Karl Cook, who won the 2023 American Gold Cup last weekend with Caracole de la Roque, has been named with an all-star group of riders to the U.S. squad for the Barcelona Nations Cup final later this month.
The 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games gold medal teammates McLain Ward, Laura Kraut and Devin Ryan will be. traveling to Spain with 2021 Olympic team silver medalist Jessie Springsteen,
The final will offer one country qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics. No team in the Western Hemisphere has qualified for those Games. The spot will go to the highest-placing team not already qualified.
It’s the next-to-last shot for the U.S. to qualify for sending a team to Paris. If the U.S. doesn’t qualify there, the final opportunity is the Pan American Games in Chile this autumn. The three highest-ranked teams there not already qualified can get a ticket to the Olympics at that competition.
Karl was selected for the team before his Gold Cup win. His mount previously was ridden by France’s Julien Epaillard, who won a leg of the 2022 World Championships.
At the Gold Cup in Michigan, Karl turned in a dazzling time of of 32.95 seconds, easily beating a mark of 34.35 seconds set earlier in the class by Israel’s Ashlee Bond and Donatello.