The Olympian going for gold on a real Diamond

JESSICA CHESNEY is still a youngster in the enduring sport of show jumping but, at the age of 26, the Co Antrim jockey is certainly no greenhorn, and when she makes her Olympic debut in Atlanta at the end of July, she won't just be there for the beer.

Chesney is going for a medal and although she knows that, realistically, the individual honours are probably out of reach, she has the fighting spirit that sets a true athlete aside from the also rans and she is determined to be on that medal rostrum with the rest of the Irish team.

That determination brought Chesney into 10th place in the individual rankings at the World Equestrian Games in the Hague two years ago with the enormous gelding Diamond Exchange. It was the best Irish result, but Chesney is only too aware that she, like all sportsmen and women, cannot afford to rest on her laurels.

Knowing that her international participation would be limited if she remained in Ireland, Chesney moved her entire show jumping operation from Ballymena to Germany in November 1994, just two months after her Hague performance. Looking back, she views her departure as the best career move she could have made.

"I had my high points at home in Ireland, but there was nobody there who really supported me, either financially or with horses," she says.

Since moving to Wesel near Essen, Chesney has built up a string of promising horses that she hopes will follow in the hoofprints of Diamond Exchange. And, at the end of April this year, she was approached by a sponsor whose 12 month backing means that she can afford to concentrate on her Olympic campaign, comfortable in the knowledge that she can now get in extra staff to keep the Wesel operation ticking over for the month she will be away in Atlanta.

Her horses now carry the St Ludwig prefix from the Gestut St Ludwig, a top stud near Munchengladbach owned by a Herr Kraft. In the formal world of German business, Chesney hasn't got on to first name terms with her sponsor.

"This sport at this level just isn't possible without a rich backer or a sponsor," Chesney says, "and any one who tells you it is just doesn't know what they're talking about."

Having a backer also takes the pressure off Jessica's father George Chesney to sell Diamond Exchange. All the Chesney show jumpers had been sold when Jessica was in her final year at school so that she could concentrate on her exams. She was promised that replacements would be found if she got good results.

The five year old Diamond Exchange was bought after the family saw him jump in the Boomerang class at Millstreet that August and, when the partnership immediately clicked, that was the end of the 18 year old Chesney taking up any career other than show jumping.

"He really is an exceptional horse," she says of Diamond Exchange who is now 13. "I've learned so much with him and I was very green when I got him. But everything just fell into place and I would never think twice about jumping any fence with him, no matter how big it was.

"There's no way my father would ever sell the horse now. He had a really top racehorse that he sold and he's always regretted it. So he's resisted all the temptation to sell this one. The money would just get swallowed up and we just couldn't replace him."

The pair have an incredible relationship, even though the giant 18 hand gelding has a reputation for being difficult. "I know that it will be two minutes of hell in the ring with him pulling my arms out, but when he gets to the fence he really jumps. He's a fighter and he's always there when I need him."

Diamond Exchange provided Chesney with one of the biggest wins of her career when he took the first Volvo World Cup qualifying round staged at Millstreet back in 1992. Noel C Duggan himself couldn't have stage managed a more popular result and the atmosphere in the packed arena that night could have been bottled and would have outsold anything from nearby Ballinspittle.

But another highlight - that 10th place in the Hague two years later - was followed by what Chesney views as one of her all time lows.

"The Hague was certainly a fantastic experience, but I came back to Dublin to be told that I wasn't going to Calgary and that took all the good out of it. I was so pleased with the way the horse had jumped and then to be told we don't need you any more'. If you earn a place on the team you should be able to keep it."

That setback has made Chesney even more determined to fight her way back onto the Irish squad. The move to Germany has provided her with the opportunity for outings on the tough national circuit in Germany, as well as greater international exposure.

The builds up to Atlanta has been meticulously planned, with a rigorous fitness campaign specially geared towards the hot, humid conditions that are expected during the Olympics. Diamond Exchange is fitter than he's ever been in his life, with competition work interspersed with exercise on a water treadmill.

The horses will have three weeks acclimatisation in Hawkinsville before moving to the Georgia International Horse Park for the competition itself. The show jumpers will probably be less affected by the climatic conditions and warning the horses up prior to jumping will be kept to a minimum. "Once you're in the ring the adrenalin will take over," Chesney says.

Once she's in that Olympic arena - known ominously as the Atlanta Oven - it will be Chesney's fighting spirit that will take over. She will be fighting to prove that she was the right choice for the team and fighting to give Diamond Exchange the chance to display his undoubted talent over the monster Olympic tracks.

It's a far cry from the little Co Antrim girl who can't even remember when she started riding. She does know that she rode in her first jumping competition at the age of four and thinks that she was riding a donkey at 18 months. "I really can't remember not riding," she says. All I did was go ride and go to school."

It's a much tougher school now, but Chesney believes that she and Diamond Exchange have the ability to take on the best in the world. She knows the medals are there to be won and she's going out to Atlanta intent on realising her dream - that one of those coveted pieces of metal will be hanging round her neck on the final day of the centennial Games.