Kathryn Kusner

At 84 years old, Kathryn Kusner has this physical status:

In 1958, when Kusner was 18, she was invited to the United States Equestrian Team trials. Two years later, she was named "Horsewoman of the Year" by the American Horse Shows Association. In 1961 at age 21, Kusner officially joined the United States Equestrian Team as the first woman member in 10 years. She helped win a team gold medal for the 1963 Pan-Am Games in San Paulo and represented the United States in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. In 1967, she brought a team silver medal at the Pan-Am Games in Winnipeg and in 1968, she represented the United States for the Olympics in Mexico.

1967 also marked the year when Kusner applied for a jockey license through the Maryland Racing Commission but was denied because she was a woman. In an interview with Makers, Kusner noted that "I never, ever thought about being a woman until it was time to get a jock's license." At this time, Kusner was an internationally acclaimed equestrian but could not legally compete in American races without a jockey license. Kusner and her lawyer took her case to court, and in 1968 Judge Ernest A. Loveless of the Circuit Court of Prince Georges County ordered her to be granted the license. Kusner thus became the first licensed female jockey in the United States in October 1968.

After taking time off in 1969 from a broken leg, Kusner won a silver medal in the 1972 Munich Olympics and became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in equestrian competition. Now a licensed jockey, she competed in races from Canada to Mexico, Germany, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Panama, South Africa, and what was then Rhodesia. She was also the first woman to ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup, the toughest timber race in the world. In 1990, Kusner was inducted into United States Show Jumping Hall of Fame. In 2021, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

Source