*Exclusive* ‘I wouldn’t change anything about Paris, apart from the rain – that was a bit s**t!’: Tom McEwen on 2024 Olympics

Since Paris 2024, we’ve been catching up with the riders whose stories captured fans’ imaginations, to bring their experiences exclusively to H&H subscribers. Next we have Tom McEwen, who reflects on how his two Olympic Games compare

“Tokyo and Paris were completely different for me,” says 33-year-old British event rider, Tom McEwen, who won team gold and individual silver in Tokyo with Toledo De Kerser and team gold and individual fourth in Paris with JL Dublin.

“Tokyo was my first Olympics and I had no idea what to expect,” Tom explains. “It made me aware of how much more media attention there is surrounding an Olympics compared to a normal championship – and I think it’s super-important for riders to make the most of that.

“The other thing Tokyo taught me is that everyone pays attention – so all your friends that aren’t horsey or the people I went to school with who had no idea why I disappeared during term time sometimes, realised what I was doing. It made me realise the wider appeal the Olympics has.”

Tom McEwen: coping with the pressure

Tom says there was a different kind of pressure at the Tokyo Olympics, compared to Paris.

“When we did our dressage in Tokyo, the pure dressage riders were there, like Carl [Hester], watching us and it was quite a lot of pressure to have those peers and idols watching us the whole time. Then when it was time for us to showjump, the pure showjumpers had arrived, and that brought a lot of pressure, because although there weren’t many eyes watching, the few eyes that were, really knew what they were talking about! For me that was worse than the pressure I felt in Paris in many ways.”

Individuals experience and deal with pressure in different ways – and Tom is no exception.

“I find the part where you can’t do anything the most pressurised,” he states. “For example, the team call-up – I find that much more difficult to deal with than the competition itself. It’s the reason you do hours in the school at home, hours having lessons and hours doing all the extra stuff, like time in the gym and the billion other things that go with horses.

“Where other people might find competing the hardest part to deal with pressure-wise, I find the building up to the competition tougher – all of a sudden you become really critical of things that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, like asking yourself was the walk in that dressage test going to be good enough? Or was that halt square enough? Like, does one average halt out of a million tests really matter?”

Getting that all-important Olympic call

When British Equestrian’s eventing performance manager Dickie Waygood called Tom to confirm his place on the Paris team, Tom was teaching. “I actually missed the call and so I had to call him back in the evening,” he laughs.

On the battle for a place on the British eventing team, Tom says: “It’s been so competitive to try and get into the team, which was highlighted by the number of people who travelled out to Luhmühlen to compete in the CCI4*-S [in June]. So many people were going so well and as per usual, we had to travel a lot to try and secure a team place.”

Tom’s route to Paris with Dubs included a win in the CCI4*-S in Kronenberg in the Netherlands in March, second in the CCI5* in Kentucky in the USA in April and second in the CCI4*-S in Luhmühlen, so he’s not kidding when he says he had to travel.

Taking on horse “at the top of his game”

Tom took on the ride on JL Dublin, or Dubs as he’s known at home, from Nicola Wilson after her fall at Badminton 2022 forced her to retire from the saddle. The now 13-year-old, owned by James and Jo Lambert and Deirdre Johnston, had already secured double gold with Nicola at the 2021 European Championships.

“Dubs was already at the top of his game and was trained incredibly by Nicola and he’s really easy to deal with in every way – he doesn’t have any quirks,” explains Tom. “But at the same time, it’s taken me a full 18 months to make him my own and get him to understand my rhythm across country.

“It’s just been a case of time, especially with the dressage and cross-country. He’s very different to what I’m used to – he’s very placid, very relaxed and sometimes he hides behind that character and keeps a lot of energy to himself and can then release it in a nice way, but that’s not always the best for a good dressage mark.”

Tom McEwen’s Paris Olympics memories

Reflecting further on his Paris experience, Tom says much of it has stayed with him.

“A lot of my time in Paris has stuck with me. I think having been to Tokyo helped with that – I took a lot more of it in this time.

“The atmosphere and the team spirit really stand out in my memory from Paris. Yas [Ingham – the British alternate rider] was incredible all week and Ros [Canter] and Laura [Collett] were excellent teammates. I think that was highlighted by Ros’ 15 penalties – we dealt with it and we all just got on with it and everyone supported each other. That was really cool.

”I wouldn’t change anything from my Paris experience, apart from maybe if it hadn’t rained on my dressage day – that was a bit sh*t!”

Cross-country day stands out for Tom too.

“That was an amazing experience – the noise from the crowd that followed each horse around – and actually, being so close to home, the amount of British flags that were there was amazing.

“Dubs is a born professor and the more people there are to watch, the better – for example going into the arena after a French rider had jumped, the crowd were so noisy and all of the British horses absolutely loved that.”

The British eventing team stayed close to Versailles while competing, but they also got to experience the wider Olympic spirit too.

“We were really lucky to be with our owners near Versailles and have the most amazing hub created by the BEF, but we also got to go and experience the main athletes’ village, which was awesome. It’s vast and you don’t quite realise how big it is,” says Tom.

“I also stayed on with Harriet [Tom’s wife] after the eventing and we watched some of the other sports, such as the swimming, which was really cool.”

With two Olympics, two team golds, and one individual silver medal under his belt by the age of 33, few would bet against Tom adding to that collection at future Games.

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