The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and the current Games are being held in 2024 in Paris, France. This was the first international multi-sport event of its kind, organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) founded by Pierre de Coubertin. The tradition of awarding medals began in 1904; in each Olympic event, gold medals are awarded for first place, silver medals for second place, and bronze medals for third place. The Winter Olympic Games were created out of the success of the Summer Olympic Games, which are regarded as the largest and most prestigious multi-sport international event in the world.
The modern pentathlon is an Olympic multisport that currently consists of fencing, freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, laser pistol shooting, and cross country running. Equestrian will be replaced by a form of obstacle course racing after the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The 1900 Summer Olympics, today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 14 May to 28 October 1900. No opening or closing ceremonies were held.
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.
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.
James William George Roycroft, OBE was an Australian Olympic equestrian champion. He grew up on a dairy farm and learnt to ride horses there. After serving in the army in World War II, he moved with his family to a soldier's block in western Victoria near Camperdown, where he raised his three sons, all of whom went on to compete alongside their father in the Olympics. At his first Olympics, the 1960 Rome Games, he played a key role on the final day of the team three-day event, despite being thrown off his horse the day before, allowing Australia to win the gold medal in the competition. He went on to compete in four more Olympics from 1964 to 1976, winning bronze medals in team eventing at the 1968 Mexico City and 1976 Montreal Games. He later served as coach of the Australian eventing team.
Isabell Werth is a German equestrian and world champion in dressage who competed in the Olympics seven times winning fourteen medals, eight 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 and by any German athlete, and is the first athlete to win a medal at seven different Olympic Games editions.
Shane Rose is an Australian equestrian. A three-time Olympic medallist, he started riding at the age of five at the Forest Hills Pony Club. Rose lived with his parents and three siblings in Duffys Forest, New South Wales. He was educated at Newington College Preparatory School, Lindfield (1978–83), and Pittwater House. Rose's love for horses continued to grow, and at 21 years of age he represented Australia in the Young Rider Trans-Tasman competition with Mr Joe Cool.
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.
Markus Fuchs is a Swiss show jumper who competed at five Olympics between 1988 and 2004. He was part of the Swiss team that won silver at the 2000 Olympics.
Wayne William Roycroft, is an Australian equestrian and coach who won two bronze medals at three Olympics. He was the national eventing coach from 1988 to 2010; Australia won four team and two individual medals in the sport during his reign.
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.
Christopher "Burto" Burton is an Australian equestrian, and Olympic Medal winner. He was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in equestrian eventing, as well as the 2024 Summer Olympics in which he won a silver medal in the 'eventing individual' event.
Patrik Kittel is a Swedish horse rider. He was born in Stockholm. He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he placed fourth in team dressage. At the 2012 Summer Olympics he competed in the team dressage events and qualified for the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle, finishing 14th.
Christian Schumach is an Austrian dressage rider. He represented Austria at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France, where he finished 8th in team dressage and 64th in the individual dressage competition. He also represented Austria at the 2017 FEI European Dressage Championships.
Jesse Campbell is a New Zealand eventing rider.
Australia is competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris from 26 July to 11 August 2024. Australian athletes have appeared in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era, alongside France, Great Britain, Greece, and Switzerland. As Brisbane will stage the 2032 Summer Olympics, Australia and the United States, the next nation to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, will march before the homebound French team enters Place du Trocadéro during the parade of nations segment of the opening ceremony.
Surfing at the 2024 Summer Olympics took place 27 July – 5 August 2024 in Teahupoʻo reef pass, Tahiti, French Polynesia, breaking the record for the farthest away a medal competition has been staged from the host city. A total of 48 surfers were competing in the shortboard events, augmenting the athlete size by eight more than those in Tokyo 2020.
The equestrian events at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were run from 27 July to 6 August at the Palace of Versailles, featuring 200 riders across three disciplines for both individual and team competitions, namely dressage, eventing, and jumping. Men and women compete together on equal terms.
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