Jessica Springsteen, the 29-year-old daughter of rock icon Bruce Springsteen, has been named as part of the US Equestrian team which will compete at the Olympic Games later this month in Tokyo, Japan.
US Equestrian, the body which governs the sport in the United States, made the announcement on Twitter that Springsteen will join Kent Farrington, Laura Kraut and McLain Ward as part of the US jumping roster for the games.
Springsteen will compete with her 12-year-old stallion Don Juan Van de Donkhoeve. Farrington will compete with Gazelle, Kraut with Baloutinue and Ward with Contagious.
1984 equestrian gold medallist Melanie Smith Taylor told the New York Post that she believes Springsteen has “really come into her own this year.”
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“She has said early on that she didn’t want to be known as Bruce Springsteen’s daughter alone,” added Smith Taylor. “She wanted to forge her own path. She’s really doing that. She is very much at the elite level of the sport because of her performance.”
Springsteen was an alternate rider for the 2012 US equestrian team at the Olympic Games in London. After failing to make the squad in 2016 she is now set to make her Olympic debut.
She began riding horses when she was four at the family’s farm in Colt’s Neck, New Jersey. She is now ranked as the Number 3 rider on the US rider list and Number 27 in the world.
