Edwina Tops-Alexander

Edwina Tops-Alexander is known as one of Australia's leading showjumpers and one of the highest-ranked female riders in the world. Her journey into the equestrian world was sparked by her neighbours, they owned a barn and would ride their horses on the weekend.

This caught Edwina’s interest and by eight-years-old she was riding in her local pony club.

Growing up in the north shore in Sydney, Edwina attended Pymble Ladies College which instilled a solid education for her. However, her family always supported and believed in her riding and gave her every opportunity to further her career.

Once her competition career had started, it was clear that Edwina was destined for great things from her first forays in the sport. Her young career saw her win the coveted Australian Young Rider Championship in 1995.

In 1998, only three years after winning the highest honours available to a young Australian rider, Edwina decided to move halfway around the world to Europe. She began working and competing for the Belgian rider Ludo Phillippaerts. After several years of working with Ludo, and competing against world-class riders, she decided to branch out and work on her own.

At the 2006 Aachen World Equestrian Games, Edwina’s career took off when she became the Australian first rider to qualify for the jumping final, narrowly missing a medal and finishing fourth. Edwina also won the overall ranking at both the 2011 and 2012 Global Champions Tour (LGCT).

She has represented Australia at the Olympics on four occasions, at Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020. She has accumulated two top 10 placings from her Olympics appearances.

Another remarkable achievement held by Edwina was becoming the first rider to win more than €1 million in prize money on the LGCT circuit, and in 2018 she won the first-ever Super Grand Prix worth over €2 million in prizemoney.

In July 2023, Edwina, riding 14-year-old gelding Fellow Castlefield, was part of the Australian team that nailed down a place at the Paris Olympics by winning a qualification event in Valkenswaard, the Netherlands.

The Australian team – Edwina, Lauren Balcomb, Christopher Burton, Hillary Scott and Thaisa Erwin – went into the second round in the lead with seven penalties. They added 16 penalties in the second round for a total of 23, ahead of Japan on 23, New Zealand 46 and China 59.

Since then Edwina has shown strong form on the Global Champions Tour, starring at a Grand Prix event in Doha on bay stallion Corelli de Mies.

She now balances her career, motherhood and designing and creating fine jewellery inspired by her now-retired favourite horse, chestnut gelding Itot du Chateau, also known as Toti.