http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSX-gl3cPT0
Short video of Cross-Country at the 1996 Olympic Games. Last documented use of a Troxel an Olympic Games, by Wendy Schaeffer. Phillip Dutton is also riding for Australia in the clip, on True Blue Girdwood *booooo*.
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While we’re all waiting for the start to the London Olympic Games, 16 years ago, the US was enjoying their best result since 1984. The venue? Atlanta, of course. The games came back to the United States, and with that the team of Karen and David O’Connor, Kerry Milliken, Bruce Davidson, and Jill Henneberg won team silver behind the Australians.
Remember Biko? Remember Giltedge? Out and About, who won individual silver? The names read like my childhood horse fantasies. You can practically see Biko’s big blaze running around the cross-country course in Atlanta, Giltedge on his first of many USA teams. Bruce Davidson, competing in his last Olympics, wearing another silver medal.
Another notable feature of the 1996 Games? It was only one of two instances (the other being Sydney in 2000) where the individual and team competitions were held completely separate. Horses that were part of the team did not have the chance to contest individual medals as well.
In the other disciplines, the USA also medaled in Show Jumping and Dressage. Michael Matz helped the show jumpers secure silver, and the boy band dream team of Robert Dover, Steffen Peters and Guenter Seidel won bronze in Dressage.
What do you think? Can the USA return to winning ways in London? Or better their 1996 result?
What else do you remember from Atlanta? Bela Karolyi’s famous “YOO KAHN DOO IT!” Kerri Strug of the United States women’s gymnastics team vaulted with an injured ankle and landed on one foot, giving the US team gold in women’s gymnastics.
