Nick Skelton & Big Star make history with Individual Gold medal win at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Saturday 20 August 2016
Fifty-eight year old Nick Skelton OBE from Alcester, Warwickshire made history today when he won the Individual Jumping Gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with Big Star, the 13 year-old bay stallion owned by Beverley and Gary Widdowson. This phenomenally talented duo rewrote the history books by winning Great Britain’s first ever Individual Gold in this event, four years after winning Team Gold at London 2012.
Competing in his seventh Olympic Games, todays victory also saw Nick become Britain’s second oldest Olympic Gold medallist, a record only beaten by Joshua Millner who won Individual Gold for Shooting in 1908 at the age of 61.
It was a dream day for Nick as he triumphed in an exhilarating six-man jump off with the brilliant Big Star. A total of thirty-five world class combinations started out in today’s competition and after two rounds of jumping over course designer Guilherme Jorge’s big and technical tracks, it was just six competitors who remained in the running. With six combinations having managed to hold onto a zero penalty score, it meant that they were all required to come forward for a third and final round against the clock to decide the three medal winning positions.
Nick and Big Star, having already produced two faultless rounds, were first to go in the jump off and laying down the gauntlet they produced yet another textbook clear in 42.82 seconds. Such is Big Star’s talent and his trust in Nick’s expert hands, the way they twisted and turned their way around the course had spectators on the edge of their seats jumping the course with them. It was this gladiatorial performance that saw them deliver an unbelievably brave and talented round in a time that was fast enough to give an eventual half a second advantage over Peder Fredricson with All (SWE) who tookSilver medal position. A tense wait ensued as Nick watched the remaining riders challenge him; but his Gold medal win was confirmed when Canadian rider Eric Lamaze and Fine Lady 5, the last to go, rolled a pole at the penultimate fence to take Bronze.
Talking after the medal ceremony, a euphoric Nick, who had shed a tear on the podium, said “I was just emotional because I've always dreamt about this day, I’ve had a long career and to do it now is unbelievable. To actually win this at my age and to be lucky enough to get Big Star here is pretty emotional for all concerned in my team.
“Big Star is an absolutely amazing horse, we trust him, he wants to do it and for me he's the best horse I've ever had.”
Nick also talked through his tactics for today’s jump off "Obviously I was the first to go and in my mind we should go as fast as we safely could without taking too many risks. He’s a quick horse anyway and I knew I definitely had to go clear because it would then add a little bit of pressure on everybody else. I then just hoped that I had done the right thing and that luck would be on my side; it definitely was today!"
Also competing in the Individual Final for Great Britain, having produced some solid performances through the week, was Ben Maher from Bishops Stortford with Jane Forbes Clark's bay stallion TicTac. A good first round saw them sit high enough in the field to qualify for the second round. However, three fences lowered at this stage and a time penalty saw them relegated down the line into 25th position. This was Tic Tac's first championships having only started competing on Top Level teams this year so to have reached this far in the competiton stands testament to the scope of his talent and the career that lays ahead of him.
.jpg "British Showjumping’s Youth Teams announced for Nations Cup in Linz-Ebelsberg, Austria")
.JPG "Sophia Rogers makes a winning return and Rachel Proudley claims a championship double at Pony of the Year Show")
