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 is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Biography

Graduating from

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

in 1922, Thomson earned the

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against a ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

while he was serving as

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

to the

10th Mountain Division The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) is a light infantry division (military), division in the United States Army based at Fort Drum, New York. Formerly designated as a mountain warfare unit, the division was the only one of its size in ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. 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 Jenny Camp was a famous horse that competed in the sport of eventing. Jenny Camp is possibly the most famous US army-bred horse. Her sire, the Thoroughbred Gordon Russell, was well known for his jumping ability, although her dam was of un ...

, 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 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

, 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 The 1960 Olympics may refer to: *The 1960 Winter Olympics, which were held in Squaw Valley, United States *The 1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 19 ...

in Rome, and was a judge at the 1952 Olympic Games. 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 20th-century American sportsmen