After jumping clear around the first individual qualifying round on Authentic on Aug. 15, Beezie Madden explained why she really believed she and her three U.S. teammates were on the verge of bringing back a medal from either the Olympics or World Championships for only the second time since 1990.

“You have four real pros with the same work ethic, who get up every morning and try to do the best we can. And we all have the same goal we want to revive show jumping in the United States,” she said.

Since Madden, Peter Wylde (on Fein Cera) and McLain Ward (on Sapphire) had each kept all the rails up, and Chris Kappler (on Royal Kaliber) had lowered just one fence, they were wishing that the qualifying round had counted toward the team championship. But in the Olympics, it doesn’t. Only the two-rounds-in-one-day Nations Cup decides the team medals, and after the first round two days later the U.S. team was tied for second with 8 faults, just 4 faults behind the heavily favored German squad.

The U.S. quartet added 12 faults (4 for Kappler, 8 for Ward) in the second round. And that allowed Germany to pull away to their third consecutive Olympic gold medal and Sweden to pull even at 20 faults, mandating a jump-off against the clock after midnight, under the bright lights of the Markopoulo Equestrian Center for the silver.

Peter Eriksson led off for Sweden, guiding Cardento to a clear round in 45.31 seconds, saving time by jumping over a decorative island before the last oxer. Wylde and Fein Cera, the heroes of the 2002 World Championships as the individual bronze medalists but the drop score in the Nations Cup with 12 faults in each round, circled the island as they answered with a clear round just .35 seconds slower.

Peder Fredericson of Sweden then galloped around the island with Magic Bengtsson to clock a slow 48.05 seconds. Which was all the room jump-off specialist Ward needed, as he urged Sapphire to leap over the island and galloped through the timers in 42.49 seconds, giving the U.S. team a 5.21-second lead.

It was great that Peter and me could contribute to the team because our teammates had sort of carried us through earlier, said Ward.

Malin Baryard and Butterfly Flip, Sweden’s hottest combination, could only make a small dent in that lead, finishing in 45.12 seconds. And then Kappler and Royal Kaliber nailed the medal down, galloping boldly around the jump-off (and around the island) in 42.94 seconds, giving his team an insurmountable 7.39-second advantage.

The Swedes decided there was no point to sending Rolf-Goran Bengtsson into the ring, and Frank Chapot’s team had claimed the silver medal for the third time since winning its first and only Olympic gold medal exactly 20 years ago.

It was a big step for us today, said Madden. We really needed that to boost our morale, to show we still have a chance to do well. It works out great with the timing of our new federation, so maybe we can go forward from here.

-The Scores Don’t Really Count

With her two clear rounds, the finish of the Nations Cup left Madden as the No. 1 qualifier for the two-round individual final three days later, although all that meant was that she got to start last in round 1. That’s because in the Olympics all the other qualified riders, including Kappler and Ward, start the individual final with 0 faults.

But Authentic couldn’t replicate the perfect form he’d shown over the first three courses, grabbing fence 9 (a 5’2″ vertical six strides after his exaggerated leap over the water jump) and then knocking down the 5’2″- and 5’4″-wide oxers at fences 12A and 12B with his hind toes. Those 12 faults kept the Dutch Warmblood gelding out of round 2.

Madden said she rode the water aggressively because he can be a little bit green about that and wasn’t able to get him properly balanced to answer the question posed by the vertical. As for the final triple combination, I can’t tell you why he did that, other than he’s had a lot to look at for a 9-year-old this week.

Ward moved on to round 2 when Sapphire accrued 8 faults for lowering the rails at fences 7B and 12B. But he was barely able to pull up after jumping round 2’s fence 4 when the left side of his straight-bar rubber bit broke off the cheek piece.

And so U.S. hopes all hinged on Royal Kaliber, the stallion who’s been the star of U.S. show jumping for the last two years and was the only horse selected for the team without jumping in the selection trials last May. Kappler and the U.S. crew had been nursing him along after he’d inexplicably injured his left hind leg at Hachenburg (Germany) in June, and the pair had looked slightly rusty in the individual qualifier. But they’d jumped as smoothly as usual through the Nations Cup, adding up to only 4 faults in the three rounds.

Olaf Petersen’s scope-testing concluding courses seemed built for Royal Kaliber, and in round 1 the stallion caught only fence 12B with a hind leg in an otherwise textbook effort.

That triple combination was the course’s biggest fault producer, Madden thought because horses saw the tight distance to the final vertical and dropped their hind legs on the oxers back rails as they tried to shorten.

Royal Kaliber was one of eight horses with 4 faults (plus two with 0 faults and one with 1) as round 2 began under the lights. Even though he jumped through the top rail of the 5’2″ vertical at fence 7 looking as if he never saw the top rail–he and Kappler stayed in medal contention as the course’s questions of scope and adjustability, along with the endurance factor, knocked horse after horse from the picture.

