Individual, Open

The cross-country course was designed by Neil Ayer, with the seventh obstacle proving the most challenging. The endurance phase at Fairbanks Ranch had the following sections\: roads and tracks – 4,180 metres, 19 minutes; steeplechase – 3,105 metres, 4½ minutes, with 9 obstacles; roads and tracks – 11,779 metres, 53½ minutes; and cross-country – 7,410 metres, 13 minutes, with 33 obstacles. There was a rest day after the endurance competition to transport the horses back to Santa Anita for the jumping.

Britain’s Lucinda Green was a slight favorite, having won at Badminton in 1983-84 and at Burghley in 1981. She finished only 22nd in the opening dressage, however, which left her far behind the other contenders, and she never caught up, eventually finishing sixth. Among the other favorites, Americans Bruce Davidson was second in dressage and Karen Stives was third, both trailing Swiss rider Hansüli Schmutz. Both Davidson and Schmutz dropped well back on the endurance course, with Green, Stives, New Zealand’s Mark Todd, and Italy’s Marina Sciocchetti recording perfect scores on the cross-country course, as Stives took the lead over Todd going into the jumping. Todd went early in the jumping and had a clean ride, to give him 51.6 total penalty points, all from dressage. Stives was the last rider off and was clean through 10 obstacles, but then she and Charisma nicked the next-to-last obstacle and the 5 faults cost her the gold medal, which went to Todd. Britain’s Virginia Holgate had been third after the endurance contest and her perfect jumping round kept her there for the bronze medal. Stives and Holgate were the first women to win medals in Olympic individual eventing.