Charlotte Dujardin | THE GIRL ON THE DANCING HORSE | Driving Force

the olympics in 2012 is a different environment when you're competing for gb i was like a kid in a sweet shop in two years i have achieved my dreams which was to ride on a team ride at london olympia and then go to the olympics i was like oh my god i got to london 2012 and all i can remember is like turning up and being so excited i remember going to our arena and i think it seated 25 000 people i think the most people i'd written and performed in front of probably was about six and a half thousand people any gold medalists i have known over my career have always been partnerships that started at the beginning because the trust that you need um in in an olympic arena is huge so all of a sudden i see these grandstands like you're looking up and it is like huge towers of people and i'm just just craving to get in that arena i'm just like itching sitting on the seats like i just want to get in there i just want to do it and that carl is there and he's like buying his fingers he's like nervous he's twitchy he's the absolute opposite going into london we had the pressure to win gold as a team but as everyone knows it may not happen on the day they're horses so anything could happen be ready for it you can't tell your horse that so in other words this amazing relationship that sharla and vellegro got was this confidence that when they went into arenas where so many combinations are affected by atmosphere they didn't have that because they'd grown up together and you and villegro put in a performance that captivated the nation and propelled you to super stardom i just never forget i walked in and a lot of the riders were quite nervous because when we were coming in being the brits being in the home crowd the crowd were just cheering to see her enter that arena with everybody all around the sides it was just something that you know you just well it again it was like dreaming i just wanted to hit myself to see that i was actually watching my daughter enter that big arena down at you know term the olympics for our horses when they hear clapping and cheering they get quite nervous and tense and obviously that's what we don't want you know the horses have to be relaxed so i said to carl i'm gonna walk in i'm gonna let them clap and then i'll go off and then you have literally the bell rings and you have like 45 seconds to get down and in in the arena so i walk in and i could feel blueberry like he just was like bouncing and he was like a bit excited and everybody clapped and i just patted him on his side and it was i could feel him be a bit like nervous and i just patted him and i literally felt him go oh it's okay he took a breath and he literally i felt like he was like reassured with the fact that i'd patted him and then off we went and we did our performance this situation where most people go into the ring and they're like they might become nervous themselves or their horse becomes nervous um you know that horse is just like i'll give you whatever you want when i finished it was the most incredible it gives me goosebumps now even thinking about what it sounded like people were cheering clapping stamping their feet that was something i'd never experienced it was unbelievable and blueberry just thought it was wonderful he just looked up at everybody looked around i was like yeah i'm here he's a true performer isn't he yeah and he just loved it winning the team gold standing on that podium with my team mates it was just an absolutely incredible moment the best time of my life to be able to stand in your home crowd and the podium and hear the national anthem with that gold medal around your neck nothing beats that i had to then do the individual so i knew i had a good chance for the individual but for me i said to myself okay i could be in like top four possibly medal in an individual get a medal i'd be so proud never in my wildest dreams did i think i could win gold the dutch was so strong the germans were really strong i honestly just went in there just to do my thing with blueberry i had the most incredible music which was all all london themed so it was it was just brilliant and i loved that music and the minute i put my hand up and it started it was like there was just me in blueberry and we danced our way around the music and at the end i made a little blip it was our only mistake in the test and as i came out all i can remember is carl going that's it you blew your last your your gold medal you blew it right at the end you blew that that's it you know you're not to win it now and literally then the whole of the stadium erupting because obviously my score came up and i had actually one individual gold i was giving me goosebumps i just burst into tears i i it took me so much by surprise and at that point that's when you want to run and see your mom because i knew my mum and dad were there and i couldn't get to them and then you're just swarmed with all these people and it's like so overwhelming with what you've just done you i just couldn't take it all in it was like happening so fast and everyone just coming up and running and hugging me all the competitors friends and my mum is just screaming through the fence and i ran to my mum and my dad and you know everyone was hugging each other and it was just incredible it was i can't tell you i was just eating up with tears and joy and it was incredible her story is like a fairy tale an aspiration to many one of those things you'll never relive no you'll never replicate that i don't use this expression overly but charlotte is a genius there's nothing else for her to win in the sport and just when you think there isn't very much else for her to win she goes and does it if you talk about one of those flip the switch moments for the industry for dressage for charlotte and for the public's perception of dressage it was london 2012. i find really interesting about that story is that carl says you blew it but by saying that of course it shows his attention to detail and his understanding of what's happened but it also shows that he clearly never had a conversation with you that you could win yeah not gold he never put pressure on me he knew how to to deal with me and he knew i was a fighter for sure he always knew that if i did my best it was enough anyway he never needed to say anything to me about it he knew i was going to go for gold and i think hadid gone to me and gone charlotte like you can win gold i'd think about things so differently

Channel: Driving Force

Views: 80,873

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Id: 8rxs08Fk7E0

Length: 7min 11sec (431 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2021