Amazing achievement by Dressage Team in Paris

We are so proud of the achievements of our Paris 2024 Dressage Team of Jayden Brown and Quincy B, William Matthew and Mysterious Star, and Simone Pearce and Destano. All three combinations produced strong scores in the Grand Prix Qualifier that put the team in tenth position overall on Wednesday. The top ten teams from the Grand Prix Qualifier go on to the Team Final on Saturday 3rd August where they will compete in the Grand Prix Special.

The other teams into the Final are made up of European nations that have long been associated with success in the Dressage arena - Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, France, Austria and Finland. Australia is the only country outside of Europe to make the Grand Prix Special. 

How does this compare to our results at previous Olympics? "It's not easy to directly compare as the format was changed at Tokyo 2020" said Di Saunders, High Performance Sport Manager for Equestrian Australia."Prior to Tokyo, the team result was derived from the scores in the two days of Grand Prix and the top 30 individuals from the Grand Prix would go on to compete in the Grand Prix Special. The top 15-18 individual scores from the Grand Prix Special then competed in the Grand Prix Freestyle and individual medals were awarded based on the top three scores from the Freestyle."

As the host nation of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Australia fielded our first Dressage Team. There were typically 50 riders competing under the 2000-2019 format. The format was changed for Tokyo with 68 plus riders now.

Historical Dressage Team results are:

SYDNEY 2000
Individual – Kristy Oatley 9^th  in Freestyle
Team Members - Kristy Oatley, Rachael Downs, Mary Hanna and Ricky Macmillan
Number of Teams: 9 
Australian Team: 6th

ATHENS 2004
No Team; Individuals - Ricky Macmillan and Mary Hanna

BEIJING 2008
Team Members – Hayley Beresford, Kristy Oatley
and Heath Ryan
Number of Teams: 11
Australian Team: 7th

LONDON 2012
Team Members - Lyndal Oatley, Kristy Oatley and Mary Hanna
Number of Teams: 10 
Australian Team: 9th

RIO 2016
Team Members – Lyndal Oatley, Mary Hanna, Kristy Oatley and Suzanne Hearn
Number of Teams: 11 
Australian Team: 9th

TOKYO 2020
Team Members – Simone Pearce, Mary Hanna and Kelly Layne 
Number of Teams: 15 
Australian Team: 13th

We wish our team all the best for the competition on Saturday - we will be with you all the way!