Roxanne Trunnell (USA) became her country’s first-ever Dressage gold medallist in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the Para Dressage Grade I Individual Test at Tokyo 2020 today.

Riding Dolton, she scored an impressive 81.464% to take her first Paralympic title. First into the arena, Rihards Snikus (LAT) took the silver with 80.179% on King of the Dance, while Sara Morganti (ITA), the reigning FEI World Equestrian Games™ champion, took bronze on Royal Delight with 76.964%.

Horses have always been a part of Roxanne “Roxie” Trunnell’s life…As a competitor in able-bodied dressage, Trunnell aspired to be an Olympian. When she was a teenager, she created her own business to help purchase her first dressage horse, Nice Touch or ‘Touché.’…She earned a United States Dressage Federation (USDF) bronze medal and was close to obtaining a silver medal until contracting a virus in 2009 that caused swelling in her brain that changed her life forever.

The virus put her in a coma and resulted in her requiring a wheelchair. Determined to ride Touché, again, Trunnell elicited the help of her family and friends to get her back in the saddle. After a long recovery, slowly began to ride again. 

Trunnell entered the Tokyo Games as the highest-ranked Para-Dressage athlete in the world, per the FEI Para Dressage World Individual Ranking, She has now achieved the highest dream an Olympic athlete can have, to be on the podium as her country’s flag is raised and anthem is played.