We’re home. The equestrian portion of the Paris 2024 Olympics is over, bar the riding in the modern pentathlon, and Horse & Hound’s team on the ground travelled back through the tunnel from France yesterday after the thrilling individual showjumping final – our Olympic experience over for another four years.
It’s been a spectacular Games for Team GB, with five equestrian medals, including team golds. A team medal in every discipline is particularly noteworthy and is a testament to the incredible work of everyone involved, from the riders’ personal back-up teams to the World Class-funded coaches and support personnel.
Pippa Roome in the Paris arena on eventing showjumping day. Credit: Martha Terry
For H&H, too, it takes a village. I, my fellow journalist Martha Terry and photographer Peter Nixon were the lucky ones who travelled to Paris, but everyone on our whole team back home has been involved, from the remote reporters writing web stories as we sent sound files of interviews, to picture editors uploading thousands of photos, to subs fact-checking reports written in the middle of the night, to the art team making the pages look beautiful, and more beyond.
We hope you have enjoyed our work – and will continue to do so, with two more Olympic magazine issues still to come on 8 and 15 August.
As a light-hearted farewell to the Games, I’ve pulled together a list of numbers and more. Read on…
Words written: about 24,000 between magazine and web stories.
Most nerve-racking moment: I’d like to say it was watching Laura Collett showjump to secure team gold, Lottie Fry’s freestyle or Scott Brash’s round to confirm Britain’s second team gold, but in fact it was discovering I’d left my handbag in the taxi when I got to security at 7am before the eventing second trot-up… (yes, I got it back).
Favourite photo: let’s just leave this Olympic medal selfie here…
H&H’s Pippa Roome with Laura Collett and her Paris 2024 medals.
Least hours of sleep in a night: three and a half, after finishing writing up magazine copy on cross-country night, before the trot-up the next day.
Most hours of sleep in a night: 10, on the night after the dressage freestyle (no magazine writing for me as Martha led on dressage, before the showjumping individual qualifier, which didn’t start until 2pm).
Favourite sustainability policy: you could buy a plastic bottle of water at the venue at Versailles, but it had to be poured into either your own water bottle or a plastic cup – hence two plastic items being used rather than one. Aside from the optics of no single use plastic, please do let me know if you can work out the logic of this…
Conversations recorded with riders: 142
H&H’s Martha Terry, Peter Nixon and Pippa Roome at Paris 2024. Credit: Peter Nixon
Pins collected: 13 (spot them on my accreditation in the photo above). Pin swapping is something of a sport in itself and an integral part of the Olympic experience – different nations issue pins to their athletes, who then go around swapping them. We had some H&H badges made so we could join in the fun, as do some other media outlets, and I was pleased with my little haul, particularly the Japanese one acquired from Kazuma Tomoto in the mixed zone (Kazu’s trainer William Fox-Pitt: “Should you be swapping pins in the mixed zone?” Pippa: “Be quiet and have a Horse & Hound one to start your collection.”)
Best meal: steak and gratin potato at Le Limousin in Versailles. But a shout out also for our favourite bakery, where we bought sandwiches, salads or wraps for our lunch each day at the venue. It was a shame I received a parting gift from France in the shape of a chip out of a front tooth from biting into a particularly crunchy baguette during the final press conference…
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