So when Rodrigo Pessoa and Baloubet Du Rouet used all their extraordinary powers to record a rare clear round after an eight-fault first round, he and Kappler were forced to jump off for the silver medal.

Pessoa didn’t hurry Baloubet, deciding to make a clear round over the giant-sized but shorter course his priority. But he left the door open wide when his chestnut stallion inexplicably hit the final oxer.

Kappler set off clearly bent on recording a faster time should Royal Kaliber also fault, but screams of anguish and shock filled the stadium when, with two fences to go, Kappler pulled his mount up, catastrophically lame, and leaped off. Veterinarians and U.S. support crew ran across the ring to Royal Kaliber’s aid, and after his left front leg had been splinted, he calmly walked into the horse ambulance to be taken to the on-site veterinary clinic.

Royal Kaliber was the third show jumper to be removed from the ring in the ambulance.

Looking shell-shocked, Kappler returned to the ring 15 minutes later to bravely receive his bronze medal. Literally, he’s my life, said Kappler, the first U.S. individual Olympic medalist in show jumping since Norman Dello Joio won the bronze in 1992.

Later that night, Prof. Leo Jeffcott, the chief veterinary officer at the Olympics, reported that X-rays showed no fracture and ultrasound examination showed an acute strain of the superficial digital flexor tendon, or a bowed tendon. He was immediately treated with ice and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Kappler said he felt Royal Kaliber take a funny step landing off the house-like oxer before the double combination. But I thought he’d just stung himself, he said.

Royal Kaliber then turned right and tried to jump the double combination without landing on the injured leg, but one stride later he had to inexorably and painfully put his full weight on it.

Four days later, Kappler was still hopeful that Royal Kaliber would be able to return to competition in a year. The extent of the injury is hard to say until we let the swelling go down more, said Kappler. Royal Kaliber was scheduled to fly home seven days after the Olympics.

“He came and did what he was supposed to do. He came here and won two medals, and if he never does anything again, that would be OK, said Kappler.  “To have won two medals in the Olympics is great, but I’d give everything back for my horse to be fine again,” he added.

Still Unexplained

For Pessoa, the silver medal was, indeed, a welcome addition to his long list of victories and something of a redemption. Four years ago he was the odds-on favorite in Sydney, having won the three previous FEI World Cup Finals and the World Championship in 1998. And in Sydney he and Baloubet had led their Brazilian teammates to their second consecutive team bronze medal.

But on the verge of gold, Baloubet stopped at a combination, after knocking down the first fence, in the second round of the final and Pessoa gracefully withdrew, realizing something wasn’t right with the chestnut stallion who can jump over the moon.

We never really figured out what happened there. He just didn’t want to do it anymore, said Pessoa, adding that the hard footing may have been a factor because FEI rules don’t allow any medication.

Baloubet has shown only sporadic glimpses of his former brilliance since Sydney, though, and anyone who predicted the pair to be in the hunt before the games started did so merely out of respect for the feats they’d achieved.

Athens didn’t begin much better, with Pessoa’s teammates running up bowling scores in the Nations Cup as the team really lost track completely, said Pessoa, and slipped to 10th.

Baloubet jumped without error in round 1, but he left two poles in the ground on round 2. And in round 1 of the individual final he lowered two more, making him one of 18 who reached round 2 carrying 8 faults.

After the first round, I certainly didn’t expect a medal, said Pessoa. But when I saw the second round start, I felt more confident.

Petersen’s second course was a perfect vehicle of Baloubet, though. Fence 4, a curve-shape triple bar depicting an amphitheater, followed by five short strides to a triple combination that concluded with a 5’6″-wide oxer, were tests only horses with super scope could easily handle. And Baloubet recorded one of the only two clear trips to leap into medal contention.

“He showed that he really is a super horse,” said Pessoa with pride. He added that he has no plans to retire Baloubet, 15, and planned to show him at the Spruce Meadows Masters (Alta.) on Sept. 9-12.

More Than Just Irish Luck

Still, it’s unlikely that Baloubet will return for a third Olympics in Beijing, where Cian O’Connor of Ireland will be hoping to break the trend of the last two individual gold medalists, who haven’t been able to defend their titles. To reach Beijing, he’ll have to either convince the sponsors who have paid for Waterford Crystal to get to Athens to continue for another four years or find a new sponsor for either this horse or another.

But that was only a peripheral thought for the 24-year-old from County Meath, who was the only Irish medalist in Athens.

“I’d say there’s plenty of Guinness being drunk at home tonight,” O’Connor said with a laugh after spending about 20 minutes being interviewed on Irish TV.

Like Ulrich Kirchoff in 1996 and Jeroen Dubbeldam in 2000, O’Connor’s victory was an upset. “I’m absolutely sure I never expected it,” he said with wide eyes.

