Japanese Dressage rider Hiroshi Hoketsu, 71, rode at Greenwich Park today a remarkable 48 years after he made his Games debut as a showjumper in Tokyo.
Swedish shooter Oscar Swahn is the oldest competitor in Olympic history, having taken part in the 1920 Games, aged 72.
But Hoketsu, who is based in Germany, does not feel he will be in a position to break Swahn's record at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
'I want to go to Brazil, but I don't think I can,' he said, after scoring 68.73 penalties on Whisper in front of a capacity 23,000 crowd.
'It will be difficult to find a horse for Rio de Janeiro. My present horse is too old for that.
'The biggest motivation for me is to keep feeling that I am improving. If I feel I am getting worse than before, then I will stop.'
Hoketsu's Olympic career also saw him quality for the 1988 Games in Seoul, but he was unable to compete because his horse was quarantined.
However, he performed in Hong Kong four years ago, finishing 35th as an individual.
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