The year we remember today is 2008. Do you know what that means? DO YOU?
It means that the dressage at the 2012 Olympic Games is FOUR DAYS AWAY! Will you all please start showing a little enthusiasm? You’re embarrassing me.
The first thing to remember about the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were that they err weren’t held in Beijing. The equestrian sport was held in Hong Kong (that’s still in China, but several hours away, for us geographically challenged people).
The great thing about remembering the 2008 Games? Some of the horses will be competing in their second Olympics in 2012. We’ll get to that later.
Sidebar: I know, I KNOW we had the internet in 2008. So, why is video so hard to find? Couldn’t get through China’s firewall? Does NBC still have it under lock and key? If I click one more ‘Cross country 2008’ video and have it merely be a photomontage with One Direction playing in the background I’m going to scream! End Sidebar.
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Eventing
There’s not much great stuff to say about the USA in the team Eventing. They finished in a dismal 7th place. McKinlaigh was brilliant with rider Gina Miles, Amy Tryon and long-time partner, and Olympic vet Poggio II were eliminated cross-country, and Courageous Comet and Mandiba both picked up multiple stops on cross-country, officially eliminating the team from medal contention.
The lone bright star was Gina Miles and McKinlaigh, who rode a superb stadium jumping round, coming within 2 points of gold medal winner Hinrich Romeike and Marius Voigt-Logistik.
Two horses in the German gold-medal winning team will be present at the 2012 Olympic Games, but Germans won’t ride them. Mr. Medicott will represent the USA with Karen O’Connor, and Butts Leon will compete with Thailand’s Nina Ligon, who is riding as an individual.
Two Cross-Country Videos that, when combined, almost get the job done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OuGs8SA0Us
And because there’s something so soothing about Lucinda Green’s voice, this one as well:
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Show Jumping
Oh hey, thanks U.S. Olympic Show Jumping team for getting us a team medal! Oh, is that gold? Oh, it’s so pretty.
The U.S. was unstoppable in 2008, winning in the first-ever Olympic jump-off with Canada. Canada had the disadvantage of only having 3 riders, which meant that when Will Simpson jumped clean in the jump-off, it was all over. The Canadians had a bit of revenge though, when Eric Lamaze and the great stallion Hickstead won individual gold over bronze-medal winner Beezie Madden and Authentic.
Hickstead’s Round:
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Dressage
Welcome to the world stage, Steffen Peters and Ravel. Okay Steffen, you’ve clearly been here before, but this is a whole new story. Ravel finished fourth individually, and third in the Freestyle, behind very deserving horses Salinero (Anky van Grunsven), Satchmo (Isabelle Werth) and Bonaparte (Heike Kimmer). Of course he would go on to clinch the bronze medal two years later at the WEG in Kentucky, but his first Olympics was an important one.
Anky wins her second in a row, aboard the stallion Salinero. The United States finished fourth, only to be disqualified after Courtney Dye-King’s horse Mythilus tested positive for a banned medication.
Anky’s Grand Prix test (skip to 1:45):
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2008 Olympic Facts and Figures
-A total of six horses tested positive for banned substances
-Anky became the first rider in history to win three individual Olympic medals
-2008 became the first Olympics to implement the ‘One fall’ rule
-Hinrich Romeike was an amateur in 2008 when he won gold. His day job? A dentist.
-In Hong Kong, only 35 horses contented the individual jumping final, down 10 from Athens
-The horses stayed in air-conditioned special “boxes” in Hong Kong, where the temperature was set at 73.4 degrees
