Not to be for the Irish showjumpers in Versailles. Despite having put in stellar clear rounds in qualifying, Daniel Coyle and Shane Sweetnam weren’t able to put in repeat performances to get into a medal jump-off and rounded off a disappointing Olympics with grimaces rather than smiles.
Coyle’s horse Legacy was going well until the final run of obstacles, whereupon she lost a shoe and the Derry rider lost his stirrup. After hitting four in a row, Coyle pulled her up. Sweetnam knew his fate earlier than that, knocking a pole off the fifth gate and ultimately ending up with 12 faults. After coming in with such high hopes, the air went out of the Irish challenge very quickly.
“You’re not satisfied unless you win a medal,” said Sweetnam afterwards. “But you can learn a lot from the experience, all different kinds of experiences. And I can guarantee you there’s 27 riders coming out of that ring thinking of what they could have done different.
“Whether that’s before the games, during the games or in the ring. That’s the way our sport is and I’m sure there’ll be some sleepless nights thinking about what I could have done different. But you know I’ve done my best and that’s all I can do at the moment.”
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Ultimately, it rounds off another disappointing Games for the showjumping team. Having done so well during the season proper – they have been ranked number one in the world this year – they came to Paris with high hopes of finding their way to a medal.
But the vagaries of the sport had everyone well warned. These aren’t the first Olympics where the equestrian team were considered a shrewd bet and didn’t deliver. They probably won’t be the last.
Coyle had been flawless all week aboard Legacy, steering his mare to three clear rounds in the team competition and in individual qualifying on Monday. The 30-year-old Derry rider has been battling food poisoning all week but woke up for the final feeling healthy and confident.
With riders from Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland having put in clear rounds, Coyle was well on his way to joining them until the shoe went five obstacles from home. After Legacy put the first one down, everything got ragged and Coyle soon decided there was no need to keep her going any longer.
We asked him afterwards what his first Olympics experience was like?
“I guess, if I had to sum it up very quickly, I would say everybody’s emotion is different here,” he said. “Everybody feels more. They want it more. They want it more than money. They want it more than anything at all.
“Be that the trainer, the owner, the friends – everybody wants it more somehow. So when it goes quite well, the emotions come out of everybody. We go to competitions every single week at the top level but nobody feels like this.”
Four years until they get to feel it again.
