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Michèle George was moved to tears on Wednesday after winning the gold medal with her horse ‘Best of 8’. The 50-year-old dressage rider was the best in the individual test for the third time, after London (2012) and Tokyo (2021). Good for a seventh (!) medal in her Paralympic career. “This is unbelievable, I’m a bit speechless,” she said afterwards.
In the gardens of the Palace of Versailles she received 76.692 percent for her exercise with ‘Best of 8’. That was more than enough for new Paralympic gold.
“I never talked about the color of the medal beforehand, but now I can,” George said after her exercise. “I really wanted gold. The hunger is and remains great. But I didn’t expect this and was very nervous. I am very satisfied and can look back on an excellent test. It is difficult to get to the top and even more difficult to stay there. I want to thank the whole team.”
George had been looking forward to her test very much. “But it was also a bit of a nervous wait,” she laughed. “My horse ‘Best of 8’ is fourteen years old, these are her last Paralympic Games, but she has never ridden with an audience. There was no audience in Tokyo either. The site here is really impressive. The view alone is amazing. And the mare did fantastic. She was a real princess today, regardless of the result.”
Belgian record
After her new Paralympic title, George has six gold medals and one silver. Next Saturday, with another victory in the freestyle competition, she can equal the Belgian Paralympic record of wheelchair sprinter Paul Van Winkel, who won seven gold medals at the Paralympic Games in the 1980s. “That’s great and that’s in my head somewhere,” George concluded.
(read more below photo)
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Van Ham (6th) and Claeys (6th) also in freestyle test
Kevin van Ham and Eros van ons Heem took sixth place with a score of 69.692% and were therefore the second Belgian to advance to the individual freestyle competition, which was reserved for the top eight.
On Tuesday, Barbara Minneci finished in seventh place in the individual test of grade III. Earlier on Wednesday, Manon Claeys finished sixth in the individual test of grade IV. All Belgians will therefore advance to the freestyle test. The team event is also on the program on September 7.
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