Team, Open

The dressage and jumping stages of the eventing were held at Baji Koen Equestrian Park with the cross-country course held on the Central Breakwater, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. Team numbers were reduced from four to three, so all riders scores were to be counted towards the medal standings, although this was mitigated slightly by the ability, albeit with a penalty involved, to substitute a rider into the event if a combination was eliminated or withdrawn at the end of one of the phases.

With many of the most prodigious events of the 2020 and 2021 seasons being cancelled from the effects of the pandemic, it was difficult to ascertain the form of the entries, but Germany had taken the 2019 European Championships title while Great Britain had equalled this in 2017 and added the World Equestrian Games gold medal in 2018. The German team was missing Ingrid Klimke due to a serious chest injury, while Britain decided to omit all but one of their world champion team.

For the first time since 2008 Germany did not lead the competition after the dressage phase. Great Britain led the field with a miniscule two-point lead over the German team with New Zealand close behind in third. The title was decided on the cross-country phase when Sandra Auffarth recorded a refusal and Michael Jung fell foul of a newly introduced rule where if a horse dislodged a safety pin from a fence it counted as an eleven-point penalty. This dropped Germany from a close second place to a distant sixth. In contrast, Great Britain recorded three perfect rounds while Australia and France recorded only time penalties.

Sadly, the day was ruined by the death of Robin Godel’s horse Jet Set, which suffered an irreparable ligament rupture and had to be euthanized. The British could afford three fences down if every other team went clear in the show jumping phase, but only knocked two poles down and won by 13 penalties. Unusually the winning team was made up entirely of Olympic débutants.

Germany, despite a perfect round of show jumping, could not make up for the failings of the cross-country phase and failed to overhaul France and Australia for the medal positions. Andrew Hoy of the Australian team was 62 years 175 days old and the oldest Olympic medallist since 1968.