LONDON — Charlotte Dujardin can become Britain’s most decorated female Olympian if she wins a seventh medal in Paris and the dressage rider says she wants to inspire her baby daughter.
The 39-year-old, who clinched gold in the individual and team events on Valegro at London 2012 and won team silver and individual gold at the Rio Games, will be competing in her fourth Olympics starting on Friday.
Charlotte has won six Olympic dressage medals, three of which are gold. This means she is equal with former cyclist Dame Laura Kenny, but winning a medal of any colour in Paris would send Charlotte to the top of the list.
Dujardin also won two bronze medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and a medal of any colour in Paris would take her tally past that of retired cyclist Laura Kenny, who also has six Olympic medals.
“(The record) isn´t really something I´m thinking about going to Paris if I´m honest. I´m going to compete and do my best,” Dujardin told Reuters.
“Its going to be a very different Olympics now that I´m a mum. I guess obviously if that does happen that is a huge achievement. It just makes me feel so proud as a mum.
“Hopefully one day when she (daughter Isabella) is a bit older and whatever she wants to do in life, whether it be horses or another sport, I can inspire her and make her realise how hard work it is and what it takes to be able to go to an Olympic Games.”
Having won team gold in the European Championships last September after giving birth to Isabella in March 2023, Dujardin said she is back in the groove.
“It´s always a worry I think having time out and you get back on and think, `Can I still do it?´,” she said in a telephone interview after Britain’s squad was announced.
“I was like, ‘Yep, I can still do it, I can still have all the feelings that I had before.'”
Dujardin, ranked fourth in the International Equestrian Federation’s (FEI) world dressage standings, will be riding 11-year-old gelding Imhotep – known as Pete in the stables – in Paris.
“Pete´s a very enthusiastic horse and that´s the sort of horse that I like,” she said.
“Pete at nine years old did the world equestrian games, at 10 years old he did the European Championships and at 11 years old he´s doing the Olympics. That just goes to show how clever and talented he is.”
The dressage competition begins on July 20 at the Chateau de Versailles. Dujardin will compete in the team events alongside her European Championship-winning teammates Carl Hester and Charlotte Fry.
Charlotte’s first medals came at the London 2012 Olympics, where she won both team and individual dressage gold medals on Valegro – Britain’s first Olympic medals in dressage.
The pair went on to successfully defend their individual title and secured a team dressage silver at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Their gold medal in Rio made Charlotte the first British woman ever to retain an individual Olympic title. She also broke the Olympic freestyle record in the process with 93.86 per cent.
With Valegro Charlotte is also still the current overall world record holder in all three tests, achieving a remarkable 87.460 per cent in the grand prix at London in 2014, 88.022 per cent in the grand prix special at Hagen in 2012, and 94.300 per cent in the freestyle at London also in 2014.
Charlotte competed without Valegro at an Olympics for the first time in Tokyo. Riding Gio she won individual and team bronze, bringing her total medal count to six.
This achievement surpassed British rower Dame Katherine Grainger and tennis player Kathleen McKane Godfree’s records, making Charlotte the then-most decorated British female Olympian.
Laura claimed the title the following week. Charlotte will be looking to reclaim it and make history as she rides at her fourth Olympics in Paris on Carl Hester and Coral Ingham’s 11-year-old gelding Imhotep – her first ride since Valegro to break the 90 per cent barrier in international competition.
