Ingamay Bylund, Swedish Olympic Team Medal Winner, Passed Away

Dressage

Sweden

Ingamay Bylund, a 1984 Olympic dressage team medal winner, has passed away on 11 November 2025. She was 78 years old.

Ingamay was born on 25 September 1947 in Skog, Söderhamn (SWE)

Aleks

Bylund made her name with her wonder horse Aleks, a 1974 born Danish warmblood by Aleksander x Dan Senator, bred by Niels Nörgård. She purchased Aleks from a horse dealer from Jönköping and picked him because she had another Aleksander offspring she liked.

He proved to be very girthy and spooky and on her first ride at home he threw her off. "He was really tense when I mounted him. You had to pat him and talk to him until he released the worst of his tension," she told Ridsport in 2023. "I learned to always walk forward half an hour before I started working; I really clocked it, otherwise it didn't go well. It took a while before I figured it out, there are many things you have to learn together with the horses. He was very special and didn't like men or tight spaces."

Bylund remembered that the horse was better scored at CDI's abroad than in Sweden.

"When we started competing in the Prix St. Georg and Intermediate, I got a lot of criticism because he lifted his knees (higher)," Bylund reminisced. "Horses didn’t do that at the time, they had straight legs and “Schwedengang”. But the judges abroad liked him, and when I then competed in Sweden, the Swedish judges raised his qualities. It was fun that there was a change, I took the criticism a little badly."

Olympic Medal Winner

The duo was a fixed member of the Swedish team at all major championships between 1982 and 1987. At the 1982 World Championships in Lausanne they were 30th in the Grand Prix (out of 44).

Bylund made it on the Swedish Olympic team in 1984 for the Games in Los Angeles, alongside Ulla Håkansson (on Flamingo) and Louise Nathhorst (on Inferno). It was the last Olympic medal Sweden won in dressage. Individually the pair landed just off the podium, in fourth place behind Klimke, Tornblad, and Hofer.

She remembered how hot the conditions were at the Olympic venue, the Santa Anita race track, where the 2028 Games are scheduled to take place.

"We landed in Los Angeles where it was 40 degrees," she told Ridsport. "The competitions were held at the Santa Anita racetrack, the race horses were moved out because it was so hot – but they take Olympic horses in. We were lucky, we arrived quite late, the longer the horses were there the tougher they became. I'm not so sure you should leave early for the horses to acclimatize."

Swedish Team Rider

They returned on the team at the 1986 World Championships in Cedar Valley, where Sweden did not have a team. They were 14th in the Grand Prix and only 12 riders were ranked individually. It was believed at the time that the Swedish horses’ performance was influenced by their first days in Canada after they reacted to the chloride water with diarrhea and swollen legs. Swedish team trainer Georg-Otto Heyser provided the solution by hydrating the horses with apple juice mixed with water.

Bylund's last team ride was at the 1987 European Championships in Goodwood, where she was 22nd in the Grand Prix (out of 31). Sweden placed fifth as a team.

Aleks' competition career ended due to an injury from kicking against the wall while being fed. He was retired to the field and lived to turn 30. On Christmas eve in 2004 he lied down in his stall and could not longer get up. He was put to sleep.

Bylund became a highly decorated national champion winning gold twice, silver twice and once bronze at the Swedish Dressage Championships.

Legacy

Bylund at the 2023 CDIO Falsterbo
(Photo © Anna Nyberg)

Bylund was the founder of the "Dressyrgymnasium" in Tranås, where riders such as Sigrid Bergakra and Patrik Kittel started their career.

In early October, Bylund sought medical attention after contracting COVID-19. Expressen wrote that in the hospital it was discovered she had also suffered from a heart attack and a lung clot, as well as sustained extensive brain damage.

Her daughter Lina Liljestam announced the passing of her mother. ""With deep sadness and infinite loss, I want to tell you that Ingamay has left us today. A beloved mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and friend - and an icon in Swedish equestrian sports. The only comfort in her grief is the thought that she has now been reunited with her greatest love, the horse Aleks, her faithful companion and Olympic partner in Los Angeles 1984."

The Swedish equestrian federation wrote, "she was a pioneer and a role model for generations of riders. Ingamay was not only a champion on the competition arena, but also an inspiring person and valued trainer who played a major role in prominent riders."

Bylund leaves behind her daughter Lina and three grandchildren.