Inside Zara Tindall's medal-winning career: from Olympics to Sports Personality of the Year

Zara Tindall has an illustrious sporting career, and her love of horses was passed down to her by Princess Anne and the late Queen Elizabeth II .

Her mother, Princess Anne, became the European champion in 1971, and her father, Captain Mark Phillips, was four times winner of Badminton and an Olympic team gold medallist .

From a young age, Zara was exposed to various equestrian sports as her parents Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips competed. She started riding horses from a very young age and excelled in sport at school, later studying physiotherapy at the University of Exeter.

After graduating, she began to pursue an equestrian career, culminating in her first major win – the Young Rider title at Bramham in 2002. After that, she secured silver in the Young Riders European Championships.

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Zara signed a commercial sponsorship deal with Cantor Index to fund her equestrian career and finished as runner-up at the Burghley Horse Trials in 2003 – her first four-star event.

Sadly, the budding star missed out on a place at the Athens 2004 Olympics after her horse, Toytown, suffered an injury during training. She was also knocked unconscious after a fall from her horse, Ardfield Magic Star, at Lulworth horse trials in Dorset the same year.

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In 2005, Zara was back with Toytown to compete in the European Eventing Championships for the first time, where she won two gold medals.

Her cousin, the Prince of Wales revealed the only time that he has cried while watching sport was when Zara won an equestrian competition.

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Speaking on Mike Tindall's The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast last September, Prince William said: "The only time I’ve ever cried when watching sport was when Zara won, I think it was the European championship.

"I was down in Exmoor at the time camping. We were all huddled around the phone watching it. She was there, she was blubbing away, the flag was going up. I was in pieces."

Further success followed when Zara was crowned champion at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen in 2006.

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See what Zara's mother, Princess Anne, had to say about the special moment at the World Equestrian Festival in Germany last year.

The same year after her win in Germany, Zara was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year by the British viewing public – an award her mother won in 1971.

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While she sadly had to withdraw from the Beijing 2008 Olympics after Toytown suffered an injury, Zara was named as part of Team GB's eventing team for the London 2012 Olympics.

She won a silver medal in team eventing in front of a huge crowd, which also included her royal cousins, Prince William and his wife, Kate, Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

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The London Olympics came one year after she married rugby star Mike Tindall, and it was a proud moment for Zara as Anne was the one to present her daughter with her medal.

After welcoming her first child Mia in January 2014, Zara was back competing just seven months later, going on to win a team silver medal at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy.

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In April 2017, she finished third on her horse High Kingdom at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event.

Zara and Mike's second daughter, Lena, arrived in June 2018, followed by their son, Lucas, in March 2021.

She was part of the GB eventing team that won the Nations Cup at Aachen in Sept 2021 and in May 2022, she won the advanced class at the Chatsworth Horse Trials, riding Class Affair.

Zara has continued to compete at a top level, including the 2024 Badminton Horse Trials.

LISTEN: How Prince William met Kate before university

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