Damian Gardiner competed in the individual and team showjumping at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, called up as a last-minute replacement when John Ledingham’s mount Kilbaha fell ill at Stansted Airport before departure.

A native of Crossmolina, Co. Mayo, Gardiner began by riding ponies for local farmers and as a fifteen-year-old joined the Iris Kellett stable in Kill, Co. Kildare for what was intended to be a one-month training course but became a five-year stay.

He emigrated to San Diego, California in 1989 and in 1995 won the USA Jump Derby on his Olympic mount Arthos. In April 1996 he secured the most prestigious stable-rider’s job on the west coast of the USA, appointed exclusive rider at Richard Block’s Pinon Farms in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was summoned directly from a Grand Prix event in Colorado to represent Ireland, for the first time, at Atlanta.

Ireland finished 8th overall.

Gardiner was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2013 and passed away that same year at the age of 44.