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The Dutch Yngling helmed by Annelies Thies and crewed by Bes and Petronella de Jong took the 4th place. Bes returned to the Olympics, again in the Dutch Yngling, during the 2008 Olympics this time with fellow crewmember Merel Witteveen and helmsman Mandy Mulder. The Dutch Yngling team took the Silver Medal in Qingdao. Bes than switched to the Elliott 6m Match racing. During the 2012 Olympics the team with helmsman Renee Groeneveld and crewmembers Bes and Marcelien Bos-de Koning took 8th place in Weymouth.
Mandy Mulder is a sailor from the Netherlands. Mulder represented her country at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Qingdao. With fellow crew members Annemieke Bes and Merel Witteveen, Mulder as helmsman took Silver medal in the Yngling.
Merel Witteveen is a sailor from the Netherlands. Witteveen represented her country at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Qingdao. With fellow crew member Annemieke Bes and Mandy Mulder as helmsman, Witteveen took Silver medal in the Yngling.
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.
Jeroen Dubbeldam is a Dutch show jumping champion.
Merel Didi van Dongen is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defender for Liga MX Femenil side Monterrey on loan from Spanish Primera División club Atlético Madrid and the Netherlands national team.
Charlotte Susan Jane Dujardin is a British dressage rider, equestrian and writer. A multiple World and Olympic champion, Dujardin has been described as the dominant dressage rider of her era. She held the complete set of available individual elite dressage titles at one point: the individual Olympic freestyle, World freestyle and Grand Prix Special, World Cup individual dressage and European freestyle, and Grand Prix Special titles. Dujardin was the first rider to hold this complete set of titles at the same time.
Jonelle Price is a New Zealand equestrian, competing in eventing. She is married to Tim Price, also a New Zealand eventing rider. They are both competing at top international level.
Laura Smulders is a Dutch racing cyclist who represents the Netherlands in BMX. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women's BMX event where she won the bronze medal.
Merel is a Dutch feminine given name, probably after the identical Dutch name for the blackbird. It has also been used as a surname. Notable people with the name include:
The Netherlands competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Since the nation's official debut in 1900, Dutch athletes had competed at every edition of the Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, with the exception of the sparsely attended 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis and 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, which the Netherlands boycotted because of the Soviet invasion of Hungary.
Laura Graves is an American dressage rider. She represented the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics where she won a bronze medal in the team dressage competition. After winning double silver medals at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon, NC, Laura became the first American dressage rider to be ranked No. 1 in FEI World rankings, aboard her longtime partner Verdades.
Sharon Jarvis is an Australian para-equestrian. She represented Australia at the three Summer Paralympics - 2008 Beijing, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo.
Merel Smulders is a Dutch BMX rider.
