Nick Skelton

Nick Skelton
Nick Skelton, medalist at the 2012 Olympics
nation	Great Britain
birthday	December 30, 1957
place of birth	Bedworth , Warwickshire
Career
discipline	Show jumping
Nations Cup	more than 170
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × 0 × 0 × World championships 0 × 1 × 4 × European championships 2 × 3 × 3 ×
Olympic games gold 2012 London Team with a big star gold 2016 Rio de Janeiro Single with Big Star
last change: January 5th, 2018

Nicholas David "Nick" Skelton , CBE (born December 30, 1957 in Bedworth , Warwickshire ) is a former British show jumper .

Despite intermittent alcohol problems and a fractured cervical vertebra, Nick Skelton was successful in international show jumping for almost four decades. He took part in a number of World and European Championships as well as in seven Summer Olympic Games and competed in over 170 Nations Cups for Great Britain. He achieved his greatest success at the age of 58 when he won the individual gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics . He is (as of 2016) the second oldest British Olympic champion. A good nine months later, in May 2017, he ended his active sports career.

Career

Nick Skelton with Carlo , CSI 5 * Hamburg 2012

Nick Skelton with Arko III

Nick Skelton's father was part of a veterinary corps , and his mother rode in her free time, so there was early contact with horses. He made his first attempts at riding at the age of 18 months, and at the age of three he overcame a jumping obstacle for the first time on horseback.

Initially, Skelton planned to become a jockey for obstacle races . At the age of 15 he got a job with the British show jumper Ted Edgar . Nick Skelton worked on Ted and Liz Edgar 's farm for 12 years . He celebrated his first major success in international equestrian sport in 1975, winning the individual ranking of the European Junior Championships in Dornbirn, Austria , with Everest OK . In 1978 he set the British record in power jumping , with Lastic he successfully overcame 2.31 meters. This record should last for 32 years.

He became famous with the horses Maybe , If Ever , Apollo and St. James and won numerous important tournaments. Nick Skelton is a three-time winner of the famous Hickstead Derby from 1987 to 1989. Skelton achieved great individual successes at the 1986 World Championships and at the 1987 European Championships, where he won the individual bronze medals with Apollo . Also in this row is the victory of the World Cup final in Gothenburg in 1995. His best horse at the time was the Hanoverian mare Dollar Girl , which he claims to be the best horse of his career.

In the following years, the success decreased significantly, also due to heavy alcohol consumption. A turning point in his life came in September 2001. Skelton fell with a young horse and broke his uppermost cervical vertebra twice. As a result, Skelton spent three months in a cast in the hospital, the next four months his neck was stabilized by a metal support frame. He was banned from riding by the doctors, and Skelton planned his future as a trainer.

After more than a year, surgeons found that the torn tether on the vertebra had grown back together and the severed pieces of bone had pushed back into place. In January 2003, despite objections from doctors, he started riding again. Skelton's motivation for this was in particular the Oldenburg stallion Arko . Nick Skelton, like Carlo and Nemo later , acquired this from the stable of the Holsteiner show jumper Jörg Naeve .

In April 2004 he won the British Open Show Jumping Championships with Arko in Sheffield . Also with Arko , in 2008 he won the then most highly endowed show jumping test, the CN International Grand Prix , with prize money of 1,000,000 Canadian dollars . For Skelton this was the fourth victory in the Grand Prix of the Nations Cup of Calgary .

At the European Championships 2011 Nick Skelton won the bronze medal with Carlo in both individual and team competitions . A year later, at the 2012 Summer Olympics , he was part of the victorious British team with Big Star and also came fifth in the individual standings. With the 2012 Birthday Honors List , he was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the equestrian sport.

In the years 2013 to 2015 Skelton could not qualify for the British championship team. The main reason for this was that Big Star was injured several times and was out for a long time. In preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics , Nick Skelton only used Big Star in four international tournaments from May 2016. Nevertheless, he was nominated for his seventh Olympic Games. While it did not go well for Great Britain in the team standings (they missed the entry into the round of the best eight teams clearly), he still managed to qualify for the final test of the individual standings. Here he stayed with Big Star in both rounds without mistakes, which was also achieved by five other riders. In the jump-off he was the first rider to start, made no mistakes and put his competitors under pressure. Since nobody managed to be faster than him without a mistake, Nick Skelton won the gold medal in the individual standings. In 2017 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Nick Skelton played his last international tournament at The Royal Horse Show in Toronto, where he finished second in the final Big Ben Challenge with Big Star . A few weeks earlier, he last competed for Great Britain in a Nations Cup, the final of the 2016 Nations Cup series . With Big Star and the British team, he came silver here. As part of the Royal Windsor Horse Show , Skelton and Big Star said goodbye to tournament sport.

