The Olympic individual show jumping medalists: Rolf-Goran Bengtsson of Sweden, Eric Lamaze of Canada and Beezie Madden of the USA.
© 2008 by Nancy Jaffer
Hong Kong, August 21, 2008 -- North America, which dominated the Olympic team show jumping, did the same in the individual medal finals, as the equestrian events of the Olympic Games ended today with an electrifying pair of jump-offs.
Canada's silver medal team member Eric Lamaze, who missed two Olympics because of positive drug tests, made his comeback in a big way to take the gold medal aboard Hickstead. He produced a sparkling clear round in a match against the clock with Rolf-Goran Bengtsson of Sweden, who got the silver on Ninja after dropping a rail. Beezie Madden of the USA's gold medal team found herself in a seven-way tie for the bronze on Authentic, necessitating a pressure-filled tiebreaker that ended when she beat Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum of Germany by 0.12 seconds.
"I know I have a fast horse and if anybody had a good chance, I probably did," said Beezie.
Her teammate, McLain Ward, rode before she did and was flying on Sapphire until he bashed the last fence to finish sixth.
"I wanted to win a medal, and we tried our very, very hardest. I tried to leave one (stride) out at the last, and we gave it everything we had," said McLain, whose gamble didn't pay off.
But he was full of praise for Sapphire, calling her "spectacular. In regulation jumping, she had (just) one down all week. She's an amazing animal."