Jill MedingerThough Jessica Springsteen, aboard Juan van de Donkhoeve, narrowly missed her chance to qualify for the finals in the Individual Jumping event, she and the rest of Team USA met Sweden at the Team Jumping Final on Saturday, the final Equestrian event of this year’s Olympic games.
The 2020 Tokyo US Equestrian Team (made up of Jessica Springsteen, Laura Kraut, and McLain Ward) had a total of eight faults in the final, which brought them into the jump-off with Sweden. “Incredibly, all six riders had clear rounds in the jump-off, but Sweden’s total time of 122.90 seconds saw them take gold by 1.3 seconds,” according to Olympics.com.
“When I’m in the ring and the bell goes off, I’m completely, 100 percent focused on that,” Jessica told the AP last week regarding her Olympic debut. “Any outside pressures or anything else going on really kind of just fades away and I’m really in that moment.”