Individual, Open

At the Tokyo Olympics, reigning World champion Ros Canter had been excluded from the British Olympic team. For Paris, the same fate befell 2022 World champion Yasmin Ingham, although she, at least, was named as a reserve for her team. Caroline Powell of New Zealand, winner of the prestigious Badminton Three-Day Event in the spring, was likewise only a reserve for the Paris Games.

Britain’s Laura Collett and her horse London 52 set a new Olympic record with a sensational performance on the first day of the dressage phase to score 17.5, but was closely shadowed by three-time Olympic champion Michael Jung with an equally exceptional score of 17.8 on the second day.

Jung, who had gone clear inside the designated time, then took the lead when Collett collected 0.8 of a time fault over cross-country. European champion Canter was controversially given 15 penalties after an incident at the 21st fence, which moved her out of contention for a medal. Both Jung and Collett made mistakes in the first round of jumping, which put Australia’s Chris Burton in title contention, but clear rounds from all three contenders in the final jumping round assured that Jung, uniquely, was to win his third Olympic title in this event, with Burton and Collett, in that order, filling the other medal positions. This made Jung the second rider to win three individual equestrian Olympic gold medals, after Anky van Grunsven in dressage.