*Exclusive* ‘I can’t believe I’ve actually done that’ – four months on, Ros Canter is folding washing when her Olympic gold sinks in

Pre-Paris and post-Paris. Ros Canter’s experience of 2024 falls neatly into two halves, each topped by achieving two life-long ambitions. Ros’s Paris Olympic team gold medal performance and her Burghley Horse Trials win took place in fairly quick succession, but were completely different experiences.

“Paris was such a big focus for me that the first half of the year all revolved around that,” she explains. “I had a couple of weeks after Paris where I felt a bit flat and a bit lost, because I hadn’t really thought beyond the Olympics – and then I really kicked back into gear again.”

We caught up in the days after Pau five-star, where Ros ended her season with another top-level podium finish, this time riding Izilot DHI, the pair finishing second in 2024 having won in 2023. Ros’s five-star debutant ride MHS Seventeen also stepped up to the big time in Pau, meaning the eventing season finished for Ros with this new star’s five-star future just beginning.

“Normally I finish the season ready to stop and have a bit of a break, but actually this year I still feel quite buoyed up,” says Ros. “I could have quite happily carried on for a bit longer. I think that’s because the first half of the season was so different to normal, as I only had that one focus. Now, I almost feel like I found another spark – that I still really love it again.

“Paris had just become such a big thing, in that I really wanted to tick that box. I felt like it was the one box I hadn’t ticked.”

Pressure to reach the Olympics

“Having a horse like Lordships Graffalo, and having had a [successful] year like we’d had in 2023, I felt quite a lot of pressure on myself to make sure that I got him to Paris, because I knew I was sitting on a horse that ought to be going to the Olympics,” says Ros.

Teams of three means there is ever more pressure for Olympic places – as Ros well knows, having supported the Brits as the alternate combination in Tokyo 2021 with her 2018 World Champion, Allstar B.

As 2024 dawned, Ros and Lordships Graffalo (“Walter”) – owned by Michele and Archie Saul – were in one of the strongest positions to make that team for Paris, having backed up their Badminton win by leading the Brits to victory with a double gold medal-winning performance at the 2023 Europeans.

Handling high expectations

Ros is no stranger to preparing for championships. Paris was her sixth call-up – seventh including Tokyo – and her system is well honed. Beneath her cool outward composure is a competitor constantly evaluating every decision.

“It was more mental pressure than anything else,” says Ros. “I think the team at home would say it was probably a bit more stressful at the yard. We tightened everything up in terms of biosecurity, so put more work onto ourselves to just try and keep ticking all the boxes and making it happen. But mentally, really, it was the big thing I wanted to do.”

Ros was with her daughter, Ziggy, at the yard when she got the call to say she’d been selected.

“My reaction was relief first and foremost. It’s a funny year, an Olympic year, and a long process. With the weather and everything else, there’s been lots of chopping and changing of plans and you never quite know if you’ve got it right,” said Ros at the time.

“The feelings were bigger than anything I’d felt before”

“The atmosphere we had in Team GB at the Olympics was incredible,” says Ros, acknowledging her squad mates Tom McEwen, Laura Collett and alternate rider Yasmin Ingham, as well as the wider support team.

“We all knew our jobs, everybody respected that we knew what we were doing. Nothing really changed, in terms of that we were allowed to prepare how we wanted to prepare. But we had all the right people there if we needed them.

“The overriding memory is definitely of cross-country day. The pressure was quite big and obviously I was last to go for the team, so I had a long wait. The sensations and the feelings were bigger than anything I’d ever felt before.”

They delivered, as they have spent their lifetimes preparing to do. But the emotional rollercoaster had a twist yet, as Ros and Lordships Graffalo were awarded controversial flag penalties. The Brits were still out in front, but their buffer ahead of the showjumping was far thinner.

An emotional rollercoaster

“My competition was quite up and down in terms of how it panned out,” says Ros, reflecting back on that evening in Paris some three months on.

“Emotions wise, I got an initial thrill from the cross country, but then that evening didn’t really pan out how it was supposed to, so there was a lot of worry and different emotions surrounding that.

“The knock-on effect for showjumping day was that when I finished my round and we’d won the gold medal, the real emotion was relief. Relief that the situation hadn’t lost us the gold, and relief that I hadn’t let anybody down too much.

“By the time we got to the medal ceremony, we were able to really enjoy it. That was really great fun – our horses behaved impeccably, which helped, and we were able to play to the crowd.”

Ros Canter and Laura Collett return to Paris

A beauty of these Games was the rare opportunity for athletes to be able to nip back to appreciate more of the Olympic magic after their events had finished. Ros and Laura made the most of the opportunity, hopping back across the Channel for a few more days in Paris.

“As soon as I saw the timetable and that we were on early in the Games, I knew I’d like the opportunity to go back to the closing ceremony,” says Ros. “I knew I was going to try and make that happen. When Laura said she wanted to come back too, we made a plan to make two or three days of it.”

The pair hot-footed it from Aston-le-Walls down to London, where they jumped on the train to Paris to parade through Champions Park and experience the closing ceremony.

“It was absolutely brilliant. One of the best things I’ve done,” says Ros. “When you’re actually competing at an Olympics you have to treat it like it’s just another competition – you can’t get bowled over by it being the Olympics, or it would just become much too difficult.

“To be able to go back and soak it in was fantastic.”

Ros Canter: “I’m still first and foremost a mother, and an eventer”

Has life changed since winning Olympic gold?

“Not really!” says Ros, with a smile in her voice. “There are some lovely things that come because of the Olympics. We get new opportunities, which is great – I get to experience and am invited to places that I would never normally get to go.”

She mentions a trip to Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister – shortly after we speak, Ros joins fellow Olympians to meet The King at a reception at Buckingham Palace.

“But no, life very much goes on. I’m still, first and foremost, a mother, and an event rider, trying to juggle – and life is still one big juggling act,” she says.

There are moments, though, that the glint of that golden achievement sinks in.

“Yesterday evening, I was upstairs putting clothes away or doing something very normal, and I suddenly thought, ‘oh my gosh, I actually won a gold medal!’” she says.

“I love the Olympics, I have always loved the Olympics, and I love sports. I just had a moment where I thought, ‘crikey, I can’t believe I actually, I’ve actually done that!’”

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