Yvonne Losos de Muñiz (born 8 September 1967 in

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

) is a Nigeria-born

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

Olympic athlete and international Grand Prix

dressage Dressage ( or ; a French term, most commonly translated to mean "training") is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrian sport defined b ...

rider that represents the

. She belongs to the elite Dominican Olympic athlete program CRESO.

Career

She won the individual bronze medal at the

2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a major continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of 5,633 athletes from 42 National Olympic Com ...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, riding her approved Hannoverian stallion Bernstein. With that medal she repeated her performance from the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the games was made in the mid-1990s, when Dominican Republic had one of the highest growth rates in Latin America. Al ...

held in her home country, where she also obtained the individual bronze medal riding a different mount, a Dutch mare named Inatana. Prior to her Pan Am medals, Losos de Muñiz also won double individual gold and a team bronze medal at the 2002 Central American Games in

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. In 2010 she added two individual silver medals to her collection at the Central American and Caribbean Games which took place in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. In 2010, she also qualified for the World Equestrian Games (WEG) with her Austrian Warmblood Optimus Prime. In addition to her twelve championship medals, she has also obtained numerous wins in Grand Prix and Small Tour at prestigious international events held in

West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. The populati ...

, the Sunshine Tour (Spain), France and Germany. She has trained with riding master Jean Bemelmans, who also coached the Spanish Olympic team, as well as Harry Boldt from Germany, Jeff Ashton Moore from the USA, Carl Hester from England, Diederik Wigmans from the Netherlands, Ton de Ridder from Germany, Jose Antonio Garcia Mena from Spain, Andreas Helgstrand from Denmark and her current coach Kathy Priest from the United States. Losos de Muñiz competed at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, becoming the first Dominican equestrian athlete to participate at the Olympic Games. She was also a competitor at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, which took place in the summer of 2021. She placed 22nd out of 60 participants in the final individual results, scoring a 70.8% in the Grand Prix. Following a winning streak at a number of international events in Wellington, Florida during the 2018 Adequan Global Dressage Festival, she qualified-together with her Belgian warmblood gelding Foco Loco W-for the single individual slot available to non-league nations for the FEI Dressage World Cup Final held in Paris, France. Her participation in the event marked the first time a rider from the Central America and the Caribbean competed in the global event. In July 2018, she won two individual gold medals at the Central American and Caribbean Games held in Colombia, and also won a team a team silver as the anchor rider for the Dominican Republic national team. At the event she rode Fredensdals Zig Zag, a Danish warmblood owned by Kathy Priest. 210728190 ABFa4

Although she had qualified for the 2018 World Equestrian Games with two horses, a shoulder injury prevented her from participating, forcing a two-month layoff from riding altogether. In 2019 she competed in the FEI Dressage World Cup Final held in Gothenburg, Sweden, and qualified as an individual for the 2020 Olympic Games, postponed to 2021. In 2019 she also participated in the Pan American Games held in Lima, Peru, where she finished fourth in the individual final. She continued her competitive performances during 2020, when she won the individual silver medal with her mare Aquamarijn at the FEI Nations Cup held in Wellington, Florida. In 2023 she won two individual gold medals at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games held in her hometown of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. During the winter show season, she competes in the dressage shows held in

Wellington, Florida Wellington is a village just west of West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County and north of Miami. As of 2019, the city had a population of 65,398 according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, making it the most populous village in the state. It is the ...

.Profile
/ref> During the spring and summer she competes regularly in the European circuit. She is consistently ranked in the top 100 in the FEI World Dressage Rankings, the only Latin American rider to achieve this, and has ranked as high as 27th. In September 2020, she received the prestigious Gold Medal Badge of Honor from the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), as a recognition of her multiple participations at Olympic Games, Continental Championships, World Cup Finals and Nations Cups, becoming the first dressage athlete from Latin America to receive this distinction. In April 2022, she took part in her third FEI Dressage World Cup Finals in Leipzig, Germany, where she placed tenth overall, the best historic result for any Latin American rider. As a trainer, she has coached numerous riders from Latin America and Europe to top performances at international events and continental championships, and two of her students, Virginia Yarur from Chile and Patricia Ferrando from Venezuela, were in the qualified short list for the 2021 Olympic Games. Yarur went on to qualify as an individual for the Tokyo Games, where she successfully represented Chile and became the first Olympic dressage rider from that nation in over fifty years. Yvonne and Foco

Yvonne is the dressage athletes' representative at the FEI Dressage Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Dressage Riders Club (IDRC), as well as a USDF Gold, Silver and Bronze medalist.

Personal life

Losos de Muñiz was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, to Dr. George Losos, a Polish pathologist, and his wife Gudrun, originally from Germany. She was raised in Uganda and

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. She began riding as a teenager in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

before subsequently moving to Canada. In Canada, the family acquired Canadian citizenship. She lives in the Dominican Republic since 1990 with her Dominican-born husband; she acquired the Dominican nationality by marriage. She speaks English, German, Spanish, and Swahili.

References

External links