Saratoga News

Sports

Benjamin wins gold in world horse vaulting event

By Eli Segall

Many dream of being center stage on the world's theatre. For most, it is never more than just a fantasy.

Not so for Saratoga resident Megan Benjamin.

Benjamin, 18, won the gold medal in the individual competition at the horse vaulting world championships this year in Aachen, Germany. She also helped win the silver medal in the team vaulting competition.

Benjamin, who has also won the last three national championships, cemented her status as a vaulting powerhouse. The U.S. Olympic Committee even honored the Saratoga High School graduate as its August athlete of the month for her performance.

Her victory in Aachen topped off a whirlwind summer tour. Within a week of her high school graduation, Benjamin took off for Munich, Germany, where she spent all of July training for a tournament there. After the Munich competition, she came home for one day's rest before going to Southern California for the U.S. national competition. She returned home for a day, then flew to Aachen for worlds.

"My friends were definitely not happy with my schedule," said Benjamin, now a freshman at Santa Clara University. "It was quite hectic."

Benjamin is a member of the Mt. Eden Vaulting Club, a horse stable in Saratoga, where she first learned the sport 10 years ago. In fact, Benjamin was not the only member of Mt. Eden at the world championships; Saratoga resident Elizabeth Ioannou joined her in the team competition.

Marianne Rose, vice president of the club, said horse vaulting is a relatively new sport. It originated in Germany in the 1970s and was first brought the U.S. in the 1980s. Germans have dominated the sport since its inception, but Benjamin has helped loosened this grip. She was the first female not from that country to win a world title.

Vaulting is a mix of gymnastics and equestrian. Competitors perform tricks while riding the horse, including handstands and standing on one leg. Team events bring three people onto the horse at once, who perform cramped, complicated maneuvers.

"It's like a cheerleader triangle, but on top of a 7.5 earthquake," Rose said.

The sport has a strong following in the United States. The American Vaulting Association lists more than 100 member clubs and more than 1,000 competitors. Mt. Eden itself boasts 60 members.