Silver medalist, the French eventing team realizes the Olympic dream of Thaïs Meheust, rider who died in an accident

One of the three team members, Stéphane Landois, was riding the horse with which the rider had a fatal accident in competition in September 2019.

At the end of his excellent dressage test, Stéphane Landois raised his arms and eyes to the sky, as if to say to Thaïs Meheust: “This one is for you“. The 30-year-old rider, a member of the French eventing team, in the saddle of his grey Chaman Dumontceau*Ride For Thaïs, went through all three events of the discipline with one face in mind. That of the rider, his best friend, who died in September 2019 after a fatal accident on a cross-country course at the Haras du Pin. She was riding Chaman at the time and was only 22 years old.

Thaïs had a dream: to take the gray gelding to Versailles for the Paris Games. “HAS Following the accident, his parents suggested that I take him in and try to continue the adventure.”he told us before leaving for the Games. It was done, and with style, the couple left with the team silver medal. “Everyone saw it and felt it, the atmosphere was special, especially when it stopped and the note fell. I think everyone thought of Thaïs too, that’s what’s great”delivered the rider after the first test.

“My wife and I haven’t been to a competition since Thaïs died five years ago. (…) We had to make an effort. It wasn’t easy,” confides Marc-Henri Méheust, Thaïs’ father, to our colleagues at West France. “At the end of his recovery, [Stéphane] had his finger in the air. He always works in this spirit of pleasing Thaïs, and us too”he describes.

For him and his wife, Stéphane Landois, the emotional charge was very strong in recent days. So strong that it was difficult to contain their emotion. “We all cried a little too. (…) It reminded me of the good memories we had with Thaïs at other international competitions.”

“Shaman is not responsible and never will be. As Thaïs said: he was a horse to go to the Games and she was right.”

Marc-Henri Meheust, father of Thaïs Méheust

to West-France

The shadow of the missing rider hovers even in the privacy of the French team. Not being housed in the Olympic village, its members sleep, during the Games, in the homes of individuals who have agreed to leave their homes to the French Equestrian Federation (FFE). Fate has assigned a rather special room to Stéphane Landois. On the door, the first name Thaïs, that of the usual occupant of the place. Like a distant echo that has come to remind the Blues of their mission.