Olympics

In 1988, 11-year-old Hawley Bennett was walking back and forth along her driveway carrying a bottle of dish soap. Why? To make sure her arm wouldn’t get tired while carrying the Olympic Torch. 

Bennett had entered a contest to carry the torch through Langley, B.C. Out of 500 contestants she was chosen as one of three finalists and gave a speech in front of 1,000 people. “I remember everything about that day, right down to the horrible puffy white blouse my mother made me wear,” said Bennett. 

The majority of 40 jumps on the Olympic cross-country course in Greenwich Park, London, England, will be portable according to Horse & Hound. The jumps will be built at an off-site location and then transported to the park and installed about a month before the start of the Olympic Games.

As a result, Greenwich Park will only be closed to the public for about a month. If the cross-country elements were built on site, the closure would be much longer.

The International Olympic Committee voted to award the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, today, Oct. 2.

This will be the first time a South American city has hosted the Games. The Pan American Games were held in Rio in 2007.

German show jumper Christian Ahlmann is ineligible to compete at the 2012 London Olympic Games, according to the International Olympic Committee.

An IOC rule introduced before the 2008 Olympic Games bans athletes from the next Olympic Games if they received a drug suspension of at least six months in the previous four-year period. “Should an athlete get caught doping in [2008] and then get a sanction of six months, he will not be eligible for the 2012 London Games,” said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.

Linda Allen has written a thought-provoking Between Rounds column for this week’s issue. I believe it should be required reading for any rider with international aspirations, whether they’re show jumpers or competing in other disciplines.

The man who became the first American to win an Olympic individual equestrian gold medal'at Mexico City in 1968'recalls the gifts and foibles of the horse with whom he jumped into history.

I first learned of Snowbound's existence from the lips of John (later Sir John) Galvin, the Australian-born benefactor of both the U.S. and Irish equestrian teams.

"I've found a horse that might make you a useful hack," he told me, using a vernacular term he often employed. Like many of his remarks, this one proved a considerable understatement.

Now that we’ve had a few months to digest the highs and lows of the Olympic Games in Hong Kong—from the phenomenal performances of our North American medalists to the doping incidents that are currently being settled by the Fédération Equestre Internationale Tribunal (p. 60)—we can reflect on their impacts.
   

Margaret “Margie” Hough-Sabbatini, renowned horse show judge and business owner, died of a heart attack June 30 in Wellington, Fla. She was 63.

Originally from Grand Rapids, Mich., Mrs. Hough-Sabbatini was first drawn to horses through her parents’ involvement in local county fairs. She began riding and competing show hunters at age 7 and never looked back.

It all came down to a jump-off for the gold medal, Aug. 21, between Eric Lamaze of Canada and Rolf-Goran Bengtsson of Sweden. They were the only riders to post clear rounds over both courses of the individual Olympic show jumping final in Hong Kong, China.

By the time Lamaze entered the arena, he knew he’d only need to jump clear to best Bengtsson, who’d already had a rail. Lamaze just put the pedal down coming to the final wall. “I basically went as fast as I could and hoped that even if I knocked it we’d be faster,” he said.

Denis Lynch said he can explain how Latinus tested postive for capsaicin, the banned substance that prevented him and three other riders from competing in the individual show jumping final at the Olympic Games, Aug. 21 in Hong Kong, China.

He commonly applies a topical substance called Equi-block to his horse's back to loosen the muscles before working, he said. The label on the bottle he produced read, "Contains capsaicin—will not test."