GERMANY’s Michael Jung became the individual Olympic champion for the third time on Monday, taking gold with Chipmunk FRH at the Paris Olympic Games in Versailles.

Incredibly, it is the fifth German Olympic champion in-a-row the sport has seen since 2008, when Hinrich Romeike won, followed by Jung in 2012 and 2016 and Julia Krajewski at Tokyo in 2021. On Monday, Jung set the record finishing score of 21.8 at an Olympics.

A fence down in the team jumping final was the only fault Jung had over the course of the three days in Paris with the 16-year-old gelding. He saw off Australia’s Christopher Burton, who won silver with Shadow Man; the pair almost finished on their dressage score, but for 0.40 time penalties in the first show jumping round, completing on 22.40.

Britain’s Laura Collet won her first individual medal with London 52, when finishing on 23.10. She was in the silver medal position after cross-country, but four faults at the last fence in the team jumping final saw her slip to third, and a final clear in the afternoon made sure she held on to that position.

Jung was relieved but relaxed in the final press conference, calmly describing his plan. “It’s a very special moment for me,” he said. “I tried to stay really focused and concentrated through the whole week. I tried to say to myself, it’s just the normal show. I tried not to push my horse too much. It’s not always easy with so many spectators and on such an important show.

“In the end, I needed to look at the scoreboard a few times to see if it’s really true, if I really won. I think I need a moment to realise all of it, what it means.”

Machine

After almost three years away from the sport, Chris Burton made his return in March with a new horse, Shadow Man, and he delivered the performance of his life to win the individual silver medal. The pair only did six international events together before coming to Paris. Burton is also a reserve for the Australian show jumping team and revealed his show jumping horse is 15 minutes away in Haras de Jardy should something go wrong with another team member.

“Isn’t he a machine? He’s a delight. He just springs off the ground and he’s got scope and he’s careful and he’s a pleasure,” Burton commented afterwards. “I took a little break from the sport of eventing, so it’s a really nice thing to come back and to have something like this happen, so I’m delighted. I just right now can’t help but think that I’m a lucky man.”

Asked if he would stay in the sport, Burton slightly avoided the question, replying: “We’re going home to Australia. We’re going to go build a house and live a dream.”

Finally, the bronze medal went to Laura Collett, who had earlier in the week set a new eventing dressage record (17.5). She added 0.80 time penalties on cross-country day, before 4.80 show jumping in the first round, saw her complete on 23.10. She is the only rider going home double-handed, after winning the team gold an hour earlier.

“The best man won, Michael is a genius, who has made every one of us ride so much better. We still haven’t learned how to beat him, but maybe one day we will,” she said afterwards. “I never thought this day would come. I was very lucky when I did ponies, juniors and young riders and each year won an individual medal and then I went into seniors and realised it was an awful lot more difficult!

“In Tokyo, I thought I should have and could have won an individual medal, but things didn’t go to plan, but I’ve luckily learned from my mistakes. We had a very strict plan coming here, so that we wouldn’t make the same mistakes as Tokyo and the plan paid off. I’m just so lucky to have been given a second chance. Not many people get to go to one Olympic Games, and I was lucky enough to go to two - so I’m very relieved that I managed to pull it off!”, she said.

Her teammate, the Tokyo individual silver medallist Tom McEwen finished in fourth, ahead of Japan’s Yoshiaki Oiwa and the Martin J Collins-bred Irish Sport Horse MGH Grafton Street in fifth.

The best of the Irish riders in 17th place was Austin O’Connor with the Irish-bred Colorado Blue, who had two fences down in the first round, but came back to jump a first perfect clear round. It is a second Olympics for the pair and the second time they finished within the top 20. The result means O’Connor has completed four Olympic Games and his worse result individually was 21st in Beijing 2008. He also finished 17th in Sydney 2000.

“The first round was obviously very disappointing, I think it was a very good round but I had the last two rails, he hardly touched them! And now it’s just a bit of relief. He’s come in and showed the jump is still there and is a long way off finished. If I had another disappointing round, you’d be psychologically thinking ifs and buts, but he jumped great. He tried his heart out so, it’s a great finish.”