By George Williams
Did you realize that it has been over 40 years since a man won the gold medal in dressage at the Olympics? And yet, they say men and women compete equally in equestrian sports. It does seem true in jumping and eventing. Of course, you know me: I had to do a little research. In fact, it seems that in both jumping and eventing, it’s quite the opposite of dressage’s woman winning streak—especially in jumping.
A quick review of gold medalists in those two disciplines: In the same period starting with the 1984 Olympics, when Joe Farris won the individual gold on Touch Of Class, it’s been all men through to Ben Maher winning gold in Tokyo on Explosion W in 2021. Thirty-seven years! I then glimpsed a little equality hope when I looked at the list of eventing gold medalists. Following in the footsteps of his fellow male competitors, Mark Todd won the individual gold on Charisma in ’84. Men continued their history of claiming the individual gold medal until Tokyo, when Julia Krajewski won the gold medal in the individual eventing. She became the first female athlete ever to do so. To top it off, she did it on the wonderful mare, Amande de B’Neville. Aha! Proof that these streaks can be broken.
Since dressage’s Olympic debut in 1912 and up until 1972 when Liselott Linsenhoff won the individual gold medal, dressage gold medalists were always men. Of course, much of that is due to the historical connection between horse sports and the military, which limited women from competing in the Olympics.
Forty years later, 1952 was the turning point for women as they were finally allowed to compete in equestrian sports at the Olympics. Along with American rider Majorie Haines, German rider Ida von Nagel, Norway’s Elsa Christopherson and the legendary Danish rider Lis Hartel led the way as the first women ever to compete in dressage at the Olympics. Lis Hartel was also the first woman to win a medal at all, earning a silver medal in the individual dressage at the Helsinki Olympics. Four years later in 1956, because of quarantine laws, the Equestrian Games were held in Stockholm, while the other sports were held in Melbourne, Australia. Liz Hartel won the silver medal that year as well.
Twenty years after women were allowed to compete in dressage at the Olympics and 60 years after dressage was introduced to the Olympics, Liselotte Linsenhoff won the individual gold. Then in 1976, Christine Stuckelberger won on Granat. I was a kid in the audience for that ride and, to put it mildly, I was blown away. Austrian five-star judge Elisabeth Max Theurer followed in their footsteps and won the gold on Mon Cherie at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
At the 1984 L.A. Olympics, Reiner Klimke and Ahlerich quickly became everyone’s favorite and he reclaimed the title for men. His first Olympics had been 20 years before when he was on the 1964 gold-medal-winning German team in Tokyo, and little more than a decade later he had won the individual bronze at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. He was a wonderful equestrian and a great competitor. His competition career spanned from his early days of eventing—he was on the 1959 gold medal eventing team at the European Championships in Harewood, Great Britain—to a more-than-20-year career as an international dressage competitor. But his win proved to be the end of it for men.
I did a little not-very-scientific research and looked at the placings from the Grand Prix test at the 2022 Dressage World Championships in Herning. As the qualifying requirements are less restrictive than for the Olympics, I feel it gives a broader picture of the ratio of men to women competing at a global level in dressage. Here is what I found: Of the 93 athletes competing, basically one third were men—there were 61 women and 32 men competing the Grand Prix test. How that affects our odds of winning, I’m not sure. But we didn’t. It was Catherine Laudrup-Dufour on Vamos Amigos who did.
If it doesn’t happen in Paris, I wonder if the cycle will close when the Olympics return to L.A. in 2028. Perhaps a bit of déjà vu? In looking at the big picture, in round numbers over a span of 112 years, approximately half of the individual gold medals for dressage have been won by men and half by women. With my tongue firmly in my cheek, some may say that men cheated for those first 40 years. However, women have certainly made up for that by keeping a hold on the individual gold for the last 40 years!
It’s an interesting phenomenon and one can only speculate why it is so, and why it’s different in the other Olympic disciplines. Trust me, I’m not going to go there—not with two strong equestrian feminists in my family! While I joke about it, to me it’s actually something we should celebrate.
