Horses: Giltedge, bay Thoroughbred bay gelding, 17 hands, 16 years old, owner: Jacqueline B. Mars, Christa Badger, & Jonathan Ireland. Custom Made, bay Irish sport horse gelding, 17 hands, 17 years old
Home: The Plains, Va.
Born: January 18, 1962
David O'Connor won the first Olympic Gold Medal for the United States Equestrian Team (USET) since 1984 when he clinched the individual eventing championship on Custom Made at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, with the best score in Olympic history. He also rode Giltedge in Sydney, helping the USET capture the Team Bronze medal. In May 1997, he brought another top prize to the U.S. when he won the Badminton Horse Trials CCI****, becoming only the second American to win this event in its 49-year history. O'Connor also captured that year's Cosequin/USET Three Day Event Fall Championship at the Fair Hill CCI***.
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| David and Karen O'Connor In addition to sharing the team Bronze in Sydney, he and his wife, Karen, were also teammates on the Silver medal-winning U.S. Equestrian Team (USET) squad at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. At the 1999 Pan American in Winnipeg, Canada, O'Connor won team Gold and individual Silver medals. This gave O'Connor and Giltedge a rare triple, medals in the Olympic Games (1996), World Championships (1998) and Pan American Games (1999). In 1999, he won the USET Three-Star Fall Championship at the Fair Hill International on Rattle N Hum. In 2000, he won the Rolex/USET Four Star Championship on Rattle N Hum as the highest placed American (2nd) at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event presented by Bayer.
O'Connor won the 1995 Rolex/Kentucky Three Day Event Spring Championship. Later that year, he became one of only three riders to capture both the spring and fall USET Championships in the same year when he won the USET Fall Three Day Event Championship at the Fair Hill International CCI***. In 1993, riding Wilton Fair, O'Connor won the USET Fall Championship. The win served as a fitting tribute for the veteran campaigner, Wilton Fair, who was retired from competition following his victory. O'Connor had been the highest placed American (seventh) at the 1992 Badminton CCI**** in England, aboard Wilton Fair. He was a member of the USET squad at the 1990 World Equestrian Games in Stockholm, Sweden, a position he earned after winning the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event earlier that spring. O'Connor was the only one of five Americans competing to finish the course at the 1987 Burghley CCI****. He competed internationally for the USET throughout the late 1980s, beginning at the 1986 CCI*** Alternate World Championship in Bialy Bor, Poland on Border Raider. O'Connor rode as an individual in the 1994 World Equestrian Games World Three Day Event Championship. At the 1998 World Equestrian Games in Italy, he was the highest placed American, finishing sixth, helping the United States to the team Bronze Medal. David and Karen form a powerful and winning husband-and-wife team. Advertisement
Olympic, Pan American Games & World Championship History: 2000
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