Jessica Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen's daughter, fails to make 2024 equestrian Olympics team after winning silver in 2020
Jessica Springsteen, the Olympic silver medal-winning equestrian daughter of rock legend Bruce Springsteen, will not be going for gold at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
In a news release by U.S. Equestrian over the weekend, Springsteen was not listed on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games jumping team. The event, scheduled to be held in Versailles, France, starting on Aug. 1, will instead feature Florida resident Kent Farrington with their 2014 Oldenburg mare Greya, Florida resident Laura Kraut and their 2010 Hanoverian gelding Baloutinue, and New York resident McLain Ward and their 2013 KWPN gelding Ilex. California resident Karl Cool will serve as an alternate alongside their 2012 Selle Français mare Caracole de la Roque.
"We are very lucky to have three of the most experienced athletes in the sport riding horses that are in top form heading into the Games. Additionally, we have a strong alternate athlete horse combination in Karl and Caracole who have shown great recent form," Chef d'Equipe Robert Ridland said in the news release. "Now that selection is complete, we are 100% laser-focused on Paris."
Springsteen made her debut Olympic performance at the 2021 Games in Tokyo. At the time, she was ranked 27th in the world, according to the International Federation for Equestrian Sports. Today, the 33-year-old is ranked 127th with 67 wins under her belt.
But Team USA's equestrian jumping team will be in good hands this year.
Farrington, 44, is ranked 6th in the world and second in Pan-American rankings, according to the federation, and Paris will mark his third Olympics. He was part of the silver-winning team at Rio in 2016.
Kraut, 59, is ranked 35th in the world and 4th in Pan-American rankings. Kraut took home silver at the Tokyo Games and gold in Beijing in 2008, and in 2021, she was named the International Equestrian of the Year by the U.S. Equestrian Federation.
Ward, 49, is ranked 15th in the world and 1st in Pan-American with 257 wins since 2010. Ward made their Olympic debut in Athens in 2004 and competed again in Beijing in 2008, winning gold both times. At the 2016 and 2020 Games, he took home silver.