The Grand Finale: Rolex Top 3 Celebrate in Final Press Conference

Photo by Leslie Threlkeld. Photo by Leslie Threlkeld.

The top three finishers at a thrilling edition of Rolex Kentucky gathered in the media center following the awards ceremony to drink champagne break down their show jumping rounds today. It should come as not a huge surprise that Michael Jung now has a Rolex for each wrist, but the U.S. contingent should also be thrilled with the fact that two of our top younger riders find themselves in the second and third position.

The final press conference is always a happy one, and everyone was in great spirits as we celebrated another successful weekend full of eventing highs. Congratulations to all, and here are your final top quotes from your Rolex 2016 top three:

Michael Jung on how he feels about his second Rolex win: “I’m not usually one for so many words… but the big thing I have to say: thank you to all the people that help me, that I can come back again and compete with so many good horses.”

Michael Jung on how he is feeling looking ahead to Badminton: “It’s a normal competition for me. It is a very big competition, it is tough, but you have to give the horse a normal feeling like it’s just a dressage practice. If you put too much pressure on in the warm-up then it comes to mistakes.”

Michael Jung on if the expectation to win caused more pressure: “My personality is a little bit calm, but when you wait all day for your ride that makes you a bit nervous.”

Lauren on how it feels to win the USEF National Championship for a second time: “There was definitely a lot of planning going into this one. Last time, it was a bit of a pleasant surprise… I think it’s important to notice that the U.S. kind of dominated the leaderboard this time and we had a lot of nations here. The U.S. team has certainly been working hard to raise their game, and hopefully everyone keeps on that and we gain confidence going into the summer.”

Maya Black on the fact that she didn’t know the media center existed before this weekend: “I really like being here!”

If you missed out, you can re-watch our live stream of the press conference below: