ABOUT JULIA

Julia Krajewski was born on 22 October 1988 in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony. She is one of the most successful German eventer in a sport in which women compete on equal terms with men.

Julia is a Master in Equestrian Management in the equestrian instruction sector. Julia is also a former active member of the German Army Sports Corps. Since November 2016, she has also been working as National Coach for Junior Eventers in the German Equestrian Federation. In August 2021 at the 2020 Olympic Games on Tokyo, Julia won the gold medal in the individual eventing competition.

Julia Krajewski is the oldest child of “Christina and Paul Krajewski”. She has two younger sisters and grew up in Klausheide near Nordhorn, Germany. The family’s connection to riding came about through Julia and her sisters. In this respect, unlike many other successful eventing riders, Julia was unable to call upon an “inherited network” but had to work everything out for herself from day one.

After graduating from high school, the Gymnasium (Highschool) Georgianum in Lingen, she completed her apprenticeship as a Horse Manager (Pferdewirt) specialising in riding, and finished the year as the “best in her class” in 2009. In 2012, she followed this by successfully passing the examination to become a “Master in Equestrian Management” (Pferdewirtschaftsmeister), specialising in Riding Instruction. In parallel to her active career, she also studied for three years at the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) in Cologne and has been a “Qualified Equestrian Coach” since 2015.
Aged just five, Julia learned how to ride on her own pony, a Dartmoor cross called Tibo and had her first tournament placings aged seven. Julia’s passion was clearly for eventing, which is why she then began “cross-country riding”. This was followed by numerous championship successes in tournaments in her age classes, at the German and European Championships as well. She won a total of 10 medals, 5 of which were gold medals, at the Junior European Championships.

The German Olympic Equestrian Committee (DOKR) became aware of Julia and recognised her talent, receptiveness and work ethic. She was asked to join the Eventing Prospects Group in 2007 to receive even more support on her path into elite sport. The following years were defining in shaping the direction of her career.

Julia was employed as a “military sports person” in the German Army’s Sports Promotion Group between 2009 and 2012. She is still active as a reservist in the Sports Promotion Group at the German Army’s Sports Academy in Warendorf.

Her first international championship as a “senior” equestrian was at the 2011 European Championships in Luhmühlen where she was the only woman to start.

Riding London-Return OLD, she then competed in her first CCI 4* test (the highest class in the discipline, now reclassified as 5*) in June 2013 in Luhmühlen, and represented Germany in her first Nations Cup.

The brown 5-year-old gelding Samourai du Thot came to Julia. She continued to train him over the next few years and rode him in international eventing from 2012 onwards. In September 2014, the gelding completed his first 3* test (now 4*), and in May 2015 horse and rider won the CIC 3* (now 4*) at the Wiesbaden Spring Tournament. At her second 4* test (now 5*), again in Luhmühlen, in June 2016, she led with Samourai du Thot after the dressage round and finished the test in third place.
She went to the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 as the reserve rider, but was thrust centre stage to compete for the German team. However, Julia and Samourai du Thot were eliminated after three refusals on the course and ended up as the discard score or strike result in Germany’s team result. A bitter but important experience for the then 28-year-old. Julia won the silver medal with the team. Julia was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf for winning the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Rio.

She closed the 2016 season with a win in the CCI 3* (now CCI4*-S) at the Strzegom October Festival riding Chipmunk FRH. This was the second time the gelding, which became National Champion of 5-year-old Eventing Horses in 2013, had taken part in an international test at this level and its first CCI 3* win (now 4*).

The start of the 2017 season was also successful: Julia finished in second place in the 3* (now 4*) short tests at Sopot, Houghton Hall and Wiesbaden. She was also part of the winning German Nations Cup team at Houghton Hall. In mid-June, she accomplished the greatest success of her career to date on Samourai du Thot, by winning the 4* eventing competition (now CCI5*-L) at Luhmühlen. This win impressively demonstrated Julia’s ability, and that the confidence and belief the German team had placed in her in Rio had been well-founded.

She was part of the German team riding Samourai du Thot at the European Championships in Strzegom in the same year. To everyone’s consternation, on the last day Samourai du Thot was tested positive for Firocoxib, which was deemed to be a banned substance. As, despite the most intensive research, no explanation could be found as to how the horse was found to have this substance in it, in the absence of a likely positive result, Julia opted not to appeal to the FEI tribunal and accepted the penalty imposed by the FEI. Julia was subsequently disqualified and the German team thus dropped from silver place to tenth place. By necessity, Krajewski was dropped from the German Championship team until 30 June 2018.
2018 also started well for Julia in that she won the German Professional Dressage Riders Championship with a win in the CIC 3* (now 4*) in Marbach. Krajewski also achieved a win in the CCI 3* (now 4*) in Bramham, both times on Chipmunk FRH. In Luhmühlen the won the CIC 3* (now 4*) on Samourai du Thot and became German National Champion for the first time.

Julia suffered her next setback at the World Championships in Tryon, USA in September 2018. After finishing the dressage test in first place, Julia missed an obstacle in the course on Chipmunk FRH, which prevented both she and the German team from having a medal placing.

But even after her third setback, Julia did not give up and came back even stronger. Julia succeeded in repeating her 2018 success in the German National Championships in 2019 and became German National Champion with her dressage score of 24.7 on Samourai du Thot.

Her association with the then 9-year-old Selle Français mare Amande De B’Neville began in 2019. The mare came to Julia’s stables as a 6-year-old and was gradually introduced to elite sport. After good placings at 4* level in 2019 and 2020, she became number one in the world in 2020. In May 2021, the mare which is jointly owned by Julia and Dr. Bernd Heicke, won the prestigious CCI4* in Saumur and underpinned this form with a bronze medal at the German National Championships in Luhmühlen in June. This win was awarded with a nomination to represent Germany at the Olympic Games.

Julia is the first woman to win the individual eventing competition at the Summer Olympics with her win in Tokyo on 2 August 2021.