Kathryn Kusner

Kathy Kusner
Personal information
Full name Kathryn Hallowell "Kathy" Kusner
Citizenship USA
Born ( 1940-03-21) March 21, 1940
Height 4 ft 11.5 in (151.1 cm)
Weight 99 lb (45 kg) (1968)
Website www.kathykusner.com
Sport
Sport Equestrian
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals 1964, 1968, 1972

Kathryn "Kathy" Kusner (born March 21, 1940) is an American equestrian and Olympic medalist in show jumping. She won a team silver medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, becoming the first US woman to win an Olympic medal in that event. She also rode for the United States Equestrian Team (USET) in the Summer Olympics in 1964 and 1968.[1] She was a USET member at the age of 21.[2] As a member of the USET at the Pan American Games, she won team gold in 1963 at São Paulo and team silver in 1967 at Winnipeg.[1] In 1990, she was inducted into the United States Show Jumping Hall of Fame.[3]

Prior to her Olympic career, she had been named 1960 Horsewoman of the year by the United States Equestrian Federation, then called the American Horse Shows Association. In addition to her show jumping career, Kusner also was a jockey. She successfully sued the Maryland Racing Commission for a jockey's license in 1968 under the Civil Rights Act. She went on to ride in both flat and steeplechase races.[2]

In addition to competitive riding, she was a stuntman in the jumping scenes of the Disney movie The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit. After retiring from international equestrian competition, she was a vice president of the Alpha Instrument Co.[1] She has also conducted riding clinics, been a show jumping course designer, an expert witness in legal cases, a sports analyst and a writer. She lives in California.[2] She founded a charitable organization called Horses in the Hood, a program designed to bring inner-city children into contact with horses and horseback riding.[4]

References

Further reading

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