Individual, Men

The three-day event began with dressage, which was led by France’s André Jousseaumé, who had already won an individual dressage silver in London. The following day was the endurance test, which took place near the Aldershot Military Complex. The course consisted of 33.5 km, starting with 6 km on roads, followed by 3.5 km of steeplechase, another 15 km on the roads, then 8 km of cross-country, and finishing with 1 km on the flat. The steeplechase section was contested on the Tweseldown Racecourse. The course was actually considered somewhat easy, but not for Jousseaumé, who fell twice and finished last in the phase, and then had to withdraw as his horse was lame. The endurance ride was won by France’s Bernard Chevallier aboard Aiglonne, who rode a clean course and moved into the lead, well ahead of Americans Charles Anderson and Frank Henry.

The final day was devoted to show jumping, with eight riders going cleanly over the 12 obstacle course. Among them was Chevallier, who thus won the three-day gold medal. Henry also rode cleanly to win the silver medal, but Anderson had 11.5 faults and dropped back to fourth overall, trailing Sweden’s Robert Selfelt.

The 1948 Olympic three-day event was the inspiration for starting the Badminton Horse Trials, which were first held in 1949, and have since become one of the main eventing championships in equestrian sport.