SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA-September 22, 2000-David O'Connor of The Plains, VA won the first Olympic Gold Medal for the United States Equestrian Team (USET) since 1984 when he clinched the individual eventing championship on Custom Made, a 15-year-old, Irish Thoroughbred gelding owned by Xandarius, LLC.

He finished the three-phase competition with a score of 34.00 penalties, the best score in Olympic history. Placing second was Andrew Hoy of Australia with a score of 39.80 on Swizzle In and two-time Olympic champion Mark Todd of New Zealan d was third with a score of 42.00 on Eyespy II.

The USET placed two additional riders in the top 10. Bobby Costello of Southern Pines, NC finished 8th with a score of 52.40 penalties on Chevalier, an 11-year-old, Thoroughbred gelding owned by Deirdre Pirie, and Julie Black of Newnan, GA finished 9th with a score of 53.60 on Hyde Park Corner, a 10-year-old, American Thoroughbred gelding owned by Jim and Janet Richards.

For O'Connor, the Gold Medal topped a historic week. On Tuesday, he made history by sharing an Olympic medal (team Bronze) with his wife Karen for the second time. (They shared the eventing team Silver in 1996). On Wednesday, O'Connor turned in the best eventing dressage score in Olympic history when he opened the individual competition with a score of 29.00 penalties on Custom Made.

"It doesn't get any better," O'Connor said. "This is the one you always dream about and it's hard to believe that it actually happened."

With the individual Gold Medal, O'Connor now joins Tad Coffin as the only U.S. riders to win the eventing individual Gold. Coffin won in 1976 on Bally Cor.

Additionally, O'Connor now has won three Olympic Medals (1996 team Silver, 2000 team Bronze and individual Gold), two Pan American Games medals (1999 team Gold and individual Silver) and one World Championship medal (1998 team Bronze) since 1996.

O'Connor actually threw a scare into his fans when he almost rode off course after the sixth jump on course. "I was worried about two jumps on course and this was one of them," O'Connor said. "When we landed I was kind of half-listening to see if we knocked the rail down and then my mind just went blank. Fortunately I remembered which way to turn and it all worked out.

"It was hard for me to feel too elated at first because I was so mad at myself, but it didn't take too long to get over it."

O'Connor did have one rail down later on the course, but the five penalties added to the 29.00 he carried into the competition gave him a total of 34.00, still good enough for the Gold Medal and the best score in Olympic history, beating the 37.60 scored by Mark Todd in 1988.

O'Connor's win was also a magnificent birthday present for USET chef d'equipe Captain Mark Phillips who turned 52 on the day O'Connor won Olympic Gold for the U.S. "It was a great birthday present," Phillips said. "David is a great rider and he represented our team and our country well."

Full results are available on www.olympics.com.