Paris Olympic Happy Hour: All’s Fair in Love and Cross Country

Leslie Wylie, , Comments Off on Paris Olympic Happy Hour: All’s Fair in Love and Cross Country
The cross country phase proved influential at Versailles today, shaking the leaderboard like a snow globe.

Cheers, Horse Nation! Each evening we’ll be pulling together the day’s top equestrian stories from Paris in one easy-to-read summary format. Think of us as your favorite sports bar rather than the long bar crawl from site to site to catch all the day’s equestrian news.

For pure entertainment, nothing beats the take-no-prisoners format of Olympic eventing. With three-person teams and no drop score, everyone’s on the hook – no room for an off day. And let’s face it, cross country is tailor-made for bad days.

A single cross country blip can dropkick an entire team off the podium and straight into scoreboard abyss. Exhibit A: Team Germany. In silver medal position after dressage, when Germany’s usually rock-solid Christoph Wahler executed a perfect somersault from Carjatan S at the #16 combination, even brilliant performances from their teammates — including Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH, who laid their bid for individual gold — weren’t enough to keep the team from plummeting to 14th out of 16 in the standings.

Michael Jung and Chipmunk FRH. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Team USA wasn’t spared from the system’s brutal “no mercy” policy either. They slid from 6th after dressage to 9th when pathfinders Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake racked up 20 penalties for a runout at the same pesky ditch that tripped up Christoph. It seemed the horses had a tough time reading it — but hey, all’s fair in love and cross country!

Liz Halliday with Nutcracker and Boyd Martin with Fedarman B both hustled around the course, gathering only a handful of time penalties. They’ll head into tomorrow’s show jumping in 22nd and 17th places, respectively.

Boyd Martin and Fedarman B. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Liz Halliday and Nutcracker. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Caroline Martin and HSH Blake. Photo by Tilly Berendt.

Keeping the top of the podium warm is Team Great Britain, which has two riders in the top six and a third in 24th.

Teams in medal-position teams at the conclusion of cross country:

🥇Great Britain Great Britain (82.50)

🥈France France (87.20)

🥉JapanJapan (93.80)

Medal-position individuals:

🥇Germany Michael Jung & Chipmunk FRH (17.80) 

🥈Great Britain Laura Collett & London 52 (18.30)

🥉Australia Chris Burton & Shadow Man (22.0)

The excitement continues tomorrow, with team show jumping. Due to another Olympics glitch-in-the-matrix rule, the horses and riders will show jump two rounds to determine team and individual placings.

You can get the full report on today’s exciting cross country action via our sister site, Eventing Nation!

#Paris2024: [Website] [Equestrian Schedule, Timing, Scoring] [Peacock for U.S. Viewers] [How to Watch Guide] [Ticket Resale Market] [Spectator Guides] [EN’s Coverage] [Form Guide] [Team Form Guide] [Dressage Companion Guide]