PrintAugust 3 — London
An anticipatory hush fell over the Olympic arena when Charlotte Dujardin entered aboard Valegro. The Olympic rookie carried the weight of her team’s expectations on her shoulders, and her score would determine whether Great Britain stood in first or second after the Grand Prix test.
But the 27-year-old thrives in a pressure cooker situation, and when she laid down a phenomenal effort to go into the lead on 83.66 percent, a new Olympic record, the stadium absolutely erupted. She received a standing ovation from her hometown crowd, and the audience stomped their feet and roared their appreciation.
“I loved every minute,” said Dujardin. “I wanted to come here and have fun. I wanted to go out and show what this horse can do. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The applause is just amazing, and I want to thank everyone who supported us.”
In previous years, Dujardin would’ve secured team gold with her Grand Prix test, but in this Olympic Games the Grand Prix Special will count as well. Great Britain sits on an average of 79.40 percent, ahead of Germany (78.84%) and the Netherlands (76.80%).
“Our team chances aren’t so bad at the moment [without Totilas],” said Germany’s Helen Langehanenberg, who finished third individually with Damon Hill (81.14%) behind the Netherlands’ Adelinde Cornelissen on Parzival. “We’ll definitely give our best, and we’ll fight until the end.”
Team medals will be decided on Tuesday, Aug. 7.
Steffen Peters put in a huge effort for Team USA with Ravel, and he finished sixth individually on 77.70 percent, but he admitted there’s little chance that the United States will be able to climb into a team medal position. Tina Konyot’s score of 70.45 percent with Calecto and Jan Ebeling’s 70.23 percent with Rafalca left the team in fifth place behind Denmark, 4 percentage points out of bronze.
But Peters was positive. “This is a great score for us. In Kentucky [at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in 2010] we had two riders below 70 percent. Now we have two riders at 70 percent plus a high 77, so it’s a good start,” he said.
Meteoric Rise
Dujardin performed her first international Grand Prix with Valegro in March of 2011. Before the Olympic Games began, Germany’s Ulla Salzgeber held the Olympic Grand Prix record of 78.2 percent with Rusty from the 2004 Athens Olympics. Less than a year and a half after their debut, Dujardin and the 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Negro—Maifleur, Gerschwin) smashed that record with a score of 83.66 percent, which was also only 0.42 percent off Edward Gal’s world record set with Totilas at the 2009 European Championships in Windsor, England.
“From start to finish I just enjoyed it. When you stop and you have that crowd, it’s just magic,” said Dujardin. “When he gets in there, he knows what he’s got to do. He’s just brilliant. He just does his own thing. Touch wood, he never lets me down.”
Dujardin received 12 scores of 10 from the judges for her test, four of them for her extended trots, four for her two-tempis, two for her passage on the final centerline, and two in the collectives for her position and seat.
“If someone is really prepared to take risks like she is, and it comes off, it pays off,” said Stephen Clarke, who judged at M. “It was fun to judge.”
While the Dutch weren’t hoping to repeat their gold medal from the 2010 WEG without their superstar Totilas, Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival came into the competition with the No. 1 spot on the FEI World Ranking list, and she knew a great score could keep the Netherlands firmly in the hunt for bronze. She also hasn’t gone head-to-head with Dujardin at a major competition.
“I know he can do over 80 percent, and for the team we needed a little bit of a score,” said Cornelissen, 33. “I had to do my best. I think he can do a little bit more. In the beginning he was still a little bit spooky and a bit tense. Maybe the next test he’ll feel more at ease from the beginning, and we can score even higher. I hope. I have to. I have to beat the English!”
Parzival, a 15-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Jazz—Fidora, Ulft) who won the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Final for the second year in a row in April, finished on 81.68 percent and also received a few 10s for his piaffe. “His piaffe is always good, always perfect,” said Cornelissen.
“In the beginning he was a bit scared. I came down the ramp, and he was like, ‘Ahhh! Too many people!’ ” she explained. “Around the arena I was like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh camera, oh judges, oh more judges!’ There was way too many judges, too many people. So then after a bit he started to enjoy it and say, ‘Oh, I know this stuff. I’ve been here before.’ Then he was good.”
Perfect Preparation
Steffen Peters knew he would have exactly 30 seconds after he entered the arena before Gary Rockwell, the president of the ground jury at C, would ring the bell. Then he would have 45 seconds before he had to be in the ring with Ravel.
“We knew this coming into the competition, so this was exactly how I trained in the familiarization of the arena,” he said. “My teammates who wanted to get in the ring went ahead. I kept warming up outside until the very last minute, until we had to leave the arena, and then I did exactly what we did today. I went straight for the cameras.”
