Ingrid Klimke grew up counting the years in Olympic cycles thanks to the athletic success of her father and well-known equestrian legend Reiner Klimke. Traveling to places such as Seoul – the site of the 1988 Summer Olympics – gave younger Ingrid a taste of equestrian sport at the highest levels. In 2000, the year after Reiner’s passing, Ingrid would go to her first Olympics representing Germany in Sydney, Australia. She would also represent Germany in Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio de Janiero (2016).
Qualified to represent Germany this year in Tokyo in both dressage and eventing (though she’s sadly had a bit of hard luck, with both her dressage mount Franziskus and one of her top eventers, SAP Asha P, injured), Ingrid now also boasts double European Championship gold but is still seeking her first individual Olympic medal. Her trophy cabinet is far from thin, though: she’s collected three team Olympic medals, two team WEG medals and a bronze individual medal at WEG in 2018 to boot. She’ll also likely look to defend her European title, which she won in both 2017 and 2019, this fall at Swiss Avenches.
But don’t let me tell you all about Ingrid, hear from the queen herself in the latest episode of the FEI series “Icons” which looks back on the careers of legendary equestrian athletes and the partners who have helped their dreams come true.
Go Eventing.
