Sir Mark Todd has racked up an impressive Olympic medal count for New Zealand in his time.
The famed equestrian has won two gold medals and three bronze medals within his chosen sport.
He was also voted Event Rider of the 20th Century by the International Equestrian Federation in 2000.
He joined Piney to discuss his athletic legacy.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
New Zealand and The Home Straight.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Keewis on.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Weekend Sports Road to Paris.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Twenty twenty four. Eleven past two. The Paris Olympics are
now just five weeks away, less than that actually, so
we continue our Road to Paris feature revisiting some of
our great Olympic moments from the past. Sir Mark Todd
is truly one of our Olympic greats. First chosen to
(00:46):
write Equestrian in the Boycott at Moscow Olympics in nineteen
eighty he went on to compete in seven Olympic Games
between nineteen eighty four and two thousand and sixteen. Only
Dame Lisa Carrington has won more Olympic medals than his five.
He won New Zealand's first ever Olympic equestrian medal in
(01:06):
nineteen eighty four and a gold won two in Los Angeles,
and then repeated the dos in Soul four years later.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And he's clear over that he can do what he likes.
With these last two. It really doesn't matter. It's Todd
for two two for time, Mark Tisma the first time
since nineteen thirty two that one horse and rider have
won the Olympic gold medal for the three day events
in two successive Olympic Games, and it was a key
with you.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Who doesn't he had back to bout gold medals for
Mark Todd. Then he also won individual bronze in Sydney
in two thousand and was part of bronze medal winning
New Zealand teams in nineteen eighty eight and again at
London in twenty twelve. Among the many accolades in an
incredible career, he was named Writer of the Century by
the International Equestrian Federation in two thousand and in twenty
(01:55):
thirteen he was knighted for services to equestrian sport. Sir
Mark Todd is with us. Great to get the chance
to chat to you, Sir Mark, thanks for taking our call.
How did it all be good for you? When did
you first get onto a horse?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Well, I mean I was one of those pony crazy kids.
I mean I don't I don't know where it came from.
My family was not into horses at all. The only
things my grandfather had a farm and he had he
had horses on it. But it's all I ever wanted
to do, and I suppose the first time I sat
on a horse that was probably about five or six.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
When did you start taking it seriously, start thinking about
it as as something you could do at a at
an elite level.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I guess not till I was sort of in my
in my late teens, that you know, I was competing
in the local so I guess I had a reasonable
amount of success. And I've always read books and watch
things a going on overseas, and of course the Olympic
(03:05):
Games was always always something very special, and I guess
I started to aspire to to want to ride in
the Olympics, and it all sort of went from there.
And in nineteen seventy eight I went on my first
trip abroad to America to the World Championships were there,
(03:27):
and I guess it all went on from there.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And selection in the team for the Moscow Games in
nineteen eighty, which of course were largely boycotted by New Zealand.
How much of a disappointment was that.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
For you, Well, when you're sort of I don't know
how old was I there, I was quite young, and
you think, you know, you get selected for Olympic Games,
and you think Oh my god, this is going to be,
you know, my only chance. And suddenly it was gone.
You know, little did I know that instead of the end,
(04:02):
it was just the beginning. But yeah, at the time
it was very disappointing, but you know, you have to
understand the reasons behind it, and I guess they were
the right reasons. But luckily, you know, I got more chances.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
A lot more chances. Nineteen eighty four, Sir Mark, your
gold was New Zealand's first year, but a questrian Olympic
medal and a gold one at that. Can you remember
how confident you felt going into LA in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Well, I just struck up a partnership with Charisma the
year before and we came to England at the beginning
of nineteen eighty four with the idea of going to
the Olympic Games because it had a very good form
(04:58):
in New Zealand. But we went to Badminton horse trials
in the spring of the Northern Hemisphere, which was sort
of April May, and he was he was second at Badminton,
So I went to I went to LA feeling confident
(05:18):
that he would be competitive, or that we could be competitive.
You know, in these sort of competitions you never go
into and think, oh, I'm going to win this, because
you know, in a three day event there's so many
different phases, so many different facets that you know any
stage anything can go wrong. And of course you know
at Badminton you mostly have the English and the Irish
(05:41):
and maybe some of the Europeans. You go to the
Olympic Games, you have you have competitors from all over
the world, so it is a different ball game. So
I went there feeling confident of a good performance, hopefully
finishing in the in the top ten, but of course
come away winning it was was extraordinary really.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So you were second going into the show jumping after
the drifts and the cross country, and a clear round
put the heat on American Karen Stives. If she went
clear she would win gold. But on the penultimate obstacle,
her horse beIN Athur, clipped a rail. I remember seeing
some footage actually some mark of you having a cigarette
(06:23):
during her around and sort of only keeping half an
eye on it. Can you remember the moment though, that
her horse clipped that rail and gold was confirmed for you?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Oh? Absolutely, like yesterday? Yeah, no, sadly, I was smoking
in those days, and it was quite a nerve wrecking time.
