Versatility at the Olympics: Michael Young wins his third individual Olympic gold medal

German rider Michael Jung won the gold medal in the race. In the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, the squirrel rode flawlessly throughout the afternoon and became the first competitor to claim his third individual Olympic victory.

As the overall leader in the individual event, Jung was the last rider to enter the course with a total of nine obstacles on Monday afternoon. Australia’s Christopher Burton, “Shadow Man,” and Britain’s Laura Collet, “London ’52,” were second and third. After strong performances in dressage and cross country, it was clear that a flawless ride would give Jung his third individual gold medal.

With the right focus, Jung mastered the first sharp jump into the field on his horse Squirrel. This had to be repeated over the remaining 1.30m hurdles – not least because the medal contenders ahead of Jung were making no mistakes. But that’s exactly what Jung and Chipmunk did next in a well-coordinated duet.

Jung remains flawless and “flashy”.

Jung completed his flight with confidence, without falling and within the 60 seconds allowed. The jubilation over his third individual gold medal was enormous afterwards, not least in the packed stands at the Castle Garden. Not least in the presence of the other German Olympic delegation, whose gold medal tally also doubled from one to two.

The Hessian man couldn't believe it at first, and stood in front of the microphone on the sports show for the interview, visibly moved. “It's more than just joy. I have a wobbly knee, and I'm very grateful to my horse,” said Young. The Olympic champion also explained why: “I didn't get everything perfect again and he saved me again on the last jump.”

The result was gold, first place overall and on the scoreboard. “I had to look at the board three times to see if it was really true,” said Young. “I was a little stunned. That was one huge week.” One that could see Jung become the first competitor to win three individual Olympic titles.

Chipmunk Coach comes in at number eleven.

In the end, this result was not enough for a medal, but it was still a very respectable result for the second German participant in the event finals. Julia Krajewski, who once trained the gold-winning squirrel Leung, finished the competition in eleventh place. With the still young “Nickel”, she rode the show jumping flawlessly and thus defended her position outside the top ten.

Brits leap to team gold

Earlier on Monday, the British team confidently took the team gold, just as they did three years ago in Tokyo. The German team had to watch on. Under different circumstances, Christian Waller’s flawless ride would surely have put Germany in the middle of the medal race. However, Waller had just fallen while riding cross-country on Sunday, rendering his strong ride largely worthless.

Wahler was still competing on Monday and was allowed to ride the course – but without being judged. The German team was awarded another 200 penalty points for its performance, but that didn’t matter. “We came here as a team and wanted to end it like this,” Wahler explained in the sports preview.

Youth with low first jump

So Julia Krajewski and Michael Young could only prepare for the individual competition in the afternoon on vault – but first they had to watch Great Britain, represented by Rosalind Kanter, Laura Collett and Tom McEwen, win the gold medal. The silver went to the famous French team, while Japan took the bronze.

Jung’s favorite fell on Chipmunk, but he still finished the competition as the overall leader, and so can continue to hope for his third individual Olympic win before the second round. “Now we have to ride Chipmunk again with great concentration and hope to do everything perfectly in the next round,” he said. Said and done.