Team Great Britain 2012 Olympic jumping gold medalists Scott Brash, chef d'equipe Rob Hoekstra, Ben Maher, Nick Skelton, and Peter Charles. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

All the complaints–about cost, ticket availability, traffic hassles, and more–evaporated in an instant when Great Britain’s Peter Charles and Vindicat brought it home in the team gold medal jump-off.

Their fault-free, under-time round secured the Olympic team jumping gold medal for Great Britain, the first for these Games’ host country since 1952. 

The largely British capacity crowd of 22,000 erupted with the biggest display of cheering yet at the Olympic equestrian stadium in Greenwich Park. The entire audience was a sea of madly waving Union Jacks, and the roar was so deafening that the announcer had to shout to be overheard.

Joining Charles on the gold-medal podium were teammates Ben Maher (Tripple X), Scott Brash (Hello Sanctos), and Nick Skelton (Big Star). Team GB secured the gold after a battle with the Netherlands (Jur Vrieling/Bubalu, Maikel van der Vleuten/Verdi, Marc Houtzager/Tamino, and Gerco Schroder/London), which had to content itself with silver.

Of the go