Lamaze takes bronze in jumping
RIO DE JANEIRO• Eric Lamaze blinked back tears in the scorching sun Friday as he bowed his head to accept his third Olympic medal in show jumping. “It’s more joy than anything else,” Lamaze said after taking a victory lap around the Olympic Equestrian Centre. “And relief that it’s finally over.”
He won gold in 2008 aboard the mighty stallion Hickstead. Many expected him to defend the Olympic title at the 2012 London Games, but Hickstead died suddenly from an aneurysm at a 2011 World Cup in Italy, falling in a way that ensured his rider escaped injury. A grief- stricken Lamaze considered retiring on the spot.
“It’s not like breaking a hockey stick or breaking a tennis racket for us,” Lamaze told reporters upon his return to Canada. “We become very close to these animals and have great respect for what they do for us. Hickstead made my career.”
Hickstead might be the best horse of his generation, but life, for Lamaze, carried on. He hoisted himself back in the saddle. The Schomberg, Ont., rider finished 25th in the individual event at the 2012 London Games and fifth in the team aboard an inexperienced Derly Chin de Muze. The chemistry just wasn’t there.
But here at Rio’s Olympic Equestrian Centre — bordered by an imposing military complex and a gangridden favela — Fine Lady 5 knocked over just one rail during the entire competition, including the team event where Canada finished a surprising fourth.
Her lone mistake Friday came on the penultimate fence on a jump- off against six riders, dropping Lamaze from gold to bronze.
Not bad for an undersized brown mare purchased a couple of years back for the speed events.
Great Britain’s Nick Skelton opened the j ump- off with a blistering clear round of 42.82 seconds — forcing the rest of the field to take chances and push the clock on weary horses.
Fine Lady 5 panicked on the seventh jump and knocked a rail down, thus ending Canada’s hopes for gold. Skelton won gold aboard Big Star. At 58, Skelton becomes the oldest man or woman to ever win equestrian gold at the Olympics. “I’ve had a few injuries,” said Skelton, who broke his neck in 2000. “I’ve got a metal hip now, so I always use the stepladder to climb aboard.”
In truth, Lamaze was expected to climb the podium at the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong, where he also won silver in the team event.
No one — not even Lamaze — saw this one coming aboard Fine Lady 5.
“I’ve been really carefully bringing her along, and that’s also why it’s so emotional for me,” he said. “She’s fragile in the sense that she does not have all the powers. She needed to get to the Olympics with as much belief in herself as I could bring to her.”
And Lamaze knows a thing or two about the power of belief. Born to a mother with a drug problem and raised by an alcoholic grandmother, Lamaze lived on the streets in Montreal for a time before finding salvation in the stables. Against the odds, he learned to ride with the best in the world, but couldn’t outrun his past — missing two Olympics due to positive drug tests for cocaine.
He wrote a redemption story with individual gold and team silver in 2008. He wrote a comeback story for the ages in Rio.
“When you’ve done everything right and everything goes your way, it’s very rewarding in our sport,” he said. “Because so many people have done everything right and they had misfortune along the way. That’s heartbreaking at the Olympics …. An Olympic medal stays with you forever.”