Stuff sports reporters13:44, Jul 22 2021
John Cowpland/AlphaPix/Stuff
Katie Laurie, pictured at the 2014 Horse of the Year show in Hastings, may have her Tokyo Olympic Games participation in jeopardy due to cocaine use by an Australian teammate.
Former New Zealand Olympian Katie Laurie s Tokyo Olympic hopes are in limbo after a cocaine scandal involving an Australian showjumping teammate. Laurie (formerly McVean) rode for New Zealand at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but has since switched her allegiance to Australia. She was named in Australia s three-person showjumping team for Tokyo, but will now have to wait to find out if she can compete as an individual after her teammate, Jamie Kermond, was suspended after testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine on June 26.
Australian Olympic showjumping team named for Tokyo horseandhound.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from horseandhound.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The second thing is her utter determination to succeed in a tough, gruelling sport. She has buckets of it and now, at just 18, she’s eyeing a trip to the Tokyo Olympics later this year, assuming it goes ahead. Overall victory in the six-event World Cup showjumping series, including the finals in Auckland earlier this year, confirmed her distinct promise. She is at the top of the New Zealand-based Olympic hopefuls. And to show that was no fluke, Francis finished her season last weekend with victory at the Premier League series finals championship show in Masterton, aboard her German import La Quinara – or ‘Queenie’ - where she won three series crowns as well as picking up minor placings.