Triple Olympic medallist Shane Rose is horsing around with the idea of donning a golden mankini to celebrate should he finally strike gold at the Paris Games.
The 51-year-old equestrian team eventer is determined to win big, and isn’t letting his mankini ban and a bone-breaking fall earlier this year dash his dreams.
Rose has won two silver medals and one bronze at his past three Olympics and hopes to add a golden touch to his collection in Paris, making horse Virgil’s final Games one to remember.
“If we win a gold medal, I think there’ll be a ‘gold-kini’ somewhere,” he jokingly told AAP on Thursday.
Rose’s Paris Olympic ambitions were in jeopardy after he suffered a fractured pelvis, ribs and a badly broken leg when he fell from Virgil during a cross-country session in March.
When he woke up Rose couldn’t remember the fall, and asked people around him what year it was and what horse he had been riding.
But he was back in the saddle eight weeks later, a significantly shorter period than the several months it would normally take to recover.
“I feel as strong as I ever have,” Rose said.
“Knowing in my mind that I had enough time to prepare for Paris and get over what I needed to do … no one puts more pressure on me than I put on myself.
“I’m 100 per cent on the horse, without a doubt. I probably don’t walk as well as some people, but I’m an old man, so it’s probably not my best thing anyway.”
Rose made different headlines a month earlier when he wore a mankini costume at a showjumping event, with a complaint threatening his participation in Paris. He was later cleared by an Equestrian Australia investigation.
Based in Werombie, west of Sydney, Rose won team silver medals at the 2008 Beijing and 2021 Tokyo Olympics, as well as a bronze in Rio in 2016.
Rose is the oldest member of the team after Andrew Hoy, who holds the Australian record for competing at the most Olympics, was overlooked for selection for what would have been his ninth Games.
AUSTRALIA’S OLYMPIC EQUESTRIAN TEAM:
Simone Pearce, Jayden Brown, William Mathew, Chris Burton, Kevin McNab, Shane Rose, Edwina Tops-Alexander, Hilary Scott, Thaisa Erwin
Reserves: Mary Hanna, Shenae Lowings, Amber Fuller