U.S. Olympian Steffen Peters was crying in the stands as his teammate secured a bronze medal Friday for the U.S. dressage team.
"If you wanted to see a 52-year-old man act like a 10-year-old boy you should have seen me in the stands when Laura was coming down the center line," Peters said. "I was crying my eyes out, it was just one of those absolutely amazing experiences."
Peters was referring to teammate and former hairdresser Laura Graves recording a personal best of 80.644 on Verdades in her first Olympic Games.
Her score brought the United States into third place with 76.667.
"The elusive 80 percent, finally we've captured it, it exists," Graves said. "I knew it was going well. You just always hope your reflections match up with the judges. I was happy to see my teammates so happy and then to have a personal best and a score I've been reaching for was just icing on the cake."
Peters and Graves scored the bronze with teammates Alison Brock and Kasey Perry-Glass.
The team’s results are calculated using the average of the three best riders' scores from each nation from the two-day event.
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It ends a long wait for German-born Peters, who helped the U.S to bronze in 1996 but was a reserve when it repeated that feat in 2004.
It’s Peters’ fourth Olympic appearance.
He and his wife, Shannon, operate Arroyo Del Mar in the Carmel Valley area of San Diego.
