10/31/2023
Lana: Breaking glass ceilings since 1964. A bad-ass woman through and through.
Thank you, Tamarack Hill Farm, for sharing.
This photo, taken at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, 59 years ago, represents a breakout moment almost incomprehensible these days.
The sport of eventing, prior to this, did not allow women to compete in the Olympic 3-day event, the reason given by the mostly military males who ran the sport being that women were too weak to be safe or competent at that level.
Lana DuPont, later Lana Wright, riding her horse Mr Wister made the “64 USET squad, and, despite a fall on cross country, finished the course, becoming the first woman to do so.
These days women outnumber men by a large ratio, and many squads are composed entirely of women.
But it was Lana who first showed the way.
