On Friday, July 16, Chiacchia heard his name called when United States Equestrian Team officials announced the five Team members who will form the contingent contesting the equestrian discipline of Eventing at the 2004 Olympic Games.

“We felt we were in a good position, but until they read your name, you just never know,” said an elated Chiacchia, 39, who lives and trains in Springville, NY. “I am very excited, and really look forward to this trip. Windfall feels great, this horse just continues to get better and better.”

Chiacchia will be partnered with Windfall II, an 11-year-old black Trakehner stallion that was imported from Germany in 2000 and is owned by Timothy Holekamp. In 2003, the pair topped a 90-horse starting field to win the 2003 United States Equestrian Team (USET) Three-Star Spring Championship title before earning the Individual Gold Medal at the 2003 Pan American Championships. This April, Chiacchia and Windfall II won the Bayer Modified Four Star division, modeled after the revised format that the athletes will face in Athens, of the 2004 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Olympic Team is gathered at in Gladstone, New Jersey, site of the historic United States Equestrian Team headquarters. The horses will travel to England on Sunday, July 18, while the riders will fly on Monday, July 19, where they will be based with United States Eventing Team Coach, Captain Mark Phillips, at his Aston Farm. There, they will train and have options for competing before moving to Athens on August 10.

“Each horse-rider combination will have a program that is best suited to them, the goal being to do what is necessary to help us perform to the best of our ability in Athens,” noted Chiacchia, who was the traveling alternate for the 2000 Olympic Games and successfully represented the United States as an individual at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain. “We will have the option to going to one or two competitions, even if we only contest the dressage or show jumping phases.”

The current World Champion title-holders, the United States Eventing Team travels to Athens as strong medal favorites. Eventing is the first portion of the equestrian events to take place and will be held August 15-18. Similar to a triathlon, eventing consists of three unique phases of competition – dressage, cross-country and show jumping – held over three consecutive days and completed by the same horse-rider combination. At the 2004 Olympic Games, teams are comprised of five team members with the three best performances counting towards the final score. Individual medals will be decided by a second show jumping round.

Chiacchia operates Independence Farm with training facilities in Ocala, FL, and Springville, NY, just outside of Buffalo. In addition to overseeing one of the country’s top breeding, training and sales barns, Chiacchia is committed to the improvement of the sport and volunteers his expertise as the Chair of the USEA’s Events Rating Task Force, the USEA’s Area Rider Representative Committee and is also actively involved with the USEA’s Instructors Certification Program (ICP). As one of four ICP-certified instructors and faculty members, Chiacchia has been extremely successful working with the next generation of three day eventing riders, coaching talented junior and young riders to numerous victories.

Chiacchia’s impressive international career has garnered him support from such major sponsors as Purina Mills, Merial (GastroGard), FarmVet.com, Sundowner horse trailers, Tally Ho Ltd. riding apparel, Charles Owen, Antares custom saddles, Equuskreen flyspray, NowPac, and Buffalo Games.