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Great Britain’s gold medal rush was kicked off in style as a supreme jumping display saw the nation’s three-day event riders defend their Olympics team crown, before Laura Collett added bronze in the individual event.
Collett and Tom McEwen made it back-to-back team golds after success in Tokyo three years ago, with newcomer Ros Canter completing the trio to claim her first Olympic title.
Collett then delivered a clean round to secure bronze in the individual final, with McEwen just missing out on a medal in fourth and German great Michael Jung recapturing the title he won at both the London and Rio Games.
It is the first time since the 1972 Games that Team GB have won back-to-back gold medals in the team event, their final score of 91.30 more than 12 points clear of silver medalists France.
Japan, meanwhile, claimed a shock bronze, the nation’s first equestrian medal at the Olympics in 92 years, in front of a rapturous crowd at the dazzling Palace of Versailles.
“Even just riding into the arena, I was like: ‘Oh my god’,” Collett said. “All these people, the noise was unreal.
“We knew coming here we stood a good chance. The horsepower Team GB has at the moment is second to none. We could have fielded another whole team with the reserves and they could have gone and won a gold medal. The pressure was on but luckily we all delivered.”
After diving silver for Tom Daley and Noah Williams earlier on Monday had given Britain their fifth medal so far in Paris, the equestrian stars had the honour of being the first Team GB athletes to top the podium at the end of a difficult week for the sport.
Charlotte Dujardin, the country’s joint-most decorated female Olympian, had pulled out of the Games on their eve after a video was released which showed her whipping a horse repeatedly on the back of the legs during a training session.
The scandal has led to calls from some critics and animal rights groups for equestrian events to be banned from the Games, but Collett is hopeful that Monday’s triumph will cast the sport in a better light.
“We were here to do a job and that was focus on our horses and show the world that they’re the real stars of the show,” she said. “We’re the lucky ones that get to enjoy moments like this.
“Seeing our horses go in there looking a million dollars and performing like they have all week, hopefully shows what goes in. Horses don’t go like that if they’re not happy.”
Britain had been the frontrunners ever since Collett and her horse London 52 had set an Olympic record low score in the dressage on Saturday to propel the reigning champions straight to the stop of the standings.
They held that lead heading into Monday’s finale, despite Canter and Lordships Graffalo being hit with 15 jumping penalties during the cross country discipline on day two, severely reducing their advantage over hosts France.
The pair, though, made just one error to drop four points during Monday’s jumping round, before a flawless display from McEwen and JL Dublin left Collett - the last of the 58 riders to go - with a sizeable margin for error.
The cushion grew when France’s Stephane Landois, the penultimate rider, picked up four penalty points, before Collett produced a perfect jumping display, collecting only minor time penalties en route to gold.
The morning’s displays also kept Britain firmly in the individual medal hunt, with just four points separating the top four riders heading into the afternoon’s finale, and Collett and McEwen starting that session in third and fourth, respectively.
Both delivered clean rounds to heap the pressure on the two remaining riders but first eventual silver medalist Christopher Burton of Australia and then Jung, riding Chipmunk, followed suit in clutch fashion.
