Torrance Watkins Fleischmann was from a family of horseman, and began riding to the hounds at age four. She lived in Peru as a teenager, and later graduated from the University of Denver. Watkins Fleischman made the ill-fated 1980 US Olympic team, but she won a bronze medal at the alternate equestrian competition, the Fontainebleau Alternate Olympics, the first individual eventing medal won by a woman at a major international. In other years, she finished second at the Burghley Horse Trials and fourth at the Badminton Horse Trials. Watkins Fleischmann competed at the 1978 World Championships, winning a team silver, at the 1982 World Championships, winning team bronze, and the 1986 Worlds.
In 1979-80 and 1982-85, Watkins Fleischmann was voted Leading Lady by the USCTA (US Combined Training Association, forerunner of the US Eventing Association). In 1980 she was voted USCTA Rider of the Year. In 2003 she became the first woman inducted into the US Eventing Hall of Fame. She later became a licensed course designer, having designed such courses as the CDCTA 3-Day and Intermediate Horse Trials, and the GMHA Preliminary and Intermediate Horse Trial courses, and she organized the Over the Walls Horse Trials for five years at Great Meadowbrook Farm.
United States