Cédric Lyard

Cédric Lyard on Fine Merveille (2005)

Cédric Lyard (born January 22, 1972 in Grenoble ) is a French eventing rider , Olympic champion and Knight of the Legion of Honor .

Lyard started riding at the age of 7 and competed in his first competitions at the age of 13. His first participation abroad was the Badminton Horse Trials in 1997 . At the World Equestrian Games in Jerez de la Frontera in 2002 , he won the silver medal with the team.

Lyard's greatest achievement is winning the team gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The French had initially finished second, but the German team was subsequently set back to fourth place because Bettina Hoy had triggered the time measurement too early in the show jumping. The International Sports Court upheld the jury's decision.

His horse Fine de Merveille , with whom he had celebrated all his successes to date, died of heart failure in July 2005. On Jolly Hope de Treille he was fifth at the European Championships in Pratoni del Vivaro 2007. Two years later he was part of the French team at the European Championships in Fontainebleau (individual ranking: 16th place with Jessy Mail ). After several years of interruption, his next championship participation also followed in France: At the 2014 World Equestrian Games he competed as an individual rider and came in 30th with Cadeau du Roi .

Lyard was also an individual rider at the 2017 European Championships when he finished 45th with Qatar du Puech Rouget in Strzegom . A good two months later, both reached third place in the CCI 4 * Pau .