Olympic champs highlight Brazil equestrian event
By Jenny Barchfield
Topics: From the Wires, News
Granddaughter and sole heiress of the late shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, Athina Onassis, left, and her husband, Brazilian professional show jumper Alvaro "Doda" de Miranda, speak at the Athina Onassis International Horse Show 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. The show which is considered the largest equestrian event in Latin America brings together the best riders in the world competing in jumping and dressage. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)(Credit: AP)RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Seven Olympic champions and nine out of the world’s 10 top-ranked riders are in Rio de Janeiro for Latin America’s most important equestrian event, which kicked off on Thursday.
The 6th edition of the Athina Onassis Horse Show drew stars including Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat, who won the gold at this summer’s Olympics in London, as well as Britain’s Nick Skelton, who took the Olympic gold in the team competition. The United States’ Laura Kraut, who won gold in Beijing in 2008, is also competing.
The show’s namesake, Artistotle Onassis’ granddaughter and heiress to his shipping fortune, will also compete, as will her husband, Brazilian rider Alvaro Miranda, and fellow Brazilian star Rodrigo Pessoa, who took Olympic gold in Athens in 2004.
Miranda, a Sao Paulo native who spearheaded the 2007 launch of the event, described this year’s edition as technically the most challenging yet.
“We not only have the best riders, but this year we have the best horses,” he told journalists at a news conference, adding that 92 horses were being flown in from Europe aboard special flights.
A total of 114 horses are to participate in the jumping events, which include a team competition between riders from eight of the 17 nationalities present, as well as the showcase Oi Grand Prix.
Miranda said the show marked an important milestone as Rio gears up to host the 2016 Olympics.
“I wanted to show people that we (Brazilians) could organize an event of this scale,” he said. “Since just a little time has passed since this summer’s games, I suspect this Olympic flame is still going to be alive in all of us this weekend.”
Prize money at the five-star event, which runs at Rio’s Sociedade Hipica Brasileira through Saturday, totals more than $1.7.
The Oi Grand Prix, which sees riders take on 1.3 meter (4-foot)-tall jumps, carries a $1.3 million prize, making it the best-remunerated equestrian event worldwide, according to the organizers.
Some 15,000 spectators daily are expected to fill the bleachers at the club, which backs onto the verdant Tijuca forest beneath Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue. Ticket prices begin at $90.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Peace Corps to allow gay couples to volunteer together
-
Moore officials: Funds for "safe rooms" were held up by red tape
-
Rand Paul: Congress should apologize to Apple, not the other way around
-
Rescue crews race to find tornado survivors
-
Looting in Oklahoma?
-
Hundreds of low-wage federally contracted workers strike in D.C.
-
Okla. mother's tearful reunion with her 8-year-old son
-
New campaign compares gun control to anti-LGBT discrimination
-
Study: Salt Lake City is gay parenting capital of the U.S.
-
Inhofe and Coburn: Red state hypocrites
-
Teen activist to meet with Abercrombie CEO
-
Watch: Family emerges from storm shelter after tornado
-
Must-see morning clip: Barackalypse Now
-
Okla. tornado survivor reunited with dog trapped in rubble live on camera
-
Is Pope Francis an exorcist?
-
Oklahoma death count confirmed at 24, 9 children
-
Frantic parents search for children in tornado's wake
-
Crews dig through rubble after deadly tornado
-
51 killed in massive Oklahoma tornado
-
Don't cry climate-change wolf
-
Record tornado devastates Oklahoma
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid "totally different" from Sandy aid
Jillian Rayfield
-
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
"Jodorowsky's Dune": The sci-fi classic that never was
Andrew O'Hehir
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
-
My open relationship went awry
David Farley
-
Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Scott Timberg
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Jonathan Bernstein
-
GOP attorney general candidate tried to force women to report miscarriages to police
Katie Mcdonough
-
Will you marry me -- once you're done peeing?
Tracy Clark-Flory
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

2975 points2976 points2977 points | 1575 comments

142 points143 points144 points | 42 comments

24 points25 points26 points | 13 comments


Comments
0 Comments