The U.S. Paralympic Dressage Team earned its first-ever team gold, securing the title with a score of 235.567 following three team rides Friday from Roxanne Trunnell (Grade I) and Fanta Tastico H, Fiona Howard (Grade II) and Diamond Dunes, and Rebecca Hart (Grade III) and Floratina.
Fiona Howard, Becca Hart and Roxanne Trunnell with U.S. chef d’equipe Michel Assouline and their team gold medals. (U.S. Equestrian photo)
The Dutch posed the biggest challenge this time around, after stellar individual results and they finished with silver on 232.850. Germany was third with 223.51. Britain, which had dominated para dressage since its inception, was sixth (219.562).
“We’ve been in front for such a long time,” said Britain’s Natasha Baker, who scored 75.367 percent on Dawn Chorus in Grade III.
“We didn’t expect to be bringing home the team gold in Tokyo, so that was unreal. The rest of the world has caught up with us now. It’s just going to be a case of us trying to find ways that we can sneak back to the top again.”
Michel Assouline, who previously was the British para team’s chef d’equipe, has been the guiding force of the U.S. team since leaving the British squad.
Fiona’s 80 percent on Diamond Dunes – the highest individual score of Paris 2024 to date — added to Roxanne’s 77 percent put the USA narrowly ahead of the Netherlands, for which the Grade IV duo of Sanne Voets on Demantur (76.567 percent) and Demi Haerkens with Daula (78.216 percent) set the early pace.
While there was excitement around Versailles that Fiona’s score could be a new Paralympic record, due to changes in the tests since the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, it is not possible to make direct comparisons or officially recognize it as a record, but it still is quite an achievement.
“I came out the ring and thought, ‘that felt really good’, but you never know,” said Fiona, who now has two golds in her first Paralympic Games. “Whatever the score was, I was super proud of him.”
Becca entered the arena on Floratina knowing she needed a personal best score to take gold.
“It’s always a bit intense being the ‘closer’ for your team and it was a very pressure-cooker situation,” said Becca, who along with Roxanne and Kate Shoemaker, was part of the USA team that took bronze at Tokyo 2020.
“I was definitely doing the math. I think my previous best was a 75-something, so it was a jump. I had a quick peek at the board and went ‘OK, let’s go, game on’. I knew we had to do something pretty special.” And she did.
“This is the completion of a long-timed, well-planned dream( for the U.S.), going back to Tryon 2018, where we started to actually make changes,” said Michel Assouline.
“In Tokyo, when we won bronze, I had a clear plan and strategy in place, and in my mind, to earn that team medal. I just knew it had to be gold in Paris for us.
“It has been three years of very hard work, planning, logistics, competition strategies, both for Europe and in the U.S. The horsepower, the coaches, and the whole program had to be revamped to get to this point. It’s a funny thing to think – it’s what I expected — but you never want to talk about it openly. I had it in mind that this was our goal and here we are. This feels like such an amazing accomplishment for everyone who has been involved with this program over the years.”
It’s the USA’s second consecutive Paralympic team medal. The U.S. is only the third nation (after Germany and Great Britain) to win two individual gold medals in one Games, according to EquiRatings. Of course, it must be said that Britain, a paralympics juggernaut that was double gold in 2008, won two more in 2012 and three in 2016.
This was the first time the U.S.won three medals in the individual classification. Even before the team competition, the country had matched its highest Para medal count, from 1996 in Atlanta and 2021 in Tokyo.
The only U.S. non-medalist so far is Kate Shoemaker, fifth in the Grade IV competition. However, she qualified for Saturday’s freestyle, as did individual gold medalists Becca and Fiona, as well as individual silver medalist Roxanne.
Click here for Para team results
