American Vaulters Take Home Gold, Silver at 2006 World Equestrian Games

	New Women's World Vaulting Champion Megan Benjamin takes a victory lap minutes after winning the top title.

Benjamin Tops Women's Podium

In front of a wildly cheering crowd of 8,000 at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany this past August, USA's Megan Benjamin became the first non-German woman in 20 years to win the Women's World Vaulting Championship.  

Benjamin led all four rounds and was the final vaulter of the four-day competition, which was held at the Deutsche Bank stadium on the grounds of the historic Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein, home to the 2006 WEG. The 18-year-old from Saratoga, California, vaulted on Leonardo, a Danish Warmblood co-owned by Benjamin and longeur and trainer Lasse Kristensen, of the Thommysminde Vaulting Club in Jelling, Denmark.

Benjamin is coached by Emma Garrod Seely and is a long-time member of the Mt. Eden Vaulting Club. In the US Selection Trials leading up to the World Equestrian Games, where the American vaulters vied for the top WEG qualification slots (three women, three men and one team), she dominated the trials, winning all four competitions in which she competed, on her own horse, Faronia, a 17.3-hand Dutch Warmblood lunged by coach Seely.

	Team USA—Free Artists Mt. Eden (F.A.M.E.)—wins the silver at the 2006 WEG.

F.A.M.E. Takes Team Silver

Team USA also took its highest medal ever, with Free Artists Mt. Eden (F.A.M.E.) moving up in ranking in the final round to take the team silver. The composite team of vaulters from across the nation started off the competition in a distant fifth place after the compulsory round, then placed first in both subsequent rounds of freestyle, moving up to third place after the first freestyle, and moving into second place after the final freestyle, just .002 of a point behind the Germans and ahead of the Austrian team.  

Team USA members include Megan Benjamin, Blake Dahlgren, Elizabeth Ioannou, Devon Maitozo, Katie Richie, Rosey Ross, Annalise VanVranken. The team is coached by Devon Maitozo and Emma Garrod Seely, with the US horses trained and lunged by Carolyn Bland. At both the CVI Munich and the WEG World Vaulting Championships, Team USA's equestrian partner was Grand Gaudino, a 18.3-hand Hanoverian owned and longed by Dr. Silke Bartl, Pfaffenhofen, Germany. During the US Selection Trials, the team's equestrian partners were Mozart, a Czech Warmblood, and Gustaff, a Rheinlander.

	Megan Benjamin dismounts from Leonardo at World Equestrian Games 2006.

Medal Count

Benjamin, with her gold and silver medals, was the first US vaulter ever to be on the awards podium twice in a single World Championship event, and the first American woman to stand at the top of the podium. Maitozo added the team silver to his collection of individual medals: a gold medal in the men's division in 1998, and three bronze medals in that same division in 1996, 2000 and 2002.

Ritchie and Ross both added to their medal collection—complementing their 2004 Coastline Team USA bronze medal with their 2006 Free Artists Mt. Eden (FAME) Team USA silver.

Kerith Lemon, who retired from competitive vaulting in 2000, was the silver medalist in the women's division three consecutive times (1998, 1996, 1994), and was a bronze medalist twice—once in the women's division (2000) and once in team, as part of the Timberline Vaulters (1990).