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Eric Lamaze is a member of the Equestrian team as a show jumper. A contentious member of our Olympic team. He has twice tested positive for drugs meaning withdrawn Olympic bids. He kicked his addiction and won a gold medal individually in 2008 and silver in the team event. Eric's horse, Hickstead (who he rode to gold on), tragically died this past November during competition. This horse was described as small in stature huge in heart. If interested here's a link to the incredibly sad event (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoL5b-KJUvo). Recently Eric has said,

“The personal setback was something we put behind us a long time ago, but the setback last year was close to home in a sense of the relationship you have with a horse like Hickstead.For me, it a tragedy that was harder to deal with because it’s sort of like losing a family member. It’s not a racket and your string broke.” (thestar.com). He also contemplated giving up the sport after Since then Lamaze had been riding 7 different horses, narrowed it down to 2 for Spruce Meadows last week and chose Verdi, a horse with little international experience. He is currently ranked third in the world.

Here's a brief history of the event via EquineCanada.ca:

What is Showjumping?

Show jumping emerged from the sport of fox hunting. As an ever-increasing amount of England’s countryside became partitioned by fences beginning in the late Eighteenth Century, both hunter and horse required skills necessary to keep chase, despite the presence of these new barricades.

The discipline started to resemble what we know as show jumping today in the Nineteenth Century as competitions moved from cross-country expanses to smaller, enclosed venues where spectators could better enjoy the action.

The second, modern Olympic games (Paris, 1900) featured many of the individual elements of the contemporary discipline in the equestrian long and high jump, but it was not until the 1912 Games that genuine show jumping became a recognized event.

As someone who used to horseback ride recreationally, I know how difficult a sport equestrian it is. Your forge a real relationship with your horse. It is one of the most exciting sports to watch, when you see that hoof hit the rail and hold your breath hoping against hope that it will just rock in the cup and not fall to the ground in an echoing clatter only to see it settle again and you breathe your sigh of relief it is like no other. You cheer for a team knowing that rider and horse have to be completely in sync and that there's a level of trust for rider and animal that is unparalleled. Additionally, I was at the Royal Winter Fair just a couple of days after Hickstead's death and Eric rode finishing the course to a standing ovation from the crowd. I was pretty emotional, I don't know how he held it together. I will be looking forward to watching our team compete and holding my breath with the rest of the country before each jump.

Robbi Weldon is a Paralympic cycler. She has a crazy amount of endurance and strength which has garnered her the nickname 'Thunder'. "At age 15 was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, a macular degeneration affecting central vision. Now has six percent of her sight. Started competitive tandem cycling just two years ago. A few months later, she won gold and silver at the 2010 World Championships in Baie-Comeau, Québec" (paralympic.ca). In order to compete, she and her tandem rider must pedal in complete synchronicity and share the power load in order to move forward. Robbi is the first athlete that I've profiled who is a duo Olympian cycling in the summer games and skiing in the winter. She trains aproximately seven to eight hundred hours a year. The Star wrote a great article about her and can be found here: http://www.thestar.com/sports/london2012/cycling/article/1174477--paralympic-powerhouse-robbi-weldon-looks-to-london. Her site can be found at: http://robbiweldon.ca/index.php.