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The Greatest Equestrian Athlete at the Olympic Games

Who is the greatest Equestrian athlete of all time based on Olympic Games performances? We have used a weighted total medal count of each male and female Equestrian athlete from all modern Olympic Games to rank their overall performance, using data from all Olympics including the Tokyo 2020 Games.

The highest ranked equestrian at the Olympic Games is German rider Isabell Werth, who won seven gold and five silver medals between 1992 and 2020. The best male all-time performing equestrian athlete at the Olympic Games is another German, Reiner Klimke, who competed between 1964–1988 winning six gold medals and two bronze. See the table below to see how other athletes ranked.

See also the best athlete from each sport, and the best overall.



Top Olympic Games Equestrian Riders

Here are the top ranked athletes from the sport of Equestrian for performances at all Olympiads, using the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System to order the athletes, awarding points for both gold (6 points) and other medals (silver 2 pts, bronze 1 pt).

Table: The Top Ranked Athletes from Equestrian at the Olympic Games (including 2021)

rank name country gender Gold Silver Bronze total
medals
rating
1 Isabell Werth Germany F 7 5 0 12 52
2 Reiner Klimke Germany M 6 0 2 8 38
3 Hans Günter Winkler Germany M 5 1 1 7 33
4 Charles Pahud de Mortanges Netherlands M 4 1 0 5 26
5 Ludger Beerbaum Netherlands M 4 0 1 5 25
=6 Henri Saint Cyr Germany M 4 0 0 4 24
=6 Nicole Uphoff Germany F 4 0 0 4 24

notes: initial data from wikipedia of multiple Olympic gold medalists (with at least 4 gold medals, including results from 2021). For the ranking order, we have used the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System.



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