36
ROYAL ASCOT 2008
The greatest race meeting in the worldROYAL ASCOToccurred as early as 1936, only 24 years after three-
day-eventing was introduced to the Olympic Games.
The British team, comprised of Richard Fanshawe,
Edward Howard-Vyse and Alec Scott, returned from
Berlin with a bronze medal. It was Britain8217s first-ever
Olympic equestrian medal. Following the 10th Duke
of Beaufort8217s initiative to create a three-day event
on his Badminton Estate in 1949, in order to enable
riders to do even better in Olympic competition,
a first gold team medal was secured in 1956.
That feat was repeated in 1968, and again
in 1972, when Captain
Mark Phillips, Zara
Phillips8217 father, was part
of the winning team.
While Olympic gold
might have since eluded
the British team 8211
proving just how difficult
it is to compete at
the highest level 8211 it
has performed with
distinction in securing
silver in the Games of
1984, 1988,2000 and
2004. The proof of how
much the nation valued
the athlete8217s success
in mastering three
independent disciplines
with the same horse came
in 1984, when
Lucinda
Green
, who made
history when winning
Badminton for the sixth
time that year, was chosen
as Britain8217s flag bearer atGreat Britain8217s Lucinda
Green riding Regal Realm
at the three-day event
cross-country at the
Los Angeles 1984
Summer Olympic Games
The British team of
Jeanette Brakewell,
Leslie Law, Pippa Funnell
and Ian Stark celebrate
winning silver medals in
the final of the team
three-day event at the
Sydney 2000 Summer
Olympic Gamesthe Olympics Games. It was a productive decade.
Virginia Holgate-Leng, another history-maker who
completed a hat-trick of European Championships
at Burghley in 1989, won four medals over the course
of two Olympics. Ian Stark secured his first silver
medal in 1984 and his fourth silver medal in Sydney
in 2000.
The Sydney Olympics also put Pippa Funnell and
Leslie Law firmly on the map, although both did even
better in the 2004 Athens Olympics. In addition to
collecting silver as part of the three-day-eventing
team, Leslie Law was
crowned Olympic
champion while Pippa
Funnell won individual
bronze. Interestingly,
though, the first ever
equestrianOlympic gold
medal was not won by a
three-day-eventer. It
went to Harry Llewellyn,
Duggie Stewart and Wilf
White, who made up the
jumping team in 1952.
More than 30 years later,
at the Los Angeles
Olympics in 1984,
the brothers John
and Michael Whitaker,
together with Timothy
Grubb and Steven Smith,
were on course for a
second team gold in
Olympic history.They
kept the nation on the
edge of its seat throughout
a thrilling finale before
10141p32-38 Best of British.qxp:Layout 1 6/5/08 08:25 Page 36
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