Bill Steinkraus

Bill Steinkraus was one of the first members of the American Pony Club before he took up show jumping in 1938. He first joined the U.S. Equestrian Team (USET) in 1951 and won a bronze medal in his Olympic début the following year. He was appointed captain of the USET in 1955 and held the post until his retirement in 1972. He later became president of the USET. His successes around the world are too numerous to itemize in full, but apart from his Olympic medals he twice won gold medals in the team event at the Pan American Games in 1959 with Frank Chapot, Hugh Wiley, and George Morris and 1963 with Mary Mairs, Frank Chapot, and Kathy Kusner and also won silver medals in individual jumping in 1959 and with the team in 1967, which consisted of the same members as four years before. His greatest achievement came in 1968 when he made history by becoming the first U.S. competitor to win an individual gold medal in an Olympic equestrian event. In all, he competed at five Olympic Games and was prevented from making a sixth appearance when his horse went lame at the last minute in Tokyo in 1964. Steinkraus, who graduated from Yale, was an accomplished amateur musician and worked as a book editor.