Fry wins bronze to continue GB equestrian success
-
Published
Lottie Fry continued Great Britainâs equestrian medal success at the Paris Olympics with bronze in the individual dressage.
On stallion Glamourdale, she scored 88.971% as Germanyâs Jessica von Bredow-Werndl successfully defended her title.
Fellow German Isabell Werth, competing at her seventh Games, took silver.
It marks a third Olympic medal for 28-year-old Fry, who made her debut in Tokyo three years ago and also has two team bronzes.
âIâm pretty speechless,â she told BBC Sport. âTowards the end I knew there were some really good ones to go so I almost put it out of my mind.
âWe definitely started to pack up a few things at the stable to go home and I said bye. I checked the scores and there were a few screams.
âIt was so exciting, and Glamourdale really deserves this.â
The second of those came on Saturday, alongside team-mates Carl Hester and Becky Moody.
Hester and Moody placed sixth and eighth respectively in Sundayâs final.
It is a fifth equestrian medal for Team GB at the picturesque Chateau de Versailles, after team eventing and jumping golds, plus Laura Collettâs individual eventing bronze.
âIncredibleâ finish for dressage team after rocky build-up
World champion Fry, who grew up near Driffield in Yorkshire but now lives and trains in the Netherlands, qualified for the final in fourth place with a score of 78.913%.
With a âbest of British with a French twangâ soundtrack featuring Queen, the Beatles and the national anthems of Britain and France, she bettered that score in Sundayâs medal performance.
Her score put her top of the standings with three riders to come, and while Werth and then Von Bredow-Werndl moved ahead â the latter with a score of 90.093% â Denmarkâs Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour could only place fifth to confirm the British medal.
Fryâs late mother, Laura, competed alongside Hester at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Fry started training with him as a teenager and it was Hester who encouraged her to go to the Netherlands, where she now trains under Danish Olympic medallist Anne van Olst.
Hester scored 85.161% on Fame while Moody, riding Jagerbomb, achieved 84.357% at her maiden Olympics after replacing Charlotte Dujardin in the squad.
Fryâs medal is GBâs fifth in Olympic individual dressage. Three of those â including gold in London and Rio â belong to Dujardin, who withdrew on the eve of the Games and was later provisionally suspended by equestrianâs world governing body for âexcessivelyâ whipping a horse.
It created a frenzied build-up to competition for Fry, Hester and Moody, but Fry admits it could not have âended much betterâ.
âI think it really shows what an incredible support team we have,â she said.
âIt has brought us so close as a team, and everyone has really grouped together and given us so much confidence to go out there and do what we know we can do.
âTo come back with a team medal and an individual medal, itâs just incredible.â
Hester hints at retirement?
At 57, Hester is the oldest member of Team GB at Paris 2024 and was appearing at his seventh Olympics.
Although age is just a number in equestrian, he hinted Sundayâs final could be his final bow.
Asked if it was the last time he will compete at an Olympics, he told BBC Sport: âPossibly. How you feel now and how you feel in a monthâs time are very different things.
âAfter a Games, you hit a bit of a down, and itâs been so tough these last 10 days that you donât know.
âI canât really say to be honest.â
On the emotions of leaving the arena after his performance, he said: âA lot of these people have seen me riding at many of my Games, and I think they know what I possibly know as well.â
Fry said: âIâm 100% sure Iâm not going to let it be his last Games.
âWhat heâs done for this sport is more than anyone else, he is just an incredible person, heâs created an incredible British team and itâs an honour to be able to stand next to him.â
Related Topics
-
-
Published17 hours ago
-
-
-
Published26 July
-