Paris Olympic Happy Hour: Bling-Bling! Team USA Delivers Silver in Jumping

Leslie Wylie, Comments Off on Paris Olympic Happy Hour: Bling-Bling! Team USA Delivers Silver in Jumping
Today the U.S. secured its first equestrian podium finish of this Games, earning Team silver in jumping.

Great Britain claimed gold, as it did earlier this week in eventing. The French also landed a second team medal, this time: bronze.

It was a challenging, time-crunched course (79 seconds!) and the athletes had to ride their pants off to beat the clock. And these jumps are works of art! (Of course, art is subjective and it’s fair to say most horses I know would sooner run in the opposite direction than appreciate these jumps’ “bold” choices of color, texture and form.)

 

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A post shared by The Chronicle (@chronofhorse)

 

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A post shared by The Chronicle (@chronofhorse)

For the U.S., both Karl Cook with Caracole De La Roque and McLain Ward with Ilex jumped clear rounds; Laura Kraut with Baloutinue had a rail. Fun fact about 58-years-young Laura: In Tokyo she became the oldest female Olympian to win a medal since 1904, and with this Games she broke her own record!

 

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A post shared by Team USA (@teamusa)

When I first saw this photo I had a lot of questions — OK, just one: What’s in the box? I wanted badly to believe that it was a commemorative baguette, maybe like with the Olympic rings branded onto it or something, but sounds like it’s just an official poster.

Lame.

 

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A post shared by USA Jumping (@usajumping)

Nice work, again, Great Britain! I love this cute little keep-it-in-the-family story:

 

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A post shared by Official FEI 🐎 (@fei_global)

Here’s your final team leaderboard:

    1. Great Britain Great Britain (2) 🥇
    2. United States of America United States of America (4) 🥈
    3. France France (7) 🥉
    4. Netherlands Netherlands (7)
    5. Germany Germany (8)
    6. Sweden Sweden (12)
    7. Ireland Ireland (14)
    8. Belgium Belgium (20)
    9. Israel Israel (33)
    10. Mexico Mexico (WD)

You can view the complete results here.

Alright! So, what’s next what’s next?

Actual footage of me looking at the schedule.

Next up … is a weekend full of dressage, with the Grand Prix Special happening Saturday and the Grand Prix Freestyle on Sunday. Then it’s back to jumping on Monday, with an individual qualifier followed by a final on Tuesday.

Remember: You can count on us for end-of-day pint-sized recaps (Happy Hour … GET IT?!?!) , so keep it locked here. Cheers, HN!