Individual, Open

There were a number of notable absentees from the Athina Olympic Games. Dermott Lennon, the Irishman who had won the 2002 world title missed the Games as his gold medal winning horse, Liscalgot, had suffered an injury in 2003 that would eventually end her career. The same fate befell another top contender, For Pleasure, the mount of Germany’s Marcus Ehning had to be withdrawn shortly before the Games when it too fell lame. A different reason was responsible for the non-appearance of the top German Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, her horse Shutterfly tested positive for the sedative hydroxylpromazine at the World Cup final earlier in the year and the German federation did not consider her for Athina. Of those that reached Athina, the Brazilian Rodrigo Pessoa and his “superstar” horse Baloubet du Rouet had been consistently amongst the world’s best for nearly a decade, German riders had finished 1-2-3 in the 2003 European Championships and Jos Lansink, in his fifth Olympics, although this time representing Belgium instead of the Netherlands, was also considered amongst those in strong contention for medals.

A single qualifying round held on 22 August was added to individual results from the team competition, those riding solely as individuals competed over the same course with the top 45 competitors moving into the final. The rule stating that only three from each nation could qualify for the final proved costly for the European champion Christian Ahlmann of Germany, he finished 19th but only fourth German.

Qualifying scores were not carried through to the final which consisted of two rounds of jumping over courses of increased difficulty. Only two riders produced faultless first rounds, Jessica Chesney-Kürten of Ireland and the veteran Briton Nick Skelton. Skelton was a sentimental favourite, having retired in 2000 following a fall in which he suffered a double fracture of his C1 vertebrae. By 2002 the injury had sufficiently healed that surgeons were able to declare him fit to resume his career. The outsider Daniel Meech of New Zealand placed third with a single time penalty but no less than 28 riders were within eight penalties of the leaders.

For the second round riders went in the order of their positions with the leaders going last. Pessoa was the first rider to go clear, adding zero to his first round score of eight. As those around him produced disappointing performances he moved up the leaderboard until the entry into the arena of Ireland’s Cian O’Connor. O’Connor and Waterford Crystal jumped impeccably and stayed on their round one score of four faults. With only the last three combinations to go O’Connor still led with Pessoa and the USA’s Chris Kappler jointly in second. Meech and Skelton produced identical rounds, knocking three fences down and being slightly over the allowed time. This guaranteed a gold medal to Ireland, a nation that prides itself on its’ horsemanship, for the first time in Olympic equestrianism. The only question was whether it would go O’Connor or to Chesney-Kürten. In the event Chesney-Kürten would have a disastrous round, knocking five fences over and O’Connor would win the gold. A jump-off for the silver medal was decided in favour of Pessoa when Royal Kaliber, Chris Kappler’s mount, pulled up lame.

On 8 October 2004 it was announced that a urine sample taken from Waterford Crystal had tested positive for prohibited substances. The substances were later revealed to be zuclopenthixol and fluphenazine, anti-psychotic drugs used to treat schizophrenia in humans. O’Connor requested that the “B” sample be tested but it was reported missing, believed stolen, in transit between Medication Control Programme Central Laboratory in Paris and the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory in Newmarket, England. On the day that the news of the theft became public, the offices of the Irish Equestrian Federation were broken into and some documents taken although no link to the case has ever been proven. A blood sample taken at the same time as the urine sample was later tested and the results confirmed the previous findings. The explanation given by O’Connor was that the horse suffered a fetlock injury a month prior to the Games and his veterinary surgeon recommended the horse be given a mild sedative to prevent him becoming upset, which might have caused further injury. Although the FEI inquiry absolved O’Connor of deliberate doping he was stripped of his medal, his Olympic results were annulled and he received a three-month ban from competition. Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil inherited the gold medal, Chris Kappler (USA) moved up to silver and Germany’s Marco Kutscher took the bronze.