The top 22 riders out of 50 from Round A of the Individual Jumping Final went on to jump in Round B. There were only supposed to be 20, but because there were 10 clear rounds and 12 riders with 4 faults, they invited 22 riders back. Among them, U.S. riders Beezie Madden riding Authentic and McLain Ward with Sapphire.
Beezie had a clear first round and McLain had four faults. In the second round, Beezie had four and McLain was clear.
With only two riders with a double-clear, Rolf-Goran Bengtsson of Sweden and Eric Lamaze of Canada, our U.S. riders found themselves in a seven-way tie for the bronze. McLain was the first American to go and at that point Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum was the one to beat as she jumped clear and had a time of 35.37. It looked like he would do it until the last fence. With four faults he was out of the medals.
Beezie knew she had to jump clear and fast and that's just what she did! She had no faults and a time of 35.25 seconds. With one rider, Marc Houtzager from the Netherlands, left to jump, she was now the one to beat - he couldn't do it - Beezie had the bronze!
The results were:
1. Eric Lamaze - Canada
2. Rolf-Goran Bengtsson - Sweden
3. Beezie Madden - United States
This was Canada's first time ever to win the gold in Individual Show Jumping.
This wraps up the equestrian events at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Congratulations to our Show Jumping Team for their gold medal win, Gina Miles for her individual silver in Eventing and Beezie Madden for her individual bronze in Show Jumping!
GO USA!!
America is doing a bang up job in 2008. What amazes me is the amount of GOLD medals the chinese are getting. In many different events, they have really made a strong showing in the home country. Having said that I think the judging and scoring in some events has definately been on the side of the Chinese, balance beam bronze medal.
Hi Brigita, I finally caught some equestrian and saw the riders you mention. Some very nifty riding !
Kristin:
It is amazing how close the Chinese are to the US as far as total medals.
Hi, Bill:
I felt myself "riding" with the riders in each of the events. It is truly exciting! Especially the Show Jumping. I was on the edge of my seat in the Jump Off.
I am always surprised we see so much beach volleyball and so little of these equestrian events. They are truly exciting.
Go USA - Congrats to the team...
James:
I agree. The equestrian events are exciting. I'm sure many of us would like to see more of these events.
Michael:
USA all the way!!
If living on the east coast and having a job 9-5 then i can say unequivocally that equestrian events were not shown during prime time hours. This goes along with no footage of lawn hockey, badminton, ping pong, rowing, cycling (not bmx) and other miniscule sports (in the eyes of others) which would hvae been nice to see. After all those are the events you otherwise never have a chance to see. Therefore, i'm happy you brought this to our attention as no news was broadcast about the horse events. It's good to know the us did won some medals in Horse riding.
Castellum Realty:
It's a shame that the media does not report more on these other events. We all would love to find out about them. The good thing is that more stations were televising the events, but more events need to be televised. Maybe we should send a "reporter" to cover each individual event?!?!