Full name Francis Davis Chapot | Name Frank Chapot | |
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Education University of Pennsylvania | ||
Frank chapot on gem twist
Francis Davis "Frank" Chapot (February 24, 1932 – June 20, 2016) was an American equestrian who competed at six Olympic Games from 1956 until his final effort in 1976 where he won two silver medals in the Team Show Jumping.
Born in Camden, New Jersey, Chapot was raised in Walpack Township, New Jersey. He earned a bachelor's degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Already a strong competitor in international horse show circles, he chose to follow that career. He spent two years in the United States Air Force, serving between the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He often attributed his success to being chosen as a member of the Olympic team and having a good relationship with Bertalan de Némethy, the aristocratic Hungarian who coached the U.S. show jumpers more than two decades and whose role Chapot assumed during the early 1980s. He also was invited to judge at many shows in the circuit.
He married fellow Olympic equestrian Mary Mairs in 1965. They were on the same Olympic show jumping team in 1964 and 1968, narrowly missing out on bronze in 1968 by 0.25 points. They retired to raise horses at Chado Farm, including the champion show jumper, Gem Twist, who won two Olympic silver medals and was named World’s Best Horse at the 1990 World Equestrian Games in Stockholm. Gem Twist had an incredible career at the Grand Prix level. The gelding is the only horse to have won the "American Grand Prix Association Horse of the Year" title three times, and is regarded as having been one of the best show-jumpers in the history of the discipline. The Chapots had the horse cloned and began a breeding line from Gem Twist.
Their daughters Laura Chapot and Wendy Chapot Nunn also are expert equestrians.
He was inducted into the United States Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 1994, two years after his wife Mary.
A resident of the Neshanic Station section of Branchburg, New Jersey, Chapot died in Bound Brook, New Jersey, on June 20, 2016, at the age of 84 after declining health. He was survived by his wife Mary and their two daughters.
