The United States ended its equestrian medal drought Friday morning, taking home the silver medal in the team jumping competition behind gold medal finisher Great Britain. France earned the bronze.
After the first round saw half the field eliminated on Thursday, including medal contender Switzerland, 10 teams qualified for the final round of the jumping competition. A last-minute withdrawal took Mexico out of contention, leaving the field with nine teams.
Between the first and final round, scores are reset in a jumping competition. For Germany, which finished the qualifying round with zero points, and the United States, which finished in second with six, the goal was to repeat what they did in the first round. For the other teams, they needed to improve their performances to bring home hardware.
That’s exactly what Great Britain did. Individual medal contender Ben Maher kicked things off for the British, nearly replicating his perfect performance from Day 1 with zero jumping penalties, picking up just a single point in time violations. Harry Charles was perfect in second, giving the British a score of one leading into the third round. On the last run of the day, veteran rider Scott Brash finished with just a single point, clinching the gold medal for Great Britain — its first team jumping medal since its gold medal victory at the 2012 Games.
For the United States, a pair of perfect runs helped secure a third consecutive silver medal in team jumping, a streak that started at the Rio Olympics.
In the United States’ top equestrian discipline, it was Karl Cook who got things started. Cook rode his second flawless run of the Games, proving himself as a more than worthy substitute for Olympic medalist Kent Farrington and maintained his perfect score. Laura Kraut, 2012 gold medalist, rode second and collected just one jumping infraction for four points in her run, putting the U.S. right in medal contention. But it was Olympic staple McLain Ward who secured second place for the United States, riding a perfect run and collecting his third Olympic medal.
It’s been a tough equestrian run so far for the United States in Paris. The U.S. was unable to earn a medal in the eventing competition and did not qualify for either the team or individual dressage finals.
In a massive turnaround, home team France stormed into the bronze medal spot. Despite entering the competition as serious medal contenders, France struggled in the qualification round, finishing outside the top five. However, a three-point run from Simon Delestre and a perfect score from Olivier Perreau put the home team in position for star Julien Epaillard to bring things home with a four-point run.
Sweden, the defending Olympic champions, were a shocking absence from the podium. The Swedes' title defense crumble under a series of errors with each rider collecting a four-point jumping penalty. Tokyo bronze medalists from Belgium struggled similarly, with a pair of eight-point runs defeating any chance of a repeat medal performance. The Netherlands came in fourth, while the Germans fell to fifth to wrap up the top five.