Fry wins bronze to continue GB equestrian success

Lottie Fry continued Great Britain's equestrian medal success at the Paris Olympics with bronze in the individual dressage.

On stallion Glamourdale, she scored 88.971% as Germany's Jessica von Bredow-Werndl successfully defended her title.

Fellow German Isabell Werth, competing at her seventh Games, took silver.

It marks a third Olympic medal for 28-year-old Fry, who made her debut in Tokyo three years ago and also has two team bronzes.

"I'm pretty speechless," she told BBC Sport. "Towards the end I knew there were some really good ones to go so I almost put it out of my mind.

"We definitely started to pack up a few things at the stable to go home and I said bye. I checked the scores and there were a few screams.

"It was so exciting, and Glamourdale really deserves this."

The second of those came on Saturday, alongside team-mates Carl Hester and Becky Moody.

Hester and Moody placed sixth and eighth respectively in Sunday's final.

It is a fifth equestrian medal for Team GB at the picturesque Chateau de Versailles, after team eventing and jumping golds, plus Laura Collett's individual eventing bronze.

'Incredible' finish for dressage team after rocky build-up

World champion Fry, who grew up near Driffield in Yorkshire but now lives and trains in the Netherlands, qualified for the final in fourth place with a score of 78.913%.

With a "best of British with a French twang" soundtrack featuring Queen, the Beatles and the national anthems of Britain and France, she bettered that score in Sunday's medal performance.

Her score put her top of the standings with three riders to come, and while Werth and then Von Bredow-Werndl moved ahead - the latter with a score of 90.093% - Denmark's Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour could only place fifth to confirm the British medal.

Fry's late mother, Laura, competed alongside Hester at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

Fry started training with him as a teenager and it was Hester who encouraged her to go to the Netherlands, where she now trains under Danish Olympic medallist Anne van Olst.

Hester scored 85.161% on Fame while Moody, riding Jagerbomb, achieved 84.357% at her maiden Olympics after replacing Charlotte Dujardin in the squad.

Fry's medal is GB's fifth in Olympic individual dressage. Three of those - including gold in London and Rio - belong to Dujardin, who withdrew on the eve of the Games and was later provisionally suspended by equestrian's world governing body for "excessively" whipping a horse.

It created a frenzied build-up to competition for Fry, Hester and Moody, but Fry admits it could not have "ended much better".

"I think it really shows what an incredible support team we have," she said.

"It has brought us so close as a team, and everyone has really grouped together and given us so much confidence to go out there and do what we know we can do.

"To come back with a team medal and an individual medal, it's just incredible."

Hester hints at retirement?

Carl Hester made his Olympic debut in 1992

At 57, Hester is the oldest member of Team GB at Paris 2024 and was appearing at his seventh Olympics.

Although age is just a number in equestrian, he hinted Sunday's final could be his final bow.

Asked if it was the last time he will compete at an Olympics, he told BBC Sport: "Possibly. How you feel now and how you feel in a month's time are very different things.

"After a Games, you hit a bit of a down, and it's been so tough these last 10 days that you don't know.

"I can't really say to be honest."

On the emotions of leaving the arena after his performance, he said: "A lot of these people have seen me riding at many of my Games, and I think they know what I possibly know as well."

Fry said: "I'm 100% sure I'm not going to let it be his last Games.

"What he's done for this sport is more than anyone else, he is just an incredible person, he's created an incredible British team and it's an honour to be able to stand next to him."