I mean, Charisma wasn't a great show jumper, I mean
that was his weakest thing. And we'd managed to jump
a clear around and then Karen's horse would of course,
(06:57):
we were the last two to go. She'd been warming
up with me at the same time, and her horse
was like just looping the loop over the fences, and
only I didn't think it was going to touch one.
So I'd sort of wandered down to the rails to
watch the last few jumped the last few fences, and
(07:18):
as I did so, he had the rail down. Maybe
it was something I was putting out there, but uh, yeah, no,
I couldn't quite believe it. I think if you watched
that footage back again, I sort of put my hands
over over my head in disbelief that no, as it
meant I'd won it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, it was a terrific footage. I watched it a
lot on the lead up to chatting to you. How
much did Los Angeles change your life?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
It didn't.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It didn't.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
I mean, you know, life, life goes on, and you
know you come you come back to reality and of
your day to day existence and life is just same.
It certainly gave me a certain amount of recognition, and
you know, it took a while for it to think
(08:16):
in that you know, it actually, you know, won a
gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. It certainly did.
But I guess it did change my life a little bit,
but in the reality of the day to day it didn't.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Was it always the plan to keep charisma as you're
mount through to the nineteen eighty eight Games in soul?
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Yeah, Well, if you've if you've read the story, you know,
you know it was a little bit more complicated than that.
He was owned by a woman in New Zealand and
she'd agreed that I could ride him and bring him
to the Olympic Games. And then after that it was
(09:06):
a little bit, a little bit of a complicated story.
But she decided that she wanted to sell the horse
and didn't want me to ride it anymore. But luckily
my sponsor at the time, will Rests, Bill and Judy Hall,
who were the owners of will Rest we devised a
(09:30):
plan where somebody else came in to buy the horse
on our behalf, and we managed to secure the horse
and again to go to the following Olympics, which again
he duly won.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, and by comparison to nineteen eighty four, so Mark
from memory, nineteen eighty eight was a lot more comfortable.
Is that how you remember it?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah? Well, you know, he by that time he was sixteen,
and we weren't quite sure whether you know not many
sixteen year olds were competing at that time, but he
and the lead up to the Olympic Games, he just
felt he felt amazing. So we just I had two
horses at a reserve horse, but we decided to take charisma.
(10:17):
He won the dressage, he had the fastest time cross country,
and we actually went into the show jumping with a
relatively comfortable lead. He I think he had two fences
in hand going into the show jumping phase. So it
(10:39):
gave me a little bit, you know, as I said,
you know, show jumping wasn't his strongest point. I think
he from memory, I think he had one down, but
then it was it was enough to enough of a
he had enough of a lead going to the show jumping.
Even with one down, we still won quite comfortably.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So back to back gold medals eighty four and eighty eight.
Want to bring you forward to Sydney two thousands there,
and then you took eight years out from writing a
little bit of coaching. Why did you decide to take
time out from competing at the top level.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Well, I was in my forties by that stage, and
you know, I'd sort of lost motivation a little bit.
You know, I'd won badminton several times, I've won early
several times, I'd won two Olympics, and I sort of thought, well,
(11:39):
if I don't try and do something else now, I'm
going to be too old. And like I said, I'd
sort of lost motivation a little bit. So we decided
to call it a day, come back to New Zealand
and and get into racehourses, breeding and training, racehources and
(12:02):
that that lasted for eight years. And then then we
were living quite happily down in South Island when two
old friends, Eric Devander and Tinks Pottinger came to stay
and they were they were doing a training clinic in
the South Lands, and they said, over quite a lot
(12:24):
of red wine one night, way, don't why don't you
get a horse and try out for the for the
soul I'm not sold Beijing Olympics. And I said, will
you find me a horse, and I'll think about it,
and thought nothing more of that. And then a few
(12:46):
months later thinks rings up and said I think I
found you a horse, and and that was literally how
I got back into it. So then went and had
a look at the horse gandalf. I thought, well, I
probably won't like him, so that'll be the end of it,
but I did. I quite liked them. Thought well, he
(13:08):
probably won't pass the vet and that'll be the end
of it, but he did. I then rang a good friend,
Peter Vella of Sir Peter Veller of New Zealand Bloodstock
and said, would you be prepared to sponsor sponsors to
go have a go at the Olympics And he said, well,
(13:28):
give me a minute and I'll think about it. Anyway,
he literally rang back a minute later and said yes,
we'll do it. So that is how I got back
into it. And there was always the intention just to
go to go to Hong Kong for the Olympics and
then that would be it, but it wasn't. We carried on.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Indeed two more twenty twelve London Bronze again as part
of the New Zealand team. Then twenty sixteen in Rio
did you know after Rio that that would definitely be it.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Yeah, I mean that was you know, I think I'd
sort of push pushed the boat long enough. And Rio,
I have to say, was probably one of the biggest disappointments,
you know, of my career, for personally and for the team.
