Henrik von Eckermann awarded the medal of the Swedish king

On April 14, Swedish show jumper Henrik von Eckermann was invited to the Royal Palace in Stockholm together with other deserving athletes from the country. Here, King Carl XVI Gustaf personally presented him with the King’s Medal for his sporting achievements.

Long list of successes

There are many of them – Henrik von Eckermann competed for Sweden at four Olympic Games. The jump-off for team gold in Tokyo will never be forgotten. The same goes for the two individual and team gold medals he won at the 2022 World Championships. He also won team silver at the 2018 World Championships.

Von Eckermann contributed to team gold at the European Championships in 2023, silver with the team at home in Gothenburg in 2017 and bronze in 2013. He won the World Cup twice in a row. For two and a half years, he led the world rankings of show jumpers. That’s a record, no one else has achieved that before him.

Von Eckermann achieved the majority of his successes with a king under saddle, King Edward, who recently returned to the show jumping ring after a long absence from competitions.

About Henrik von Eckermann

Henrik von Eckermann, who will soon be celebrating his 45th birthday, has always had a soft spot for horses, probably thanks to his mother. When he was 14, the family attended the big World Cup tournament in Gothenburg. From then on, von Eckermann knew what he wanted to be: a show jumper.

The person who immediately recognized what extraordinary talent this boy had was the one who rode alongside him to Olympic victory in 2021: Peder Fredricson. He took Henrik von Eckermann under his wing and also provided him with good horses. Von Eckermann set up his own business on his parents’ farm. That went quite well, but when the opportunity arose to do an internship at the Beerbaum stables, the then 22-year-old jumped at the chance. And stayed.

The foundation stone for von Eckermann’s international breakthrough was laid in Riesenbeck. He gained a reputation as a particularly sensitive rider with a knack for difficult horses, who was also considered to be particularly hard-working and reliable. All qualities that stood him in good stead when he took the leap into self-employment again in 2016.

He was initially stationed in Bonn, where he met the mare Mary Lou, with whom he was able to seamlessly build on his old successes. And then came King Edward. The horse with whom von Eckermann wrote sporting history and will hopefully continue to do so.

He now lives and works with his wife, Swiss show jumper Janika Sprunger, and his son Noah on their own newly built facility in the Netherlands.