Sharon Jarvis is one of the most experienced and skillful Para-equestrian riders in the country.
The WA native has been riding horses since she was just three years old. At seven, she was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and given just three months to live. Sharon defied the odds – surviving to go on to become one of the most decorated Para-equestrian athletes in Australian history.
After representing Australia for the first time at the 2007 Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Para-equestrian Dressage Championships in Gloustershire, England, Sharon made her Paralympic debut at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, where she achieved fourth place in the mixed dressage – championship Grade III.
Having only spent a couple of months with her horse in the lead-up to the Games, this was a huge accomplishment for Sharon, and she carried the confidence that experience gave her all the way through to the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, USA, where she won two bronze medals.
Sharon next competed at a Paralympic Games in 2016, and although she was unable to replicate her result from Beijing, she can take great pride in her performance, which saw her record a score of 68.537 in the dressage – championship Grade III.
She was selected as one of the four Para-equestrian riders to represent Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. However, it was a tumultuous journey to the Games which were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. When her own horse was injured during the lead-up to the Games, she was left without a riding partner for Tokyo. She took to social media to put the call out to find a replacement. The call was answered with the offer of a gelding named Romanos, which she affectionately dubbed her ‘Brown Unicorn’.
Competing at her third Games at Tokyo 2020, Sharon made history at the first Australian Para-equestrian rider to compete in three Paralympic Games. In the Individual Test Grade IV event, Sharon and Romanos scored 68.366% to finish in tenth place. The duo went on to score 67.900% in the Dressage Team Championship event, drawing both her Tokyo campaign and her Para-equestrian career to a close.