We went into the went into the show jumping on
(14:24):
a horse that normally jumps really really well and is
pretty reliable in the show jumping and silver medal, individual
silver medal position and team gold. I came out of
the show jumping with nothing. The first rail down, we
slipped from gold to silver, the second rail down, we
(14:47):
slipped to bronze, and the third rail down we were
out of it. And it was there was nothing I
could do on the horse. He just froze when he
got in there and just kept having rails. And it
was I mean, you know, I was gutted personally not
to win another individual medal at what I knew was
(15:12):
going to be my last Olympics. But when you let
the team down like that, it's it's something totally different.
And no, it was. It was not a great day.
I'm afraid.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
How did you come to terms with it, with with
what it happened.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Well, listen, if you've been in the sport as long
as I have, you have you have good days and
then you have bad days and there is no way
around it. And you know, I've had had lots of
bad days, you know, through through my career, and you've
just got to pick yourself up and just say, oh,
(15:50):
that was didn't work, and you know it's it's not
life changing. It's disappointing, but it's not life changing, and
you just have to put it in perspective. And you know,
I have to say, you know the rest of the team,
you know, they they were great as well. And we
had a few drinks and commiseration that night and everybody
(16:13):
was disappointed, but still in good spirits.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
So yeah, across your career you achieved so much and
you talked about badminton and burley Where do your Olympic
gold medals rank in all of that? Smuk?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
You know, the thing about winning an Olympic medal is
you know, you know, you know I can win. You
know I won four badmintons, I won five Burley's And
to the average person, you know, that probably means nothing.
They don't know what that is. But if you say
you won an Olympic gold medal, It's it's immediately recognized
as you know, a sporting achievement. And I think that's
(16:52):
the biggest thing. You know that within the sport. The
Olympics probably isn't as big as badminton and burley, but
it's you know, the Olympics are the Olympics. And then
and you know for that reason, they're just very very special.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Where do you keep your Olympic medals.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
At the moment, they're They're in a drawer in a
safe place. Yeah, every now and again I get asked
to bring them out and show people, and uh, yeah,
they know they're very special.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Bet a bet. So what takes up most of your
time now.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Well, I'm back training race horses for the moment anyway,
So yeah, where you know, mornings start early, horses have
to be fared, worked and everything else. So in that respect,
my life hasn't really changed. So and and horses always
will have a have a part of my life. As
(17:52):
we're looking to maybe slow down a bit from next
year on, so we will we will see.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
All right. And in Olympic Games, rushing up fast with
a questrine obviously there and and Keewis can aiding. Will
you be following along the you know, the the equestrian
events in Paris?
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Oh? Absolutely, yeah. I mean, you know, I love watching
the Olympics and and well I'll be again watching out
for the New Zealand team and keeping fingers across that.
You know, we have a good uh a good Olympics,
the equestrian team, and obviously know them all really well,
(18:34):
so I'll certainly be watching out for them as well.
It'll be it'll be great in Paris. It'll be a wonderful,
wonderful specle. They'll do it really well.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, I bet they will. So, Mark, It's been so interesting, educational, entertaining,
informative and a real pleasure to catch up with you,
one of our truly great Olympians. Thank you for taking
time to chat to us on our road to Paris.