Private

He wrote his autobiography with his secretary and co-author Mary Neal.

Nick Skelton has two sons from his first marriage: Dan Skelton, who works as a trainer in horse racing , and his younger brother Harry Skelton, who rides obstacle races as a jockey. This first marriage fell apart after his wife found out that he was having an affair with Willi Melliger's wife . As a result, Bettina Melliger became his partner.

Nick Skelton and Laura Kraut are linked through a private and business partnership . In summer, when she competes in tournaments in Europe, she is based at his facility in Alcester . In return, Skelton lived regularly in Wellington, Florida during the winter months, where he attended the Winter Equestrian Festival during that time . He has also been training Pablo Barrios here since 2011 .

Horses

Nick Skelton and Big Star , CSIO La Baule 2013

• Big Star (* 2003, original name: What a Quickstar K ), bay KWPN stallion, father: Quick Star, mother's father : Nimmerdor
• Carlo 273 (* 2001), Holstein gray gelding, father: Contender, mother's father: Cascavelle; Ridden by Jörg Naeve until 2008, ridden by Sergio Alvarez Moya from autumn 2012 Owner: Beverley Widdowson
• Unique XVII (* 2001), bay KWPN gelding, father: Indoctro, mother's father: Voltaire, partly ridden by Laura Kraut , owner: Beverley Widdowson
• Nemo 119 (* 1999), dark brown Holstein gelding, father: Cambridge, mother's father: Cantus, ridden by Jörg Naeve until 2008, ridden by Lucy Davis since 2010
• Russel (* 1995), Holstein gray stallion, father: Corofino I, mother's father: Lincoln, retired from international sport, owner: Lisa Hales
• Transmission (* 1995), brown Irish sport horse wallach , father: Cavaler Royale, mother's father: Diamond Serpent, ridden by the American Richard Neal since 2011
• Arko III (* 1994), bay Oldenburg stallion, father: Argentinus, mother's father: Beach Boy, previously ridden by Jörg Naeve and Robert Whitaker , retired from the sport at the 2008 Olympia London International Horse Show , owner: John, Lisa and Pat. Hales
• Hopes are High (* 1989), bay gelding, Sport Horse Breeding of Great Britain, father: Flagmount Diamond, mother's father: Cornelscourt xx
• Dollar Girl (* 1980; † 2009), dark bay Hanoverian mare, previously ridden by Norbert Nuxoll and Thomas Fuchs , broodmare with Alfonso Romo after her sports career
• Raffles Apollo (* 1975; † 2006), bay KWPN stallion, father: Erdball xx , mother's father: Sinaeda

successes

• Olympic Summer Games:
  • 1988, Seoul : with Apollo 6th place in the team ranking and 7th place in the individual ranking
  • 1992, Barcelona : with Dollar Girl 6th place in the team ranking and 7th place in the individual ranking
  • 1996, Atlanta : with Showtime 11th place in the team ranking and 23rd place in the individual ranking
  • 2004, Athens : 10th place in the individual ranking with Arko
  • 2008, Beijing / Hong Kong : 5th place in the team ranking and 28th place in the individual ranking with Russel
  • 2012, London : with Big Star 1st place in the team ranking and 5th place in the individual ranking
  • 2016, Rio de Janeiro : 12th place in the team ranking and 1st place in the individual ranking with Big Star

• World Championships (from 1990 World Equestrian Games ):
  • 1982, Dublin: with If Ever 3rd place in the team ranking and 48th place in the individual ranking
  • 1986, Aachen: with Apollo 2nd place in the team ranking and 3rd place in the individual ranking
  • 1990, Stockholm: with Grand Slam 3rd place in the team ranking and 20th place in the individual ranking
  • 1994, The Hague: 6th place in the team ranking and 22nd place in the individual ranking with Dollar Girl
  • 1998, Rome: with Hopes Are High 3rd place in the team ranking and 26th place in the individual ranking
  • 2006, Aachen : 9th place in the team ranking and 30th place in the individual ranking with Russell
• European Championships :
  • 1985, Dinard: with St. James 1st place in the team ranking and 4th place in the individual ranking
  • 1987, St. Gallen: 1st place in the team ranking and 3rd place in the individual ranking with Apollo
  • 1991, La Baule: 2nd place in the team ranking and 17th place in the individual ranking with Phoenix Park
  • 1993, Gijón: with Dollar Girl 2nd place in the team ranking and 16th place in the individual ranking
  • 1995, St. Gallen: with Dollar Girl 2nd place in the team ranking and 23rd place in the individual ranking
  • 1999, Hickstead: with Hopes Are High 4th place in the team ranking and 24th place in the individual ranking
  • 2003, Donaueschingen: with Arko 9th place in the team ranking and 26th place in the individual ranking
  • 2011, Madrid : 3rd place in the team ranking and 3rd place in the individual ranking with Carlo
• World Cup Finals (incomplete list):
  • 1985, West Berlin: 2nd place with St. James
  • 1995, Gothenburg: 1st place with Dollar Girl
  • 1996, Le Grand-Saconnex (Geneva): 3rd place with Dollar Girl
• Further:
  • 1980, Rotterdam (Olympic replacement competitions of the boycotting countries ): with Maybe 2nd place in the team ranking and 25th place in the individual ranking
  • British jumping derby: 1987 1st place with J Nick , 1988 and 1989 1st place with Apollo
  • Grand Prix of Aachen : 1982 1st place with If Ever , 1987 and 1988 1st place with Apollo , 2013 1st place with Big Star

