Everything had to go wrong. The participation of the Portuguese equestrian team in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games was an authentic obstacle course, inside and outside the stadium. The various setbacks that athletes and horses encountered along the way were described in the national participation report that Manoel Latino, the lieutenant colonel who led the team, wrote after the competition.
In this document, which is in the archives of the Portuguese Olympic Committee, it is clear that there was a risk that the team of four riders, – Aníbal Borges de Almeida, Hélder de Sousa Martins, José Mouzinho de Albuquerque and D. Luís Cardoso de Menezes (Margaride) – not packing your bags for Paris.
They were all cavalry officers and trained in Mafra, in the barracks where they carried out their military duties. At that time, “there were only soldiers in equestrianism”, explains António Frutuoso de Melo, technical and sports director of the Portuguese Equestrian Federation. Civilian riders only began participating in the Olympic Games in 1972.
In that year of 1924, the four soldiers were part of a delegation of 29 Portuguese athletes from eight sports – equestrian, athletics, swimming, fencing, weightlifting, sailing, shooting and tennis. In the group, not one woman.
In the edition of Diário de Lisboa on July 31, 1924, Nortberto de Araújo, in his opinion section, summarized the national performance at the Olympics as follows: “the Portuguese only performed well in fencing and cavalry.” And he added ironically: “I think this result is absolutely logical. Riding horses and striking weapons has always been our strong point.”
The national Olympic Committee had great difficulty in raising enough money to cover the costs of Portuguese participation in the Paris Games. He will have spent around 300 contos on this mission, as stated in the report of the “Portuguese Olympic Committee” entitled “Portugal at the VIII Olympiad”, deposited in the Library of the Assembly of the Republic, which was published two years after the sporting event.
improvised flag
In the case of equestrianism, the problems started right after registration. “The team’s preparation was poor; appointed late, the time they had for training was insignificant, suffice it to say that the appointment from the Ministry of War reached the COP secretariat after registration had closed!”, can be read in the team leader report.
Once the bureaucratic part was over, they had six days to travel to the French capital. “They arrived with time to recover from their fatigue and work a few days before the test”, he wrote, then making a note: “It wouldn’t be amiss if they were earlier, but the scarcity of our resources forces us to limit all expenses, even with sacrifice.”
The problems did not end there. An intestinal infection from the horse “Hebraico” was complicating the situation. However, he recovered in time and managed to enter the competition, despite still convalescing.
The Portuguese were at a disadvantage, admits the lieutenant colonel. But, despite all the difficulties, the “miracle” happened and Portugal won a bronze medal in the team show jumping discipline, behind Switzerland (silver) and Sweden (gold). Without anything to predict, “the classifications obtained exceeded what we could aspire to and were envied by countries whose organization, preparation and elements at their disposal were incomparably superior to ours”.
In fact, he adds, “although the best that frequent our tracks were gathered, they were far, very far away, from the category of their opponents and our victory is due more to the soul of our riders, to their unsurpassable courage, to the confidence absolute in fulfilling its mission, than the value of its horses which, why not say so, were looked at with contempt, before the afternoon of July 27th, in Colombes [estádio olímpico onde decorreu a prova]”.
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Presentation of the bronze medal to the Portuguese equestrian team at the Paris Olympic Games, in 1924. The result was unlikely and took the organization by surprise.
The result was so unexpected that there was no flag of the Portuguese Republic to fly at the Olympic medal ceremony. The riders refused to go up to the podium and a flag had to be improvised with a piece of green and a red piece of fabric.
Portugal would again win a new Olympic bronze medal in equestrianism 12 years later, at the Berlin Games in 1936, once again in the show jumping event. Ahead were Germany (silver) and the Netherlands (gold). At the 1948 Games in London, the country achieved its last Olympic medal in this sport. Bronze again, but this time in the Dressage event. He came close to winning a new bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 (fourth place) and in Tokyo in 1964 (fifth place). More recently, at the Tokyo 2020 Games, he won the “Olympic Diploma” in the Dressage discipline by finishing in 8th place in the final.
We don’t have horses!
The explanation for the country’s difficulty in returning to the podium in this modality can be found in the report written in 1924 by Manoel Latino, which ended with a warning: “If we think about competing in the next Olympics, we need to deal with the main basis, the horse, which we absolutely lack. Ending my report with a cry of alarm, horses, we don’t have horses!”
The warning remains current. “The quality of the horse makes a lot of difference”, says António Frutuoso de Melo, from the Portuguese Equestrian Federation. When all these ingredients – genetics, aptitude and training – come together in the same animal, it stands out. The problem is that in Portugal, unlike other countries, there is no financial capacity to maintain these horses. The country does not have the “tradition of large owners, who have horses for pleasure or as an investment.” When an animal particularly qualified for competition appears, “completely astronomical offers come from abroad that are difficult to say no to” and, “if the horse is already qualified for the Olympic Games, it’s even worth more”. It’s the law of the market.
The sport has even grown since the pandemic and there are many young members. But it’s difficult to reach Olympic medals. “Qualification is getting tighter and tighter. It’s very difficult to be among the top eight in the world”, he acknowledges.
Now that the clock is counting down to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the national delegation is preparing for the competition. Portugal will have a team in Dressage and an individual rider in obstacles. Will there also be surprises a century later?