All the best for what lies ahead. Thanks for your.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Time, pleasure. Thank you very much, No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Sir Mark. Sir Mark Todd there, seven time Olympian, five
time Olympic medalist and double gold medal winning three day
eventa aboard Charisma in nineteen eighty four and again in
nineteen eighty eight. Our road to Paris feature continues next
Sunday after two o'clock as we continue to highlight and
(19:23):
remember some of the great Olympic moments in our history.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk sed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
New Zealand and The Home Straight.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Keewis on.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Weekend Sports Road to Paris.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Twenty twenty four. Eleven past two. The Paris Olympics are
now just five weeks away, less than that actually, so
we continue our Road to Paris feature revisiting some of
our great Olympic moments from the past. Sir Mark Todd
is truly one of our Olympic greats. First chosen to
(00:46):
write Equestrian in the Boycott at Moscow Olympics in nineteen
eighty he went on to compete in seven Olympic Games
between nineteen eighty four and two thousand and sixteen. Only
Dame Lisa Carrington has won more Olympic medals than his five.
He won New Zealand's first ever Olympic equestrian medal in
(01:06):
nineteen eighty four and a gold won two in Los Angeles,
and then repeated the dos in Soul four years later.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
And he's clear over that he can do what he likes.
With these last two. It really doesn't matter. It's Todd
for two two for time, Mark Tisma the first time
since nineteen thirty two that one horse and rider have
won the Olympic gold medal for the three day events
in two successive Olympic Games, and it was a key
with you.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Who doesn't he had back to bout gold medals for
Mark Todd. Then he also won individual bronze in Sydney
in two thousand and was part of bronze medal winning
New Zealand teams in nineteen eighty eight and again at
London in twenty twelve. Among the many accolades in an
incredible career, he was named Writer of the Century by
the International Equestrian Federation in two thousand and in twenty
(01:55):
thirteen he was knighted for services to equestrian sport. Sir
Mark Todd is with us. Great to get the chance
to chat to you, Sir Mark, thanks for taking our call.
How did it all be good for you? When did
you first get onto a horse?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Well, I mean I was one of those pony crazy kids.
I mean I don't I don't know where it came from.
My family was not into horses at all. The only
things my grandfather had a farm and he had he
had horses on it. But it's all I ever wanted
to do, and I suppose the first time I sat
on a horse that was probably about five or six.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
When did you start taking it seriously, start thinking about
it as as something you could do at a at
an elite level.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I guess not till I was sort of in my
in my late teens, that you know, I was competing
in the local so I guess I had a reasonable
amount of success. And I've always read books and watch
things a going on overseas, and of course the Olympic
(03:05):
Games was always always something very special, and I guess
I started to aspire to to want to ride in
the Olympics, and it all sort of went from there.
And in nineteen seventy eight I went on my first
trip abroad to America to the World Championships were there,
(03:27):
and I guess it all went on from there.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And selection in the team for the Moscow Games in
nineteen eighty, which of course were largely boycotted by New Zealand.
How much of a disappointment was that.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
For you, Well, when you're sort of I don't know
how old was I there, I was quite young, and
you think, you know, you get selected for Olympic Games,
and you think Oh my god, this is going to be,
you know, my only chance. And suddenly it was gone.
You know, little did I know that instead of the end,
(04:02):
it was just the beginning. But yeah, at the time
it was very disappointing, but you know, you have to
understand the reasons behind it, and I guess they were
the right reasons. But luckily, you know, I got more chances.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
A lot more chances. Nineteen eighty four, Sir Mark, your
gold was New Zealand's first year, but a questrian Olympic
medal and a gold one at that. Can you remember
how confident you felt going into LA in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Well, I just struck up a partnership with Charisma the
year before and we came to England at the beginning
of nineteen eighty four with the idea of going to
the Olympic Games because it had a very good form
(04:58):
in New Zealand. But we went to Badminton horse trials
in the spring of the Northern Hemisphere, which was sort
of April May, and he was he was second at Badminton,
So I went to I went to LA feeling confident
(05:18):
that he would be competitive, or that we could be competitive.
You know, in these sort of competitions you never go
into and think, oh, I'm going to win this, because
you know, in a three day event there's so many
different phases, so many different facets that you know any
stage anything can go wrong. And of course you know
at Badminton you mostly have the English and the Irish
(05:41):
and maybe some of the Europeans. You go to the
Olympic Games, you have you have competitors from all over
the world, so it is a different ball game. So
I went there feeling confident of a good performance, hopefully
finishing in the in the top ten, but of course
come away winning it was was extraordinary really.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So you were second going into the show jumping after
the drifts and the cross country, and a clear round
put the heat on American Karen Stives. If she went
clear she would win gold. But on the penultimate obstacle,
her horse beIN Athur, clipped a rail. I remember seeing
some footage actually some mark of you having a cigarette
(06:23):
during her around and sort of only keeping half an
eye on it. Can you remember the moment though, that
her horse clipped that rail and gold was confirmed for you?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Oh? Absolutely, like yesterday? Yeah, no, sadly, I was smoking
in those days, and it was quite a nerve wrecking time.
