Lieutenant Earl "Tommy" Thomson (August 14, 1900 – July 1971) was an Olympic equestrian who won 5 medals during his international career. He was born in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Biography

Graduating from

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

in 1922, Thomson earned the Silver Star in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

while he was serving as chief of staff to the 10th Mountain Division in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Trained under Harry Chamberlin, Thomson had an extremely successful equestrian Olympic career. He finished individually second, and won team gold, at his first Olympic competition in 1932. At the 1936 Olympics, he won the team gold and individual silver in eventing on the legendary mare Jenny Camp, being one of the few riders, and the only American, to successfully negotiate the 4th obstacle on cross-country, a water jump. This obstacle included a 3' jump into the water and, for most of the competitors, they found that the footing on the bottom was slippery and it was much deeper than it looked. This obstacle created considerable controversy as the entire German team made it through, suggesting that the home team could have had prior knowledge regarding the footing. In 1948, Thomson competed in the dressage competition with Pancraft to win the team silver (after the gold medal-winning Swedish team was disqualified due to one of its members being an enlisted man rather than an officer). This is, to-date, the highest team medal the US has won in dressage competition. That same year, he finished with the team gold medal on Reno Rhythm He also served as the chef d'equipe for the eventing team at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, and was a judge at the

1952 Olympic Games 1952 Olympics refers to both: *The 1952 Winter Olympics, which were held in Oslo, Norway *The 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the X ...

. Thomson died in July 1971 at the age of 70.

References

* Bryant, Jennifer O. ''Olympic Equestrian, A Century of International Horse Sport''. Lexington, KY: Blood-Horse Publications, 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Earl Foster 1900 births 1971 deaths Sportspeople from Cleveland Equestrians at the 1948 Summer Olympics Equestrians at the 1936 Summer Olympics Equestrians at the 1932 Summer Olympics American male equestrians Olympic silver medalists for the United States in equestrian Olympic gold medalists for the United States in equestrian American event riders American dressage riders United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War II United States Military Academy alumni Recipients of the Silver Star Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics