Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Jessica is named to Team USA’s equestrian team at the Olympics

Bruce Springsteen’s equestrian daughter Jessica has clinched a spot on Team USA’s show jumping team for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.  

Jessica, 29, is set to ride horse Don Juan Van de Donkhoeve, a 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood stallion, in the athletic competition, after securing her spot on the four-strong squad during a competition in France last month. 

The Rumson, New Jersey, native was one of four names announced by the sport’s governing body, US Equestrian, on Monday – alongside Kent Farrington, Laura Kraut and McLain Ward.

This will be the first time that Jessica has competed at an Olympic Games – having been named as an alternate for the London 2012 squad and then failing to earn a place on the team for Rio 2016.  

The latest: Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Jessica, 29, has been named to Team USA’s Olympic show jumping team for the upcoming Tokyo Games

Accomplished: Jessica, who has made almost $2 million in her equestrian career, is currently ranked third in the country and 27th in the world in her sport

Accomplished: Jessica, who has made almost $2 million in her equestrian career, is currently ranked third in the country and 27th in the world in her sport

Jessica, who is the second of Bruce’s three children with his wife Patti Scialfa, opened up earlier this year about her ‘dream’ of representing Team USA in an international championship, according to NJ.com.

‘My dream is always to represent the United States in championships, so I am definitely always working toward that,’ she said

‘I feel like I have a really good group of horses jumping great right now, so I will just keep doing my best.’ 

Jessica, who has made almost $2 million in her equestrian career, is currently ranked third in the country and 27th in the world for her sport. 

She clinched the Olympic spot last month in France when she won the 4* Grand Prix Hubside Jumping Tour with a top time of 36.16 seconds.

Shortly after the team announcement was made on Monday, Jessica celebrated the news on her Instagram Stories, where she re-shared a post from US Equestrian in which she and her teammates were named. 

The news comes just one day after the rocker offspring competed in front of the Queen at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in the UK on Sunday, where she placed 18th. 

Jessica posed between her parents Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa in 2019 in NYC

Jessica posed between her parents Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa in 2019 in NYC

Background: She had previously served as an alternate rider during the London Olympics in 2012, but did not make the squad in 2016

Background: She had previously served as an alternate rider during the London Olympics in 2012, but did not make the squad in 2016

Jessica, who graduated from Duke with a major in psychology in 2014, has been riding horses since the age of four. 

She trained on her family’s 368-acre farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey, after her parents relocated from Los Angeles in order to raise their children away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi. 

After she graduated from college, Jessica moved to Valkenswaard in the Netherlands so that she could focus on her sport – a move that has certainly paid off thanks to her newly-minted Olympian status. 

Equestrian gold medalist Melanie Smith Taylor told the New York Post that the daughter of the 71-year-old rock legend and wife Patti, 67, ‘has really come into her own this year.’ 

Smith Taylor, who won the top honors in 1984, previously said that Jessica has sought to carve out her own path in her sport. 

‘She has said early on that she didn’t want to be known as Bruce Springsteen’s daughter alone,’ Smith Taylor said.

‘She wanted to forge her own path. She’s really doing that. She is very much at the elite level of the sport because of her performance.’ 

Jessica shared a graphic with the news on her Instagram Stories on Monday

Jessica shared a graphic with the news on her Instagram Stories on Monday

The Tokyo Olympics will commence on July 23 and the show jumping competition is due to kick off on August 3 with the individual qualifier, followed by the individual final on August 4. 

The team event will begin on August 6 and the final will take place the following day. 

Sadly for Jessica, her family will not be able to watch her make her Olympics debut in person; in order to maintain health and safety standards amid the ongoing pandemic, the International Olympic Committee has banned athletes’ family members and friends from attending the Games. 

Thankfully, the equestrian will have plenty of seasoned shoulders to lean on for advice during the competition. 

Jessica is the only member of the four-person team making her Olympic debut in Tokyo; all three of her teammates have previously competed at the prestigious competition in the past. 

McLain Ward, 45, took home the gold both in Beijing 2008 and Athens 2004, and he won the silver medal at Rio in 2016. Tokyo will be his fifth Olympic competition. 

Meanwhile 55-year-old Laura Kraut helped Team USA to win gold at the 2008 Games in Beijing, and Kent Farrington, 40, was a member of the squad who took home silver in Rio.