Uma O'Neill (born 23 March 1995) is a professional show jumper and Olympic veteran representing New Zealand.

Personal life

Born in Hawaii, O'Neill moved to

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...

when she was 12 years old and continues to base her equine development and sales business out of the area. She has held dual American and New Zealand citizenship since infancy, a nod to her father's heritage. O'Neill competed for the United States through her junior and amateur riding career before formally switching nationalities to represent New Zealand in 2019. O'Neill's mother Shawne was a professional windsurfer, and her grandfather

Jack O'Neill Jonathan J. "Jack" O'Neill is a fictional character in the MGM's military science fiction franchise ''Stargate'', primarily as one of the main characters of the television series ''Stargate SG-1''. Richard Dean Anderson played O'Neill in all th ...

founded the popular surf wear company,

O'Neill (brand) O'Neill is originally a Californian surf wear and surfboard brand started in 1952 by Jack O'Neill. It moved down the coast from San Francisco to Santa Cruz by the end of the decade. Jack is credited to have invented the wetsuit, his son Pat the ...

, which remains in the O'Neill family.

Career

O'Neill competed in the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships (now the North American Youth Championships) and the United States' U25 National Championships before progressing to the senior level of show jumping sport. In 2018, she and her longtime mount Clockwise of Greenhill Z produced the only clear effort to win the CSI4*-W Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Vancouver (CAN). She represented New Zealand for the first time in team competition in the FEI Nations Cup at CSIO3* Drammen (NOR). In 2021, O'Neill was selected to represent her country at the

Tokyo Olympic Games Tokyo Olympics may refer to: * 1940 Summer Olympics * 1964 Summer Olympics * 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021) See also

* Tokyo bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics * Tokyo Paralympics (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

. Again with Clockwise of Greenhill Z, she made her Olympic debut in individual competition. She remains a top candidate to represent her nation at upcoming Championships as she trains out of O'Neill Show Jumping in Santa Cruz, working to develop a strong string of competition and sales horses.

References

Living people 1995 births New Zealand female equestrians New Zealand event riders Equestrians at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic equestrians of New Zealand {{NewZealand-equestrian-bio-stub