From our special correspondent in Paris – The world’s top equestrians seemed to have cantered in from another century as they rode through the pleasure gardens of the Palace of Versailles on Monday, ending a three-day competition combining dressage, cross-country and show-jumping. Bavarian rider Michael Jung won gold in the individual eventing, with France trailing in second place behind Great Britain in the team competition.
During the French Revolution, it could take an armed mob six hours of determined marching to get within pike’s reach of the royal household at Versailles. Now, through the miracle of modern transport infrastructure, tourists can make the trip to the converted palace and pleasure gardens in about an hour.
Monday marked the final day of the 2024 Olympics’ individual and team eventing, the triathlon of the equestrian world. The three-day competition had already put the riders and their steeds through the curious rigours of dressage followed by a cross-country race through the forests of the former royal estate. Now came show-jumping, which pushes horse and rider through a demanding series of obstacles, the stopwatch hard on their heels.
The course had been set up at the far end of the grounds, a man-made lake stretching towards the distant white wings of the palace – now open to the Sovereign People as a museum showcasing centuries of French art and absolutist rule. To watch the day’s proceedings, spectators were advised to take the RER train from the city to the suburbs before hopping on a shuttle bus set up for the 2024 Games.
Those fortunate few with the savvy to have downloaded the official Paris 2024 Transport (Accredited) app, on the other hand, were also presented with the option of taking the RER all the way out to Saint-Germaine-en-Laye before descending through Marly forest by tram to the Allée Royale, adding a scenic and altogether unexpected 30 minutes to their journey. This route cannot in good conscience be recommended.
But the stands are full and the sun is king and the tree-lined lanes of the palace grounds are laced with welcome shade. For silver-haired French rider Karim Florent Laghouag, whose team secured second place in the team eventing, the setting came close to perfection.
“I think that horses completely have their place in a space like the Palace of Versailles,” he said. “We can’t forget that horses are a part of the world’s heritage – packhorses, warhorses, horses for everything. Here, with the palace’s stables, you really feel it – I find that amazing. You can really imagine being in another era with [King] Louis.”
On the sun-baked course, the obstacles themselves embrace the finest kitsch of ancien régime France: vast violet bundles of plastic grapes, gleaming gold angels, the pale blue and gold swell of the Montgolfier brothers’ first hot air balloon. The riders, too, seem to have cantered in from another century, clean-cut and dashing in severe neckties, knee-high black riding boots and shining white jodhpurs.
After the carnival atmosphere of Sunday’s street skateboarding, the reverent silence here seems almost eerie. As the riders take to the field, even the sound of their horses’ hooves is swallowed by the blinding sand. Occasionally, a hoof will catch on one of the obstacles and the muffled clunk, deafening in the mute arena, is met by a thousand stifled gasps of sympathy. A perfect run leaves no trace – the rider vaults the hurdles noiselessly, and the crowd goes mild.
The exception, as always, is for the French riders. Laghouag’s turn around the course was met with a roar of support, the steel stands shuddering beneath the weight of stamping feet. It wasn’t enough – the French team won silver, trailing Great Britain, the only mixed men-and-women team to make it onto the podium. Japan picked up the bronze.
By the time the individual jumping trials roll around, some of the crowd are starting to wilt. Baulking at the steel climb back up the stands, they cluster beneath the shade of a tree next to the course, watching the riders take their jumps on the towering screen overhead.
“Oh here comes Carl Jung, he’s amazing,” a British woman says, her face lighting up. We turn, eager to see the long-dead Swiss psychiatrist surging across the track. A (could it be Freudian?) slip of the tongue – German rider Michael Jung was picking up speed on his Hannover bay gelding Chipmunk, vaulting the hurdles with uncanny grace.
Jung – the rider – is held by his peers to be the finest eventing equestrian in the world, and even a layman can see it. The 41-year-old’s immaculate dressage performance two days ago set him up for success, and on Monday he rode off with the gold – his third in as many Olympics, and the fifth in a row won by a German in this event.
Second place was secured by Christopher Burton, an Australian rider straight out of central casting with wavy brown hair and an easy smile. The bronze was picked up by British rider Laura Collett, who had barely had time to exult in the gold she had won just two hours earlier before rushing back to walk the course ahead of her individual run.
Speaking after back-to-back podium presentations and victory laps, Collett said that the crowded palace grounds made a welcome change from the vast and empty arenas of pandemic-era Tokyo.
“Tokyo was the most surreal experience as my first Olympic Games, and to be able to have the opportunity to come to another Olympic Games and witness crowds like we’ve had here, I would never ever have dreamt of what that feeling riding into that arena today would be like,” she said. “The crowds on the cross-country yesterday were cheering from the moment we left the start box, and you could barely see where you were going because there were so many people. But it really lifted our horses.”
The crowd is stumbling, sated, down the gardens' long walkways, nudged towards the waiting shuttle buses by pages with oversized foam fingers, outfitted in the now-familiar livery of the Paris 2024 volunteer. For those obliged by their deadlines to miss the last shuttle, the evening promises instead a rattling tram ride up through the Marly forest to the end of the line in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, just in time to catch the RER back to Paris.