I mean, Charisma wasn't a great show jumper, I mean
that was his weakest thing. And we'd managed to jump
a clear around and then Karen's horse would of course,
(06:57):
we were the last two to go. She'd been warming
up with me at the same time, and her horse
was like just looping the loop over the fences, and
only I didn't think it was going to touch one.
So I'd sort of wandered down to the rails to
watch the last few jumped the last few fences, and
(07:18):
as I did so, he had the rail down. Maybe
it was something I was putting out there, but uh, yeah, no,
I couldn't quite believe it. I think if you watched
that footage back again, I sort of put my hands
over over my head in disbelief that no, as it
meant I'd won it.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, it was a terrific footage. I watched it a
lot on the lead up to chatting to you. How
much did Los Angeles change your life?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
It didn't.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It didn't.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
I mean, you know, life, life goes on, and you
know you come you come back to reality and of
your day to day existence and life is just same.
It certainly gave me a certain amount of recognition, and
you know, it took a while for it to think
(08:16):
in that you know, it actually, you know, won a
gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. It certainly did.
But I guess it did change my life a little bit,
but in the reality of the day to day it didn't.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Was it always the plan to keep charisma as you're
mount through to the nineteen eighty eight Games in soul?
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Yeah, Well, if you've if you've read the story, you know,
you know it was a little bit more complicated than that.
He was owned by a woman in New Zealand and
she'd agreed that I could ride him and bring him
to the Olympic Games. And then after that it was
(09:06):
a little bit, a little bit of a complicated story.
But she decided that she wanted to sell the horse
and didn't want me to ride it anymore. But luckily
my sponsor at the time, will Rests, Bill and Judy Hall,
who were the owners of will Rest we devised a
(09:30):
plan where somebody else came in to buy the horse
on our behalf, and we managed to secure the horse
and again to go to the following Olympics, which again
he duly won.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, and by comparison to nineteen eighty four, so Mark
from memory, nineteen eighty eight was a lot more comfortable.
Is that how you remember it?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah? Well, you know, he by that time he was sixteen,
and we weren't quite sure whether you know not many
sixteen year olds were competing at that time, but he
and the lead up to the Olympic Games, he just
felt he felt amazing. So we just I had two
horses at a reserve horse, but we decided to take charisma.
(10:17):
He won the dressage, he had the fastest time cross country,
and we actually went into the show jumping with a
relatively comfortable lead. He I think he had two fences
in hand going into the show jumping phase. So it
(10:39):
gave me a little bit, you know, as I said,
you know, show jumping wasn't his strongest point. I think
he from memory, I think he had one down, but
then it was it was enough to enough of a
he had enough of a lead going to the show jumping.
Even with one down, we still won quite comfortably.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So back to back gold medals eighty four and eighty eight.
Want to bring you forward to Sydney two thousands there,
and then you took eight years out from writing a
little bit of coaching. Why did you decide to take
time out from competing at the top level.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Well, I was in my forties by that stage, and
you know, I'd sort of lost motivation a little bit.
You know, I'd won badminton several times, I've won early
several times, I'd won two Olympics, and I sort of thought, well,
(11:39):
if I don't try and do something else now, I'm
going to be too old. And like I said, I'd
sort of lost motivation a little bit. So we decided
to call it a day, come back to New Zealand
and and get into racehourses, breeding and training, racehources and
(12:02):
that that lasted for eight years. And then then we
were living quite happily down in South Island when two
old friends, Eric Devander and Tinks Pottinger came to stay
and they were they were doing a training clinic in
the South Lands, and they said, over quite a lot
(12:24):
of red wine one night, way, don't why don't you
get a horse and try out for the for the
soul I'm not sold Beijing Olympics. And I said, will
you find me a horse, and I'll think about it,
and thought nothing more of that. And then a few
(12:46):
months later thinks rings up and said I think I
found you a horse, and and that was literally how
I got back into it. So then went and had
a look at the horse gandalf. I thought, well, I
probably won't like him, so that'll be the end of it,
but I did. I quite liked them. Thought well, he
(13:08):
probably won't pass the vet and that'll be the end
of it, but he did. I then rang a good friend,
Peter Vella of Sir Peter Veller of New Zealand Bloodstock
and said, would you be prepared to sponsor sponsors to
go have a go at the Olympics And he said, well,
(13:28):
give me a minute and I'll think about it. Anyway,
he literally rang back a minute later and said yes,
we'll do it. So that is how I got back
into it. And there was always the intention just to
go to go to Hong Kong for the Olympics and
then that would be it, but it wasn't. We carried on.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Indeed two more twenty twelve London Bronze again as part
of the New Zealand team. Then twenty sixteen in Rio
did you know after Rio that that would definitely be it.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Yeah, I mean that was you know, I think I'd
sort of push pushed the boat long enough. And Rio,
I have to say, was probably one of the biggest disappointments,
you know, of my career, for personally and for the team.
