A Royal Silver, as Britain Eagerly Awaits Gold
Zara Phillips and High Kingdom helped Britain to a silver medal.By MARY PILON
Published: July 31, 2012
LONDON — Germany’s eventing team clinched the gold medal Tuesday, with Britain just behind.
It was another close call for the host country, which is still eagerly awaiting its first gold medal. New Zealand won the bronze.
The British team also had one of the most watched athletes in the sport in recent memory: Zara Phillips, the granddaughter of the queen. Phillips had a successful performance in all three parts of
eventing — dressage, cross-country and Tuesday’s show jumping competition — finishing with 53.10 points individually, ranking her 14th. Individual medals were to be decided later Tuesday.
Greenwich Park, the site for equestrian events, served as the perfect backdrop, its grounds having a relationship to the crown as far back as the 1400s. A World Heritage Site, today it is a Royal Park and open to the public.
Among the throngs of Britons who showed up to cheer the British team Tuesday were many members of the royal family, including Princes William and Harry; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge; and Prince Charles’s wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Phillips hit one fence in Tuesday’s show jumping portion, the same fence that tripped up her teammate Nicola Wilson, riding Opposition Buzz.
“I’m just disappointed for the team,” Phillips said. She said she was “really, really chuffed to bits” with her horse, High Kingdom.
“You want to make your team in the best position, don’t you, not just quite a good one,” she said. She added, “This is what you’ve trained for.”
Her medal places her in a small group of members of royal families who have won Olympic medals. Phillips’s mother, Princess Anne, competed as an equestrian at the 1976 Games in Montreal, but did not earn a medal.
Among the royal medalists are Constantine II of Greece, who won a gold in sailing at the 1960 Games in Rome; Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, who earned a bronze in team jumping at the 1912 Games in Stockholm; and Olaf V of Norway, who won a gold in sailing at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. Phillips is the first member of the immediate British royal family to win an Olympic medal.
The British eventing team consisted of veterans of the sport, including Phillips, Wilson, Mary King riding Imperial Cavalier, Tina Cook riding Miners Frolic and William Fox-Pitt riding Lionheart.
Germany won the gold in team eventing at the 2008 Games in Beijing as well, with Australia earning silver and Britain winning bronze. And the Germans were favored heading into London as well.
Britain has not won gold in team eventing since the 1972 Games in Munich.
Germany won Tuesday with a score of 133.70 points, Britain had 138.20 and New Zealand had 144.40. (The lower the score, the better.) Sweden just missed the podium, scoring 148.40 points.
“I was quite nervous,” Michael Jung of Germany said of Tuesday’s competition. “It is a long way from the warm-up area to the ring, and the nearer you get to the ring the more nervous you become. But once I am in there, I am focused.”
Mark Todd, a 56-year-old rider for New Zealand who won individual gold in 1984 and 1988, said: “The team came here hoping for a medal. Yes, gold would have been great, but we have to be very happy with a bronze.”
British riders, too, were pleased with earning medals and their overall competition.
“He felt quite different from usual,” King said of Imperial Cavalier. “The tension meant he went with his head high and flat in his body. It probably did not look pretty but at least we managed to go clear.”
The Americans came in seventh place, with a team score of 208.60, but were already anticipating their next major competitions.
“I’ll continue until someone pulls me aside and says, ‘You’re getting too old for this,’ ” said Karen O’Connor, 54. “And that hasn’t happened yet.”
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