Mark Phillips to quit US eventing in 2012

The year will mark 20 years of service to US Eventing, and Phillips has announced his retirement to "give someone else the opportunity to put their stamp on the program."

In October 2008 Phillips renewed his four-year contract with US Eventing. At the time, he said: "Over the next four years I will work to refine the training program for our top riders and put significantly more effort into reaching out to new or future talent in our Development Program. We have exciting times ahead."

To date, Phillips has led the Eventing Team to 23 Team and Individual medals during his time at the helm of the program. Highlights include Team Silver and Individual Bronze at the 1996 Olympic Games, Team Bronze and Individual Gold at the 2000 Olympic Games, Team Bronze and Individual Silver at the 2004 Olympic Games and Individual Silver at the 2008 Olympic Games. His teams also won Team Gold at the Pan American Games in 1999, 2003 and 2007 and Team Gold at the 2002 World Equestrian Games.

The process for identifying Phillips' successor has begun, and the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) will announce the members of the Search Committee in the near future. The search committee will include athletes, committee members and experts in Equestrian sport.

The search committee's initial responsibility will be to develop a job description and timeline to integrate the new person into the eventing program to insure that our athlete's access to world class coaching is not interrupted.