Gillian Rolton

Gillian Rolton (3 May 1956 – 18 November 2017) was an Australian Olympic equestrian champion. She competed in two Olympic Games, the 1992 Barcelona Games and 1996 Atlanta Games, winning a gold medal in team eventing both times on her horse, Peppermint Grove. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, she broke her collarbone and ribs, but remounted and completed the course. She was one of four Australians to win multiple equestrian Olympic gold medals.

Early life Gillian Rolton was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 3 May 1956, the daughter of a builder. She had an older brother, John. She was educated at Woodlands Girls Grammar School. She participated in swimming, qualifying for the South Australian sub-junior state team, but the school frowned on individual sports, and she had to give it up. She then took up equestrianism. She got her first horse at the age of ten, and soon began riding competitively, riding a pony at the Royal Adelaide Show in the children's class. She left Woodlands after being told to cut her fingernails in Year 10, and completed her schooling at Marion High School. She continued horse riding, and also enjoyed surfing. After completing Year 12, she entered Sturt College of Advanced Education, where she studied education, with the aim of becoming a teacher.

Rolton enjoyed coaching children in swimming and horse riding, and decided to become a riding instructor. As there was nowhere in Australia offering this qualification at the time, she had to pursue this overseas. Compensation for a motor vehicle accident in which she was thrown through the windscreen provided the money. Before departing, she bought her first event horse, Saville Row, for $200.

Rolton won the Australian championships again in 1995, and was selected for the team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She told ABC Television's Australian Story: "You don't go to the Games to be a wuss, you don't go to the Games to be a wimp, you go to the Games because you've got to get through those finish flags no matter what." She was survived by her husband Greg. At the time of her death, she was Event Director of the Australian International Three Day Event held in Adelaide, a position that she had held for ten years. She had continued working on it from her hospital bed.

Recognition Rolton was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in the 1993 Australia Day honours "for service to sport as a gold medallist in the equestrian three-day event at the Olympic Games".

In 2000, she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

She was inducted into South Australian Sport Hall of Fame in 2010, and in 2016 was elevated to legend status alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Bart Cummings, Barrie Robran, and Victor Richardson.

She was inducted into the Equestrian Australia Hall of Fame for her service to the sport in 2016.

In 2017, she was granted Adelaide's highest honour with the keys to the city.