Thaisa Erwin

While Olympic debuts are usually a long time in the making, for Thaisa Erwin it's been one very long journey to realise Australian Olympic Team selection.

The now 43-year-old had qualified on The Countryman to compete at the Athens 2004 Olympics, but missed out on being selected to the Olympic Team.

An environmental engineer who has been a World-Cup level showjumper for the past two decades, Thaisa has spent the past 11 years working and riding in the USA.

There she feeds her passion for horse training and coaching while juggling travelling to represent Australia in Nations Cup and World Cup events.

In June 2024 Thaisa rode 12-year-old mare Hialita Bthey at the Grand Prix of Rotterdam and finishing 38th in the CS105*-LLN.

She credits Peter Weinberg, Eric Weinberg and Eric van der Vleutin from her time living in Europe as a testament to the showjumping prowess she now exuberates.

But her first memory of being intrigued by horses came from a stay in Norway, when walking by horses on trips between school and home.

So when the family moved to Armidale in New South Wales, she got on very well with her neighbour who rode dressage and started taking lessons from her dressage coach.

In addition to having a bachelor of environment engineering she also holds a bachelor of science.

In 2024 Thaisa finally made her long awaited Olympic debut, riding with Hialita B, she competed in both the individual and team jumping events, finishing in 51st and 15th place respectively.

She made Australian history at Paris 2024, when she rode in an all female jumping team with Edwina Tops-Alexander and Hilary Scott.