Just months away from the 2024 Paris Olympics, Janakabhorn ‘Dlite’ Karunayadhaj's world flipped – quite literally, leaving her fighting for success on all fronts.
As Thailand’s first-ever show jumper to qualify for the Olympics, Paris 2024 was a dream in waiting for Janakabhorn ‘Dlite’ Karunayadhaj. However, her journey leading up to this life-defining chance was anything but an easy canter.
Thailand isn’t an equestrian powerhouse, and Dlite’s career has always required more than just talent. Difficulties with sponsorship and training facilities created hurdles from the get-go. But with determination and a strong spirit, despite it all, she made it there.
A road less trodden
When I met Dlite at Niran’s Farm and equestrian centre, it was a cloudy day. As we talked, she would often look over at the horses as they went by outside when she thought, pondered and finally answered my questions. There was a nervousness and tension as she spoke, a difficulty in going back to those painful times, but she told me what she could.
‘I’ve always known I wasn’t just riding for myself,’ she said. ‘There’s a whole country watching. That’s pressure, but it’s also purpose.’
Born in Thailand and raised in rural France, Dlite's love for horses came early. However, competitive training didn’t begin until she was 14, when long-time coach, friend and ex-international show jumper Dermott Lennon saw her potential and encouraged her to go all in.
From there, it was all fences forward. Never expecting to make the Olympics, with each competition her confidence grew until her Olympic goal came into focus, and the years that followed were defined by a hardy grit trained in the paddock.
Dlite was ecstatic when she qualified to become the first-ever Thai Olympic show jumper. To represent herself and her country was no mean feat. But soon after, life would take a turn that only the strongest could pull back from.
When the fall came
It was March 2024, months before the Paris Olympics, and Dlite was picking up speed in the saddle of her long-time equine partner, Delilah. They took a jump they had made a hundred times before. As the seconds passed slowly mid-air, the horse missed a rung, flipped and lost control before landing with a thud, breaking its leg and Dlite’s ankle as they both hit the ground. Hard.
The result: a shattered ankle, a put-down horse and a long road to recovery. ‘It was my first fall in five years,’ she says. ‘And it came at the worst possible time.’
It was the sort of injury a lesser athlete wouldn’t recover from, especially when the trauma is so encompassing, from personal injury to the emotion of losing her equine partner. But with the promise (or perhaps pressure) of being the first-ever Thai showjumper at the Olympics, there was only space for determination in her mind.
Prior to the tumble, Dlite had been in the best form of her life, with a hot streak of shows in the run-up. In the 35 jump events leading up to the fall, against oftentimes over 30 international competitors, she placed in the top five 14 times, seven of which saw her take the podium.
This run qualified her for the Olympics, but sadly the freak fall in March left her sidelined until July, just a month before she had to make her way to Paris.
‘There were moments I thought about quitting. Everything was heavy. My body, my thoughts, the noise online. I had to disappear for a while to find my ‘why’ again.’
Over the months of March, June and July, she worked with mental performance coaches, leaning on friends, family and her close team. In particular, she leaned on her mother, a cancer survivor whose quiet resilience taught her that progress isn’t always visible. She began to let go of perfection and focus on her luck.
‘Jumping at the Olympics was unlike anything else, she said. ‘It’s not like a five-star Grand Prix. The Olympics is every athlete’s dream. And the horses feel it too.’
The Olympic pressure
Delilah was irreplaceable, but Dlite had to keep moving, learning to ride new horses with a fresh mindset. ‘It’s not about the perfect fit. It’s about putting in the time and learning how they think. How they trust.’ And she seemed to have built this trust with her affectionately named ‘wife’ horse, Tina.
Following the fall, her days were sharply regimented: riding sessions post-lunch were dedicated to spending time building fluency and connection with each horse. ‘You have to work smart. Small goals build big things.’ But at the Olympics, you need to be ready for all unknowns, and that pressure can all become a bit much for a first-timer with little build-up to the tournament.
However, it wasn’t Dlite who couldn’t keep her cool, but her partner in the two-man event, her mare Tina, who, feeling the weight of expectation and the unrivalled Olympic pressure, started to lose control.
Sadly, this led to the implementation of a new rule which allows the President of the Ground Jury to eliminate a horse-rider pairing from the competition in the interest of the rider’s safety, leading to an early exit from the Olympics for Dlite.
Following the Olympics, the plight seemed to continue, a fall in December during a warm-up, which fortunately she was able to ride through; however, unfortunately, the fall in her last event in February retired her from the event, and for the months ahead.
Now April, after gruelling recalibration, rehab and raw emotional work, Dlite is returning to the ring – once again. Her comeback is set for May 19, and this time she’s not just competing for herself. She’s chasing clarity, redemption and the opportunity to remind the world that this Thai showjumper is amongst the best of the best on the International stage.
‘What comes easy never stays,’ she says. ‘But what you work hard for, no one can take away.’
For the opportunity to try to learn to ride or even jump horses with world-class facilities, find out more information at Niran Farm and Equestrian Centre Phuket, located in the Sri Sunthon area.