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Silver for Canadian Equestrian Show Jumpers

August 18, 2008

Hong Kong, China --- Exactly 40 years after Canada earned its only Olympic team show jumping medal, the Canadian team stood on the medal podium today. Under the most unlikely conditions, having lost one horse to injury earlier in the day, Canada met the powerful American team in a tie-breaker for the gold medal and claimed silver.

The remaining seven teams in the contest fell well behind the two North American teams, with Norway taking the bronze. Canada's team Captain, Ian Millar, was daring last night in predicting a medal today. After the loss of Mac Cone's mount, Ole, Canada lost the luxury of a discard score, in a contest where the best three scores count. But, the remaining three team members met the pressure head-on. Jill Henselwood on Special Ed produced the first faultless round of the day, after many of world's top riders had incurred double-digit scores. Lamaze and Hickstead had an uncharacteristic single knockdown, still a strong score in tonight's competition. Millar and In Style entered the ring under tremendous pressure and delivered a perfect clean round.

The tie-breaker with the U.S. became more a contest of clean jumping than running against the clock. After three American riders jumped clean and Henselwood had one knockdown, Canada's final rider (Millar) was not required to ride. Henselwood's face showed some disappointment as the U.S. secured the gold, but she was still thrilled. "A medal is a life-long dream come true", she said. A determined Henselwood made a powerful recovery after being Canada's discard score yesterday. "The angel's came down", she said about today's spectacular turn of events after Cone's withdrawal.

"Jill's performance motivated us all", Millar said. Once a medal looked within reach, the 61-year-old remarked, "And then we'll just keep on going to 2012". This being his ninth Olympic Games and having never earned a medal, Millar was elated, but emotional. He lost his wife, Lynn, to cancer in March and said, "This one's for Lynn". His 34-year-old son, Jonathon, and 31-year-old daughter, Amy, were both in Hong Kong with him. His goal now is for them to be his team-mates in 2012.

Forty years ago, almost to the day, Canada fielded its first-ever Olympic show jumping team. Jim Elder, Tom Gayford and Jim Day brought home Canada's only gold medal of those Games.

"It's been a bit of a drought", Millar admitted, "but we knew coming here we had the team that could do it if things went our way." Canada has not finished better than ninth in Olympic team show jumping since a fourth-place finish in 1988.

Also very emotional about their achievement, Lamaze is in a four-way tie for the lead in qualifying for the individual medal final on Thursday. Henselwood and Millar are also qualified. All riders enter the individual final with a clean slate and it is contested over two rounds. Canada has just one individual medal in Olympic show jumping history. Michel Vaillancourt won a silver in his hometown of Montreal in 1976. "These Games are coming together just the way we planned", Lamaze said, seeming very optimistic about Thursday. He praised Millar's pressure performance today.

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