The International Federation for Equestrian Sports is the international governing body of equestrian sports. The FEI headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The FEI World Equestrian Games are the major international championships for equestrianism, and are administered by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI). The games have been held every four years, halfway between sets of consecutive Summer Olympic Games, since 1990. Prior to that year, all ten of the FEI's individual disciplines held separate championships, usually in separate countries. The modern WEG runs over two weeks and, like the Olympics, the location rotates to different parts of the world. Riders and horses competing at WEG go through a rigorous selection process, and each participating country sends teams that have distinguished themselves through competition as the nation's best in each respective discipline. At the 2010 Games, 57 countries were represented by 800 people and their horses.
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.
Malin Birgitta Barijard Johnsson, is a Swedish equestrian, competing in show jumping. Baryard started to ride at the age of six and went on to be a very accomplished show jumper. She won a gold medal in the Swedish Championships at the age of just 14. She married Swedish TV presenter Henrik Johnsson in the summer of 2004, and made her TV-presenting debut in the autumn of 2004 on the SVT show Barbacka.
Anne Kindig Kursinski is an American showjumper and two-time Olympic silver medalist in team jumping, at Seoul 1988 and Atlanta 1996. Representing the United States, she was a member of five Olympic teams, forty-seven Nations Cup teams, and three World Equestrian Games teams. In 2017, she was inducted into the Showjumping Hall of Fame.
Equestrian sports were first included in the Olympic Games in the Summer Olympics of 1900 in Paris. They were again included in 1912, and have been included in every subsequent edition of the Games. Currently, the Olympic equestrian disciplines are dressage, eventing, and show jumping. In each discipline, both individual and team medals are awarded. Since the XV Olympiad in Helsinki in 1952, women and men compete on equal terms.
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. With this she beat Aladar Gerevich, Hungarian fencer and Mark Todd of New Zealand, record for the most years between first and last Olympic medals. 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.
Carlos Paro is an event rider who won a team bronze medal in the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2007, a team silver medal in the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada and an Individual Bronze and team Silver in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru in eventing for Brazil. He has competed in four Olympic games: the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Boyd Martin is an Australian-born, American equestrian competing in the discipline of eventing. He has participated in three consecutive Summer Olympic Games and is a two-time Pan American Games team gold medalist and individual gold medalist. He is a two-time CCI5*-L winner.
Joris Vanspringel is a Belgian Olympic eventing rider. Representing Belgium, he competed at four Summer Olympics. He placed 7th in team eventing in 2004. Meanwhile, his current best individual Olympic placement is 24th place from 2016.
Aoife Clark is an Irish equestrian. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, she competed in the Individual eventing, riding Master Crusoe.
Inessa Viktorovna Merkulova is a Russian Olympic dressage rider. She competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she placed 23rd in the individual competition aboard Trakehner Mister X. She went on to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as well, during which she placed 12th in the team competition representing the Russian Olympic Committee, and 31st individually. Merkulova has also represented Russia at five World Equestrian Games, five European Dressage Championships, and seven World Cup Finals.
Belinda Trussell is a Canadian Olympic dressage rider. Representing Canada, she competed at two Summer Olympics. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece she placed 9th in the team competition and 36th in the individual competition. 12 years later, she achieved 27th position in the individual event.
Alexandra Jurjevna Korelova is a Russian Olympic dressage rider. She competed at two Summer Olympics. Her best Olympic achievement came in 2008 when she finished 8th individually.
Rosalind "Ros" Canter is a British equestrian who competes in eventing. She is the 2018 World Champion. On Monday, 8 May 2023 she won the Badminton Horse Trials riding Lordships Graffalo. She won gold medal in Team eventing at 2024 Paris Olympics.
Sam Watson is an Irish eventing rider. Representing Ireland, he has competed at three editions of World Equestrian Games. His best achievements came at the 2018 edition of the Games, held in Tryon, North Carolina, where he won a silver medal with an Irish team and placed 14th individually.
Heike Holstein is an Irish equestrian. She competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2000 Summer Olympics, the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Laurence Roos is a Belgian dressage rider. She competed at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, at two European Dressage Championships, and competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, finishing 23rd individually and 10th with the Belgian team.
Dinja van Liere is a Dutch dressage rider. She competed at the European Dressage Championships in Hagen 2021 and was the traveling reserve for the Dutch team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
