Borders showjumper Scott Brash setting sights on competing at fourth Olympics and winning third gold medal in USA in 2028
Borders showjumper Scott Brash is now targeting notching up a hat-trick of gold medals at the next Olympics in the USA in 2028 after winning his second in France in August.
The Peebles 38-year-old and team-mates Ben Maher and Harry Charles landed a joint winners’ medal in the equestrian team jumping final at Versailles, near Paris.
That was Great Britain’s first Olympic showjumping medal since Brash picked up another team one – with Maher, Nick Skelton and Peter Charles – in London in 2012, and he’s now setting his sights on bringing back a third from Los Angeles in four years’ time.
“It never gets boring to win a gold medal but, honestly, I’m already focusing on LA,” said Brash, now based in West Sussex.
“It’s years of work that go into winning a medal, and already we’re trying to produce the next horse to try and bring back a medal.
“It has sunk in a little bit what I’ve achieved, but in our game it’s very quickly on to the next show.
“It was absolutely incredible what we achieved in Paris, but we’re looking at the next Olympics now.
“The Olympics are always something which is extra special. You seem to touch people’s lives that aren’t even in the showjumping world.
“Everyone is talking about it when you win at the Olympics. I’ve had so many lovely messages.
“It’s been great. It’s something I’ll reflect and cherish for the rest of my life.”
Brash credits his horses for his contribution to GB’s gold medal wins, Hello Sanctos 12 years ago and Hello Jefferson in the summer, saying: “An incredible amount of work goes into that success.
“It takes years of daily training, one to one with the horse, because you can only achieve that success if you have an unbelievable partnership with your horse.
“You can’t do it if you don’t have that. You only create that if you invest that time and you get to know them inside out. You need to think as one.
“Our sport is very unique in that sense. It’s quite extraordinary. These horses fight for you in the ring and they love the atmosphere of performing on the biggest stage.
“It’s an amazing feeling when you know your horse is desperate to jump clear and desperate to win.
“Those feelings you get are better than anything.
“You get caught in your own bubble, which I’m sure is the same in other sports, but there’s so many people who play a part, whether that’s the incredible grooms who do an amazing job looking after the horses – they spend all their life with these horses – and there are physios, vets, farriers, owners, sponsors, so many people who put in so much work to get us there.”
This year’s Olympics were Brash’s third, having ended up eighth in the individual event in Japan in 2021 after finishing fifth in that contest in London five years earlier, alongside his team gold.
He was one of four representatives of the region at Paris 2024, together with Jedburgh swimmer Lucy Hope, Selkirk hockey veteran Sarah Robertson and Hawick rugby sevens star Lisa Thomson.
Brash was hoping to add an individual medal to his collection this week, going up against opposition including Maher and Charles but all three missed out, with the Borderer finishing sixth in Tuesday’s final.
Looking back at his win in Paris, followed by placing sixth individually, Brash added: “That final day, that final round and winning the gold, it was incredible.
“The new Olympic format for the jumping has made it really entertaining. It’s not over until the very last jump.
“You can literally go from gold medal position to last – it’s really as tight as that right until the last jump.
“It’s really exciting and thrilling for everyone. So many people have said how entertaining it was to watch.
“I was the very last rider to go and I had to jump clear to get gold, and thankfully we managed to do that because it was a tough course.
“I thought there was a great buzz in Paris. We had such great support out there.
“There was a real feelgood factor. Everyone was in a great spirits.
“The Olympics are just something extra – the hype, the buzz. There’s never a dull moment. It really is amazing.”
Brash is hoping for the chance to compete in a fourth Olympics, a feat only achieved by one Scot thus far, runner Eilish McColgan in France this year.
“You experience a load of different emotions when you get up on the podium,” said Brash.
“I felt joy, happiness – you’re obviously delighted – but at the same time there was a lot of relief as well.
“You feel a mixture of things when you win something big like a gold medal.
“Standing on the podium is always a moment of reflection. It’s just a great sense of pride and achievement for what we achieved.
“I think there’ll be no better Olympic Games than London for us. Winning in front of your home crowd, that was absolutely a dream come true.
“That’s a moment we’ll probably never have again, but all the Olympics I’ve competed in have been special for different reasons.
“The setting in Paris, at Versailles, with all the history, was just incredible, and I don’t think I’ll ever ride a more important round than that final round.
“We probably had the whole nation watching and with us.
“To deliver under that type of pressure, that meant a lot.
“They were both incredibly special moments of my life.”