We went into the went into the show jumping on
(14:24):
a horse that normally jumps really really well and is
pretty reliable in the show jumping and silver medal, individual
silver medal position and team gold. I came out of
the show jumping with nothing. The first rail down, we
slipped from gold to silver, the second rail down, we
(14:47):
slipped to bronze, and the third rail down we were
out of it. And it was there was nothing I
could do on the horse. He just froze when he
got in there and just kept having rails. And it
was I mean, you know, I was gutted personally not
to win another individual medal at what I knew was
(15:12):
going to be my last Olympics. But when you let
the team down like that, it's it's something totally different.
And no, it was. It was not a great day.
I'm afraid.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
How did you come to terms with it, with with
what it happened.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Well, listen, if you've been in the sport as long
as I have, you have you have good days and
then you have bad days and there is no way
around it. And you know, I've had had lots of
bad days, you know, through through my career, and you've
just got to pick yourself up and just say, oh,
(15:50):
that was didn't work, and you know it's it's not
life changing. It's disappointing, but it's not life changing, and
you just have to put it in perspective. And you know,
I have to say, you know the rest of the team,
you know, they they were great as well. And we
had a few drinks and commiseration that night and everybody
(16:13):
was disappointed, but still in good spirits.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
So yeah, across your career you achieved so much and
you talked about badminton and burley Where do your Olympic
gold medals rank in all of that? Smuk?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
You know, the thing about winning an Olympic medal is
you know, you know, you know I can win. You
know I won four badmintons, I won five Burley's And
to the average person, you know, that probably means nothing.
They don't know what that is. But if you say
you won an Olympic gold medal, It's it's immediately recognized
as you know, a sporting achievement. And I think that's
(16:52):
the biggest thing. You know that within the sport. The
Olympics probably isn't as big as badminton and burley, but
it's you know, the Olympics are the Olympics. And then
and you know for that reason, they're just very very special.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Where do you keep your Olympic medals.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
At the moment, they're They're in a drawer in a
safe place. Yeah, every now and again I get asked
to bring them out and show people, and uh, yeah,
they know they're very special.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Bet a bet. So what takes up most of your
time now.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Well, I'm back training race horses for the moment anyway,
So yeah, where you know, mornings start early, horses have
to be fared, worked and everything else. So in that respect,
my life hasn't really changed. So and and horses always
will have a have a part of my life. As
(17:52):
we're looking to maybe slow down a bit from next
year on, so we will we will see.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
All right. And in Olympic Games, rushing up fast with
a questrine obviously there and and Keewis can aiding. Will
you be following along the you know, the the equestrian
events in Paris?
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Oh? Absolutely, yeah. I mean, you know, I love watching
the Olympics and and well I'll be again watching out
for the New Zealand team and keeping fingers across that.
You know, we have a good uh a good Olympics,
the equestrian team, and obviously know them all really well,
(18:34):
so I'll certainly be watching out for them as well.
It'll be it'll be great in Paris. It'll be a wonderful,
wonderful specle. They'll do it really well.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah, I bet they will. So, Mark, It's been so interesting, educational, entertaining,
informative and a real pleasure to catch up with you,
one of our truly great Olympians. Thank you for taking
time to chat to us on our road to Paris.
All the best for what lies ahead. Thanks for your.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Time, pleasure. Thank you very much, No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Sir Mark. Sir Mark Todd there, seven time Olympian, five
time Olympic medalist and double gold medal winning three day
eventa aboard Charisma in nineteen eighty four and again in
nineteen eighty eight. Our road to Paris feature continues next
Sunday after two o'clock as we continue to highlight and
(19:23):
remember some of the great Olympic moments in our history.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk sed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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