When is Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Jessica competing in equestrian jumping at Tokyo Olympics?

Jessica Springsteen part of Team USA’s show jumping team

She is the daughter of rock and roll royalty.

Now Jessica Springsteen, the daughter of legendary musician Bruce Springsteen and fellow E Street Band member Patti Scialfa, is aiming for Olympic gold.

Springsteen, who is ranked the third best show jumper in the US and 27th in the world, has her eyes on achieving glory in Tokyo.

While her parents were touring the world, Springsteen, 29, grew up in New Jersey, a state lionised in many of her father’s biggest hits.

The family own 368-acre Stoen Hill farm in Colts Neck, where they had horses, goats, pigs, chickens and ostriches, and it was there she says she fell in love with horses and learned to ride.

“I started riding when I was really little. My mom had always wanted to ride so when we moved to New Jersey she started taking lessons,” she said.

“Our home is right across the road from one of the top junior training barns – and I went right into that when I was a teenager.”

After graduating  from the Ranney School in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, she went to Duke University in North Carolina, where she graduated with a degree in psychology.

During her equestrian career she has earned nearly $2m, and her parents have been supportive of her work, helping raise money for the US equestrian team with concerts and auctions.

She was a back-up for the 2012 Olympics but missed out entirely on the 2016 games.

“Been dreaming of this since I can remember,” she wrote on Instagram after being chosen for the 2020 team.

She is joined on the team by Kent Farrington, Laura Kraut and McLain Ward, and will ride her horse, 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood stallion Don Juan van de Donkhoeve,

Her famous father will not be able to watch his daughter in person, but he also does not have a conflicting schedule as Springsteen on Broadway is on a break from 17 July to 17 August.

Springsteen has been in a relationship with Italian show jumper Lorenzo de Luca since June 2018, after she broke up with Argentinian polo player Nic Roldan.

She has represented the United States in international competition on FEI Nations Cup teams, winning events in Florida in 2020, Ireland in 2014 and at the 2018 FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final in Barcelona, Spain.

Springsteen and the US team qualified to bring four riders and horses to Tokyo, but unlike previous Olympics only three can compete in the individual and team events.

The individual jumping takes place on 3 August and 4 August, and the team jumping will be on 6 August and 7 August.

In each event the horse and rider must navigate a course fo 12 to 14 obstacles that range in height from 4ft7 to 5ft4.

All of the team’s horses were transported to Japan onboard specially designed equestrian cargo planes.

The horses are placed in their individual stalls, which are then raised and loaded into the plane, where grooms and vets monitor and look after them during flight.

The pilots flying the planes make the takeoff and landing more gradual to make the horses more comfortable.