Web links

Commons : Nick Skelton  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Nick Skelton in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Website of Nick Skelton (English)
• Video of the adoption by Nick Skelton and Big Star on the Youtube page of FEI (english)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rider Biographies: Nick Skelton OBE , britishshowjumping.co.uk, as of January 3, 2014
2. ↑ Rio Olympics 2016: GB's Nick Skelton wins show jumping gold , BBC , August 19, 2016, accessed June 10, 2017
3. ↑ Nick Skelton, How I got back on my horse after breaking my neck to become the oldest Olympian , The Daily Telegraph , August 28, 2016, accessed June 10, 2017
4. ^ FEI biography of Nick Skelton
5. ↑ Nick Skelton, British show jumper , Horse & Hound , December 8, 2009, accessed June 10, 2017
6. ↑ 9 things you need to know about Olympic champion Nick Skelton , Horse & Hound, April 5, 2017, accessed June 10, 2017
7. ↑ Individual Results CH-EU-JS Dornbirn (AUT), 07/08/1975 - 10/08/1975
8. ↑ Farewell Nick & Big Star! , St. Georg , May 14, 2017, accessed June 10, 2017
9. ↑ How show jumper Skelton learned to curb himself after a broken neck , Stefanie Boewe / Die Welt , April 22, 2005
10. ↑ Nick Skeltons Comeback ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 20, 2003 
11. ↑ Press release: Nick Skelton  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 11, 2003  
12. ↑ ^{a b} Nick Skelton says goodbye to Arko III in London , November 2, 2008
13. ^ Final Standings British Open Show Jumping Championship
14. ^ Four-peat for Skelton in $ 1 million CN Grand Prix , horse-canada.com, September 8, 2008
15. ↑ Birthday Honors 2012
16. ↑ Nick Skelton awarded OBE ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Victoria Spicer / horseandcountry.tv, June 16, 2012 (English)  
17. ↑ Wellington: Big Star's Another Comeback Attempt , St. Georg, January 13, 2016
18. ^ The London Gazette (Supplement) no. 61803. p. N9
19. ^ FEI Athlete Performance: Nick Skelton
20. ↑ Generation game: Skelton's boys are making a name for themselves on the jumps , Jonathan Powell / Daily Mail , November 9, 2013 (English)
21. ^ How the Olympic bad boy came good , Simon Edge / express.co.uk , August 8, 2012
22. ↑ FEI Biographies: Laura Kraut
23. ↑ Nick Skelton becomes the coach of G&C Farm and Pablo Barrios , February 2011
24. ↑ FEI horse database: Big Star
25. ↑ FEI horse database: Carlo 273  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
26. ↑ Nick Skeltons Carlo moves to Spain , St. Georg , September 17, 2012
27. ↑ FEI horse database: Unique  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
28. ↑ FEI horse database: Nemo 119  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
29. ↑ FEI horse database: Russel  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
30. ↑ FEI horse database: Transmission  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
31. ↑ FEI horse database: Arko III  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
32. ↑ FEI horse database: Hopes are high  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
33. ↑ Parentage : Hopes are High , allbreedpedigree.com
34. ↑ Hopes Are High , nickskelton.com
35. ↑ Dollar Girl is no longer alive ( memento of the original from June 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 30, 2009  
36. ↑ Descent: Dollar Girl , horsetelex.de
37. ↑ Descent from Apollo , horsetelex.nl
38. ↑ Apollo , nickskelton.com
39. ↑ Farewell to Skelton's top jumper , Horse & Hound , January 13, 2006 (English)
40. ↑ FEI biography