Lamaze riding new high at Rio
MEDAL HOPES: Back with a new horse, equestrian shows off some of his vintage form
Eric Lamaze knows better than anyone how to get back on the horse, no matter how nasty the spill.
The story of Canada’s golden show jumper is littered with perilous tumbles and improbable comebacks, the latest Wednesday aboard a horse other than his beloved Hickstead in the Olympic arena.
A grief-stricken Lamaze nearly retired in 2011 when Hickstead died suddenly from an aortic aneurysm — falling in a way that ensured his rider escaped injury, seemingly checking on him before slipping away.
But Lamaze carried on with the hope that one day he might find another horse like the one he rode to Olympic gold at the 2008 Beijing Games, and he just may have done it with the mare Fine Lady 5. On Wednesday, the pair nearly led Canada to a come-from-behind bronze in the team jumping event.
“So close,” the 45-year-old rider sighed, leaning on a steel fence in the blistering 32 C heat as he mulled over another fourth-place finish for Canada, this one decided in a jumpoff. “Things seemed to have gone our way, but a lot of things didn’t go our way.”
Things like lead rider Yann Candele and First Choice 15 dropping a rail at the final fence after an otherwise clear ride — a mistake that cost Canada a shot at silver. Things like Germany brushing two rails in the jump-off, only to have them stay in place. Things like Amy Millar’s nineyear-old horse Heros showing his inexperience on a tough Olympic course.
“There’s no shame in being fourth,” said Lamaze, a native of Schomberg, Ont. “Considering everything, we put in a good performance.”
In team jumping, each nation deploys four riders, but only the top three count. So with Millar’s score discarded, Lamaze needed a perfect ride to at least temporarily lift Canada into third place.
And perfect he was. Only five horse-and-rider combinations had clear rides on Wednesday within the time limit of 82 seconds set by course designer Guilherme Jorge. Lamaze finished the day atop the leaderboard as the only rider with a perfect score of zero.
“The rider that closes is very important,” he said. “I take that job very seriously and I think I have enough experience to cope with it and translate the message to my horse.”
Some people falter under pressure. Lamaze is not one of them.
“Maybe it makes me a little better,” Lamaze said. “It eliminates the lazy mistake. Not that you’re going to make one here, but it sure keeps you strong.”
In Wednesday’s jump-off for bronze, the first three riders for Germany were clean.
Only Tiffany Foster could say the same for Canada. With no chance of a medal by the time his turn came, Lamaze didn’t even ride in the jump-off against the powerhouse Germans. France won gold, with only three faults, while the U.S. was second.
“To be honest, if we were going to lose this jump-off — for me not to jump is a little bit of a plus,” he said. “It’s one less time in the ring. So for sure I’m going to benefit from that in the individual.”
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 salvage in the stables.
Against all 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.
His gold medal in Beijing was a redemption story.
Should he grace the podium in the individual competition on Friday, the narrative will turn to one of moving on after loss.
The death of Hickstead knocked Lamaze down, but he’s back on the horse with an Olympic medal in his sights.
“You know, if you asked me when we bought her if I would be at the Rio Olympics with her, I would say, ‘You’re crazy,’” Lamaze said of Fine Lady 5. “If you asked me at the beginning of last year, ‘Are you going to go to the Rio Olympics with her?’ I’d say no way. At the Masters last year, I’d say ‘No. Not at all.’
“And here we go…”