Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp (born December 14, 1978) is an American

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

, race-car driver and commentator. She was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and currently lives in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

. Before becoming a full-time equestrian, Halliday was the most successful female driver in the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...

with six victories. Halliday has stated that her ambition is to become the first woman to win the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

race and to earn a spot on the

United States Equestrian Team The United States Equestrian Team (USET) refers to the American national teams in Olympic and non-Olympic disciplines of horse sport. US Equestrian, the governing body of horse sport in the United States, selects, trains and funds the teams. The O ...

. In August 2024, Halliday suffered a

traumatic brain injury A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity ranging from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI/concussion) to severe traumati ...

during competition.

Career

Equestrian: Three Day Eventing

Halliday first rode horses when she was eight years old, and went to England as a pupil of

William Fox-Pitt William Speed Lane Fox-Pitt (born 2 January 1969) is an English people, English Equestrianism, equestrian who competes in eventing. His career highlights include winning three Olympic Games, Olympic medals in the team event, with silver in 2 ...

. Halliday is an

eventer Eventing (also known as three-day eventing or horse trials) is an equestrian event where the same horse and rider combination compete against other competitors across the three disciplines of dressage, cross-country, and show jumping. This ...

. She was a member of the Fallbrook Pony Club and the Southern California Show Jumping team, which finished third in the National Pony Club Championships. Her hopes of qualifying for the United States equestrian team for the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

were dashed when she was eliminated in a jumping event. In May 2021, Halliday and her ride Deniro Z were named to the U.S. eventing team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She was withdrawn shortly before the Olympics after Deniro Z got sidelined through injury. In 2024, Halliday was named as the travelling reserve for the U.S. eventing team at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. After Will Coleman pulled out of the competition, Halliday and Nutcracker made their Olympic debut. On August 29, 2024, Halliday suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling during a cross country round at the USEA American Eventing Championships. Her horse, Shanroe Cooley was reportedly uninjured in the fall.

Racing

Halliday first started racing at age 16 in a 1967

Datsun 510 The Datsun 510 was a series of the Datsun Bluebird sold from 1968 to 1973. Outside the US it was sold as either the Datsun Bluebird or as the Datsun 1300/1400/1500/1600/1800 (depending on engine variant). The rear-wheel drive 510's engineering ...

that she shared with her father, Don, who was a

Sports Car Club of America The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting Autocross, Rallycross, HPDE, Time Trial, Road Racing, RoadRally, and Hill Climbs in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs ...

instructor and vintage racer. When she attended the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

, she was involved in low-level motor clubs and the Vintage Auto Association. In 2001, Halliday raced in the

Kumho BMW Championship The Kumho BMW Championship is a single make racing series based in the UK. Exclusively for BMWs, the championship is run by the BMW Racing Drivers Club in conjunction with the British Automobile Racing Club (BARC). The championship is a BARC reg ...

series for Mosely Motorsport in the M3 E30, and was named "Driver of the Season" in 2002. A year later, Halliday recorded one win and broke the class lap record at Croft, earning her "Driver of the Day" honors. In 2003, Halliday became the first woman to win a

British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports G ...

round. In 2005, Halliday made her

debut in the LMP2 class, and was leading the class until she was forced to retire eleven hours into the race due to engine problems. A year later, she finished fourth in the class. After her contract with Team Modena was terminated, Halliday raced for the Noël Del Bello Racing Team in a Courage-AER LC75, which she shared with

Romain Iannetta Romain Iannetta (born 27 November 1979 in Villecresnes) is a French racing driver who last competed in the GT4 European Series, driving the No. 77 Audi R8 LMS GT4 Evo for Full Motorsport. He also competes part-time in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Seri ...

and

Vitaly Petrov Vitaly Aleksandrovich Petrov ( rus, Вита́лий Алекса́ндрович Петро́в, p=vʲɪˈtalʲɪj ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ pʲɪˈtrof; born 8 September 1984) is a Russian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to ...

. However, the team was only able to finish 198 laps at the

2007 24 Hours of Le Mans The 75th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''75e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring cars, which took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France, from 16 to 17 June 200 ...

, and finished 38th. In parallel, Halliday competed at the LMP2 class of the

for Intersport Racing, finishing sixth in 2005 and vice-champion in 2006. She collected three class wins in each season, most notably at the 2005 Petit Le Mans and the

2006 12 Hours of Sebring The 2006 12 Hours of Sebring was the 54th running of this event, and took place on March 18, 2006. The race was sponsored by Mobil 1 and was the opening race of the 2006 American Le Mans Series season run by IMSA. This race marked the firs ...

, where she finished second overall. Halliday had a two-year hiatus from racing to be a commentator for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

covering the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as an expert judge at

Speed In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...

's '' GT Academy'' series. She also covered the

American Le Mans The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...

series for

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

throughout 2007, as well as for

Motors TV Motorsport.tv is a global streaming OTT platform specialized in motor racing and motoring content, live and on demand launched in September 2018. It is a fully integrated video ecosystem developed and operated by Motorsport Network to specifical ...

during their Le Mans broadcasts. Halliday has also served as a mentor and judge in the

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

series '' The Race''. In 2012, Halliday made her return to racing in the Lotus Cup UK series at

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 British Grand ...

for John Danby Racing, and finished the race second after starting in last place. At the

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and

2015 24 Hours of Le Mans Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number) *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album), 2007 * ''15'' (Phatfish album), 2008 * ...

, she worked as a pit-lane reporter for the

television network.

Motorsports career results

Rolex Sports Car Series

Grand Touring

( key) Bold – Pole Position. (Overall Finish/Class Finish).

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Equestrian career results

CCI5* results

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Halliday, Liz 1978 births Living people Olympic equestrians for the United States Equestrians at the 2024 Summer Olympics American female racing drivers American expatriate sportspeople in England American female equestrians 24 Hours of Spa drivers European Le Mans Series drivers American Le Mans Series drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers FIA GT Championship drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers British GT Championship drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers 21st-century American sportswomen Racing drivers from San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Equestrians at the 2023 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2023 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in equestrian Horse-related accidents and incidents