Rare Royal Medal

Rare Royal Medal

Susan Allen
Susan Allen

 

Welcome to Open Range , I’m Susan Allen . Question! How many of our presidents or members of their family have competed in the Olympics? Can you imagine Carter’s, Clinton, Reagan’s grandkids medaling? Okay maybe Fords. And funny that the Kennedy dynasty hasn’t produced some top contenders in say,  sailing.   So in my book this makes the achievement of eventer Zara Phillips pretty darn special in context, stay tuned for the Open Range Olympic update. Now I would imagine eventer  Zara Philips gets the  pick of any horse she wants to ride considering she’s the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth and her father is the coach of the US Olympic Eventing team.   Still she has to be an amazing  athlete in her own, right, in peak condition to compete in the marathon of horse events the grueling sport of eventing.  While her mother the queen’s sister, Princess Ann also rode in the 1976 games she never medaled. In fact, according to the New York Times throughout the history of the Olympics there have been only ”Two sailing gold medalists eventually became kings: Constantine II of Greece, at the 1960 Games in Rome, and Olaf V of Norway, who won six-meter mixed at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam."  Zara’s  nearly flawless riding helped the  British team win the silver behind Germany in what was a prime time event throughout Europe where riding unlike here in the US riding is one of the most popular sports. No pressure,  Zara competed in  front of  a sell –out out crowd that included her accomplished equestrian cousins, polo playing  Prince William and Harry.
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