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To Love, Honor and Compete: Married Couple Makes Riding Team

Until noon yesterday, David O'Connor and Karen, of Fauquier County, were just husband and wife. Now they're both Olympians.

They got word yesterday that they had been named to the U.S. Equestrian Team for the Atlanta Olympics later this month -- David qualifying in two events, Karen in one. They became the third American married couple in this year's games.

Both of them had pursued the Olympic dream for years. Karen made the 1988 team, only to fall in competition. And both almost made the 1992 team. Yesterday's achievement became a double triumph for them, they said.

"It's great. It's terrific," said Karen, 38. "It's taking something that is probably to date the most important competition in our professional careers and now giving a personal side to it that is terrific."

"I'm a little bit overwhelmed," said David, 34. "Now the hard part comes. You've been selected because people all over the country think you can do a job, and now it's time to get down and do that job."

The other married couples on this year's U.S. team are Alexandra and Michael Harbold, both sprint kayakers, and Leslie and Michael Marx, who are on the fencing team, according to the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Officials believe the O'Connors are the first married couple on any equestrian team. Although riders Frank Chapot and Mary Mairs competed together in the 1950s and 1960s, they did not marry until after their competing days.

"It's rare that you have a husband-wife combination in any sport, particularly where they compete against one another on equal terms," said Bob Standish, executive director of the U.S. Equestrian Team.

The O'Connors knew each other in the 1980s and were friends for years while competing against each other. They began dating in 1986 and married in 1993.

"Being married in this sport has only helped us, I think," Karen said. "The sport takes up a whole lot of time and effort. I think it's hard for people who are in the sport and married and their spouse is not in the sport."

David said competing has helped him get to know himself and his wife better.

"You definitely have to find out a lot about each other," he said. "It makes you very much examine yourself and examine what makes you tick competitively and how the other person ticks competitively."

He said they have different ways of preparing for competition, and each has learned to respect the other's approach.

"She tends to like to have people around her that she can bounce ideas off, and I would tend to be a person that would be a little more withdrawn," he said. "It's going to take away from Karen's competitiveness if she tries to be more like me and from mine if I try to be more like her."

Both were named to the so-called three-day equestrian team, which has four members. The event they will face starting July 20 is considered the marathon of the equestrian competition.

The first day is dressage, which "is almost like ballet," according to Mary Conti, public relations coordinator for the American Horse Shows Association. The rider must coax the horse to move in difficult patterns, such as trotting in place or circling its body while leaving the hind legs in the same spot.

The second day includes long and short rides, a high-speed gallop, water and log obstacles and a variety of other timed tests. The third day -- stadium jumping -- is meant to show that the horse is still fit enough to vault obstacles.

David also was named as one of two riders who will compete in the individual version of the same competition.