His victory, though, somewhat rescued the Olympics from the dustbin of disaster for the Irish, who are very serious about their show jumping and have undergone a turbulent season as their team has floundered.

This quartet stumbled through the Nations Cup in seventh place, 28 faults behind the victorious Germans, partly because O’Connor and Water-ford Crystal rang up 12 faults in round 1 and 9 more in round 2. It was an uncharacteristic performance for the pair, who’ve been one of Ireland’s Nations Cup stalwarts for the past two years. In fact, Athens was O’Connor’s 38th Nations Cup start in the last four years.

O’Connor said they found some knotted muscles on the bay gelding’s neck and back after the Nations Cup, which the team’s massage therapist worked out. It was the best explanation he had for their turnaround.

There is one disappointing aspect to this victory to the Irish, though: Despite his name, Waterford Crystal is not an Irish-bred horse. He’s a German-bred Holsteiner by the great sire Landgraf, a horse O’Connor, who makes his living dealing in horses, found at German dealer Paul Schockemohle’s barn. (Schockemohle, one of Germany’s biggest stars in the ’70s and ’80s, coached the Korean team to ninth place.)

Nevertheless, O’Connor is the second straight individual champion to come out of the Emerald Isle, since Dermott Lennon won the World Championship two years ago. Lennon wasn’t on this team, though, as L’Escalgot has been injured since shortly after that victory.

Two other Irish riders softened the Nations Cup defeat with strong performances in the individual final. Pennsylvania-based Kevin Babington and Carling King jumped consistently to eighth with rounds of 8 and 4 faults. And German-based Jessica Kurten and Castle Forbes Maike were in perfect position to grab the gold medal at the end of round 1, when she and Nick Skelton of Great Britain scored the only faultless rounds.

But Castle Forbes Maike dislodged all three elements of the triple combination at 5ABC and, shaken, knocked down two more fences to fall all the way to 20th.

Skelton and Arko III, one of the two British individuals since their team didn’t qualify, also fell victim to fences 4 and 5A before reaching fence 9 on a half-stride and nearly demolishing it. The mistakes left the popular Skelton, whose career seemed over with a broken back just a few years ago, in 12th place.

With German Precision

The German experience was the opposite of the Irish. With four riders performing almost perfectly, they crushed 17 opponents in the Nations Cup. But only first-time Olympian Marco Kutscher, on Montender, could break in to the top 10 in the individual final.

Actually, it was something of a shock to see superstar combinations Ludger Beerbaum on Goldfever and Otto Becker on Cento struggle to the finish line with two or more lowered fences behind them on the final night.

Beerbaum and Goldfever had looked red hot in the qualifying rounds, finishing with no jumping faults and just 1 time fault over two of the three courses. But in the individual round 1 Goldfever grabbed the rela-tively easy vertical at fence 5 with a hind leg after wandering through the turn and then caught the back rail at 12B.

I just didn’t ride precisely enough, said Beerbaum. No excuse, just bad riding.

But that wasn’t the case in the Nations Cup, where the riders, their support crew and their country were looking for a third consecutive Olympic victory (and ninth Olympic team gold medal) and redemption for the French defeat in the 2002 World Championships. The French were never factors in Athens as they withdrew after round 1, having lost Dileme De Cephe and Bruno Broucqsault to a bowed tendon on course and Dollar Du Maurier and Eric Navet to a warm-up area injury.

To celebrate, Beerbaum, Kutscher, Becker and Christian Ahlmann each threw their helmets high into the night sky and then picked up chef d’equipe Kurt Gravemeier and threw him into the water jump. It was a dousing that Gravemeier, in his first Olympics since taking over as the team’s leader in 2001, was glad to accept.

It’s hard to say which German team feels more pressure, the show jumpers or the dressage riders. The dressage team has a 30-year winning streak that’s probably unprecedented in sports and which creates its own kind of pressure, on top of the fact that Germany is the undisputed center of dressage in the world. With literally dozens of candidates who’d make just about any other team any year, the hardest thing to do is to get on the German dressage team. After that, the Olympics are easy.

The show jumpers don’t carry the burden of a decades-long winning streak, if only because such a skein simply isn’t possible in the game of centimeters that is show jumping. But show jumping is a big-time sport (and business) in Germany, akin to NASCAR racing or golf in the United States. Victory is expected, and there better be a good excuse if it doesn’t happen.

So the German federation operates like a well-oiled machine, putting together the riders best ready for each championship and bringing up more riders behind them. Nine different riders have brought home the last three show jumping gold medals.

The main reason we won is that we are a really good team. Every person plays their role, and we are the lucky ones to be wearing the medals, said Beerbaum, with his fourth Olympic team gold medal around his neck.

Said Becker of their preparation, We are always working to improve the small things.