Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry and her horse Glamourdale made history at the FEI World Championships as she became the first ever rider to win a double gold medal at two World Championships.

Fry secured this feat after she retained her ‘Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle titles', which she initially won at the 2022 World Championships in Herning, Denmark.

On making history by winning a double gold medal, the Scarborough-born athlete said: “I feel like it still hasn't really sunk in, to be honest. It’s pretty unreal, and with horses you’re always straight back into training and stuff with the other horses, so you don’t have so much time to think about it, but every time you do think about it, it’s amazing, and I can hardly believe it.”

“I think when I won it in 2022, it was Glamourdale’s first year coming up so it was a new one on the scene almost coming up for that championship, and he’d won quite a few things before that, but that was his first real championship, so you never really know what to expect, and it was just amazing to suddenly come into it and win both.”

Fry began her World Championships by retaining her Grand Prix Special title on Friday, 14th August, as she won the competition with a score of 82.295 per cent.

She then backed up that performance by winning the Grand Prix Freestyle gold medal with a score of 91.907 per cent.

On her World Championship successes, the 30-year-old said: “This time there was, of course, much more pressure, and we’re both much more experienced now, and we know each other very well, but then there’s also that added pressure where you’d really love to do it again, so being able to peak yourself and your horse at the right time is so difficult, and it takes such a team behind it to try and achieve this.”

“We’ve had a few championships in between [the 2022 and 2026 World Championships]. We've done the Europeans and the Olympics, and we’ve had really good results, but I haven’t been quite able to replicate that really perfect test that we managed to do in Aachen. So it's such a relief and pure happiness when it all comes together like that because, especially when you’ve been doing it for such a long time, you realise that it's really not easy.”

Great Britain finished top of the Dressage medal table, with Fry adding team silver to her two golds and finishing ahead of Germany and Denmark, the only other nations to medal.

Great Britain also finished third on the overall medal table after they medalled across four disciplines, winning 13 medals in total with 4 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals.

On Great Britain’s success at the World Championships, the six-time World Championships medallist said: “I think the whole atmosphere with our British team is always so good; we have such a good support team as well who come out to the championships: physios, vets, doctors, and nutritionists." It’s such a big team behind it, so you don’t need to worry about anything else, which is such a huge help.”

“The four of us [Carl Hester, Charlotte Fry, Becky Moody and Fiona Bigwood] who were actually competing in the team – it’s such a nice dynamic; everyone’s really supportive, and there’s so much knowledge in there from Carl and Fiona, who are a bit older now and have won many championships, and then also the support of Becky, and then it's just nice that you have three other people that know exactly what you’re going through and you can be there for each other.”

Their success at the World Championships also means that Great Britain has secured qualification for the LA 2028 Summer Olympic Games across all three disciplines: eventing, dressage and jumping.

They have also secured qualification for the LA 2028 Paralympics, with Great Britain’s Para dressage squad finishing fifth, with the top seven teams securing qualification for the games in a couple of years.

On securing qualification for the Olympics and Paralympics, the three-time Olympic bronze medallist Fry said: “I think when you look back on them [Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024], they were such huge occasions, and to be part of something like that was just insane. The whole hype around the Olympics – you know it’s the best of the best and not just your sport, but it's all sport, so it's really the best of everyone coming together, and it's such a special moment, and to be able to medal there was just incredible.”

“I think it’s great that we’ve now qualified for LA; it's kind of a weight off the shoulders for the country, and then my horse will still hopefully be a good age to compete in LA. He loves to do the competitions and just show off to the crowd, so I also think that will be an amazing place for him to compete, so we’re already pretty excited for it.”

However, before the 2028 Olympic Games, Fry has plans to compete at a couple of championships across Europe to continue her fine form from 2026.

The events will allow her to continue developing her performances and make sure she and Glamourdale can be as well-prepared for the Olympics as possible.

On her plans for the next few years, the athlete who has 111 Dressage wins said: “In the short term, we have a big competition in London in December. Usually, that’s the only time I will actually compete in England because I’m based in Holland, so we always come to the London International Horse Show. It’s always amazing to ride in front of a home crowd, especially because I don’t get to do it very often, so it’s very special.”

“Then next year our main goal will be the European Championships, which are in Denmark, and that will be the stepping stone for the year after and for LA. For our freestyles we choose our music, so if we need to test something out, we usually do that next year.”

Fry and Glamourdale’s next competition will take place in London from 17 to 21 December 2026, with three FEI World Cups™ coming together across dressage, jumping and driving.