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U.S. Jumps for Joy, if Not a Medal

CONYERS, Ga., Aug. 4—With a silver medal already in his pocket and a national honor awaiting—to carry the U.S. flag at tonight's Closing Ceremonies—Michael Matz had one thing left on his checklist today.

The veteran horseman from Collegeville, Pa., hoped to win an individual medal to boost the 1996 U.S. team into a tie for most medals ever won by American equestrians in the Games—five in 1984 and 1932.

But for all their preprogrammed hype and hoopla, the Olympics are still sport and follow no script. Matz's 13-year-old show jumper, Rhum, bounding across a ring soaked by early morning rain, got sticky feet and crashed into three jumps, knocking Matz from the afternoon medal round and ending his Olympics prematurely.

In the end, none of the three Americans in the final equestrian event medaled as German Ulrich Kirchhoff took his nation's fourth gold in the horse events. Willi Melliger of Switzerland took silver and Alexandra Ledermann of France won the bronze.

Still, the United States won four medals during the past two weeks at the Georgia International Horse Center, as many as any nation here, and was the only country to claim medals in all three disciplines—jumping, dressage and the three-day-event.

"It was a great Olympics for our equestrian team," said jumping head coach Frank Chapot, "and there were no disasters out there today."

Not all of the riders would agree. Not a single horseman of the 39 who started the day managed to put together two penalty-free rounds on the 12-jump course. Kirchhoff came closest in dramatic fashion as the second-to-last rider of the day. Knowing he needed to clear all of the hurdles to win gold on his second run, he slowed the pace for his horse, Jus de Pommes, and managed to clear all fences, but took a one-second penalty for exceeding the time limit.

The plan proved good as gold when the final competitor, Jan Tops of Holland on Top Gun, knocked the first fence down and victory was assured.

Kirchhoff said he didn't watch Tops, but was in the paddock away from the ring when his gold was clinched. "I saw someone crying, then everyone came running and I thought, 'There must be a fault [for Tops].'‚"

Instantly his world went topsy-turvy, said the tall, slender German rider. "I don't know what I must do next," he said. "Everything is different; everything is open now."

It was the fourth gold medal of the Games for German equestrians. What was the key to their success? "I don't know," said Kirchhoff, 28, adding: "It's unbelievable, a dream for me. I will drink so much tonight I cannot stand up!"

Kirchhoff said his coach advised him to ride as slowly as he needed to clear all fences and to forget about time faults. "I knew I had the time to ride him perfectly for the fences and take one or two time faults."

The two Americans who made it into the afternoon final round both came up short. Leslie Burr-Howard of Westport, Conn., knocked down one rail, just as she had on her morning run, and wound up 11th. Anne Kursinski of Flemington, N.J., hit three and finished 20th.

But they and Matz took consolation in the silver medal they'd won as a jumping team. Matz, 45, said Rhum seemed tired on his morning run.

"Maybe Thursday [the preliminary round] took more out of him than I thought. He just felt a lot stickier than normal," Matz said. "I don't want to blame the [wet] footing. He just never got into a rhythm."

Rhum struggled through the first section of the 12-gate course, rattled the fence rails on No. 3, then crashed noisily into No. 4, a double-jump on which he cleared the first fence but knocked the second down completely.

His memory of these Games?

"The thrill of victory," said Matz, savoring the silver team medal, "and the agony of defeat."

He was chosen Closing Ceremonies flag-bearer by the captains of all U.S. teams after being nominated by equestrian team leaders. It was Matz's third Olympics and the team silver was his first medal. But he'd already achieved hero status seven years ago when he extricated himself from the wreckage, then led survivors from an airliner crash in Iowa that claimed 111 lives.

Carrying the flag, he said, "is a great honor," without any of the pitfalls of competition.

"I might stumble," Matz said, "but I won't knock any fences down tonight."