Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    By Jiang Yaping

    CANBERRA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Laurie Lever, at his 60, is packing his things these days for Hong Kong. It is not a tourist trip but a competition for medals of the glorious Olympic Games.

    Lever, Australia's oldest Olympic team member, and certainly the oldest debutant at the Games, never thought of preparing to compete in equestrian showjumping two years ago.

    While Lever is one of the 12-member equestrian team for the games in just a few days, he pointed out that he would be riding one of the youngest horses in the showjumping competition, nine-year-old Ashleigh Drossel Dan.

    Lever said it was the grey gelding that had fueled his late-blooming Olympic dream.

    "It's not that I have been especially trying for a long time, but this is the first horse I have had that was up to it," he said. "You are always hoping for your Melbourne Cup horse."

    Lever started riding when he was 10 years old because it seemed a good idea at the time. When he grew up, he worked as a television cameraman but finally gave up for training horses for racing stables. He did not throw himself whole-heartedly to his Olympic campaign until last year because he found the horse Dan must have a show in the competition.

    Dan is nine years old now. Lever said that over the four years in his care, Dan had been trained to be "more sensible and rideable, and we tidied up his legs."

    "This was the first horse that I thought was of the standard to attempt to get on the Olympic team," Lever said.

    "I did have some other horses that have come close, but there are not that many who can do it. It is like picking the Melbourne Cup," he said.

    Lever said the horse is intelligent and strong-minded, and this is his first season at this top level .. "It is expecting a lot of him to do the Olympics, but I know that he will be able to handle it."

    Talking about the future, Lever said he would not bid to become Australia's oldest competing Olympian in London in 2012.

    "My son Philip is also a professional rider and he's standing on the sidelines looking for a crack at the horse after this," Lever said.

    Lever's wife, Annie, and their children will attend the Olympic equestrian events, which will be held in Hong Kong starting on Aug.9.

    Australia has won six gold medals and two silver ones in Olympic equestrian competition in the past.