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Golden ride

O'Connor gives U.S. first equestrian gold since 1984

David O'Connor rides his horse Custom Made on a victory lap after winning the gold medal. AP

SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- David O'Connor of the U.S. defeated Andrew Hoy of Australia to win the individual three-day event Friday.

New Zealand's Mark Todd won the bonze.

O'Connor, riding Custom Made, had a margin of two jump rails over Andrew Hoy of Australia entering the show jumping ring as the last rider. He took down only one to deny Australia of a second equestrian gold.

"Before going in, I knew exactly what I had to do -- two rails and no time faults," O'Connor said. "All kinds of thoughts were running through my head."

O'Connor added 5 points for that jump rail to his dressage score of 29.0 and his clean cross-country round to finish with 34.0 points.

The biggest cheers were for hometown favorite Hoy aboard Swizzle In. Hoy moved from fourth to silver with a clean jumping round and 39.8 points.

Todd won the bronze on Eyespy II with 42.0 points.

O'Connor scared himself and his fans when he almost made a wrong turn on course, nearly missing fence 7, a solid wall, which would have meant elimination.

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The crowd knew he was lost and started shouting "The wall!" O'Connor said later he didn't hear the shouts.

"My head is still sore from being on a swivel looking for the next fence," he said. "There was a moment there of words that can't be printed."

"I was worried about the green gate (fence 6) and I got a little lost," O'Connor said. "I was so upset about the missed turn that I still thought about it during the victory gallop."

O'Connor also won a bronze medal in the team three-day event on Tuesday, adding to his team silver from Atlanta.

The individual three-day event was marred on Thursday's cross-country course with serious spills that resulted in the death of one horse, Bermuda's Gold from Bermuda, several injuries to riders and numerous withdrawals or eliminations. Only 23 of the original 38 entries remained for show jumping on the final day.

After the medal ceremony, O'Connor commented on the competitive spirit of his equine partners.

"Our horses love what they do," he said. "They are true athletes. At this level you can't make a horse do this if he doesn't want to. You can't make sport safer than life."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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