Paris 2024: French Para equestrian Chiara Zenati on finding her place in the world

At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, one of the youngest competitors in Para equestrian was 18-year-old Chiara Zenati. The French rider was still relatively new to high-level competition, but after winning two French championships and then impressing in her first international competitions, she got the call-up for the Paralympic Games.

The selection was unexpected. It came less than two years after Zenati had started training in Saumur at the ‘Cadre Noir’ stables, aiming for Paris 2024.

“I wasn’t expecting to go to the Games in Tokyo, because I started in 2019 at the Cadre Noir,” explains Zenati. “The partnership with my horse – he’s called Swing Royal – wasn’t ready to begin with to go to the Games.”

But she scored highly in competitions and received a call in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic with an invitation to compete in Tokyo in 2021.

“I thought it was a dream. I’d only done two competitions, and I was going to the Games,” Zenati said.

Dreaming big in Paris

The experience competing at her first Paralympics was good, but not without its trials.   

“It was difficult because it was my first trip far from my family. Then there was the time difference, we had an eight-hour time difference, so it was quite challenging,” Zenati says, but she adds: “Besides that it felt like a normal competition, I did my job and we were able to show what we were capable of.” 

She finished fifth in the Championship Grade III dressage event, and eighth in the freestyle event. Now, with Paris 2024 just ahead, Zenati is eyeing up better results.  

“My greatest dream for Paris is to bring home a medal, or two medals – for me, for my family, for the people who have supported me for four years and more, who believe in me. I want to show them that I’m here, I’ve achieved my objectives and we’ve done it,” she says.  

However, Zenati is not unaware that Paris will be different from Tokyo. 

“The fact that the Games are in France, that creates a little bit more pressure than if they were elsewhere, because there will be lots of people, lots of people I know,” said Zenati, who has paralysis in the right side of her body. 

Zenati's journey to the Paralympic Games began when she was six and she joined a pony club in Courneuve, near Paris. Her coach, Brigitte Rinaldi, was keen to promote Para sport and encouraged Zenati to start Para equestrian when she was 14, with the support of the French Equestrian Federation.  

She won her first French championships in 2018, still aged only 15. 

Finding her place with Para equestrian

Like other Para equestrian athletes, Zenati rides with modified equipment – a special bridle to help her grip, and equipment that keeps her right foot in contact. 

“My greatest challenge is to show that I can do things like an able-bodied person, that even if you have a disability, you can do the same things, just differently, regardless of the disability. We can do the same things as you, it takes a bit longer, or we go quicker by finding another way,” Zenati says, explaining her approach to her impairment.  

She says Para equestrian has helped her find her place in the world. 

“I didn’t find it easy to fit in, I felt a bit like I was put to one side, but in Para dressage people take you as you are. Your disability doesn’t matter, nobody puts a limit on you.” 

That acceptance, she says, extends to the horses she rides. 

“What I love most in this sport is having contact with animals, because they don’t judge us by our appearance, whether you’re disabled, or old, or young. They take you as you are,” Zenati explains.  

The connection she has with her horse, Swing-Royal, is key.  

“The link with the horse is important. You have to know your horse by heart for a competition, for me to manage his stress and for him to manage my stress. We manage our stress together,” she laughs.  

In the run-up to Paris 2024, Zenati has been training daily at the Cadre Noir stables, both in terms of preparing her routine with Swing-Royal and in terms of physical training.  

She is excited about the competition ahead, not least because the dressage event will take place in the iconic gardens of the Palace of Versailles. And a medal or two would be the icing on the cake for someone who is still right at the start of her equestrian career.  

Zenati’s message for young riders in her position is simple: “Believe that your dreams can come true, because if you have a goal that you really want, go right to the end. There are obstacles you have to get over, but if you want it, you can do it.” 

Discover more about goalball and the 22 sports in the Paris 2024 Paralympic sports programme 

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