Jessica Springsteen goes to Bruce and E Street Band show at Wembley instead of Olympics
She couldn’t compete in the Olympics, but equestrian jumper Jessica Springsteen did the next best thing on Saturday.
Or maybe the first best thing: She attended the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert her dad was performing at Wembley Stadium in London. There, Jessica saw a surprise guest − mom Patti Scialfa, who sang the duet “Tougher Than the Rest” with her father in front of 80,000 people in the audience.
Jessica posted a snippet of the performance on her Instagram story with a heart emoji. She also posted a shot of Bruce center stage performing the classic “Thunder Road” at the June 27 show.
Jessica, a 32-year old Colts Neck native, did not qualify for the U.S. Equestrian Jumping Team competing in the 2024 Olympic Games, currently underway in Paris. She won a silver medal in Team Jumping at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were held in 2021 due to the pandemic.
Mom Patti is an E Street Band member who’s been largely absent from the current tour. Her last appearance with the band were the April 4 and 7 shows at the Forum in Los Angeles.
“‘Tougher’ was really moving,” commented a fan on social media. “Patti was visibly emotional.”
The Wembley show on Saturday was the second of two nights at the venue, following the Thursday, July 25 concert. The E Street Band will take a several-week hiatus and resume touring Aug. 15 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
“What a way to finish off the European portion of the 2024 tour! London was absolutely shaking last night, and quite the show we put on! Wembley, what a memorable experience,” band member Anthony Almonte wrote on Instagram on Sunday. “All of the shows in Europe have truly been special, what a summer it has been!!”
Inside Bruce Springsteen’s daughter’s heartbreak as she fails to qualify for the Olympics
Jessica Springsteen, the daughter of singer Bruce Springsteen, is an accomplished equestrian rider, but failed to make the Olympics team this year after winning silver last Olympics
Bruce Springsteen’s daughter, Jessica Springsteen, was unable to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics after taking home the silver for the United States in the 2021 Olympics.
The equestrian rider, 32, competed in her first Olympics in Tokyo three years ago, and was hoping to travel to Paris with Team USA this summer. But earlier this month, the equestrian roster was released and included Kent Farrington, Laura Kraut, McLain Ward, and Karl Cook as an alternate – leaving Jessica off of Team USA.
She was previously included on a shortlist made up of 10 riders, but ultimately did not make the final roster. According to NJ.com, Bruce included a two-week break in his tour next month so he could go watch Jessica compete in Paris.
Her omission might have to do with her current world ranking. Jessica was 14th in the world when she competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Now she’s ranked 127th.
While she was in Tokyo, she rode a 12-year-old Belgian warmblood horse and scored the silver medal in jumping, Team USA’s fourth equestrian team jumping medal out of the last five Olympic games. Back in May, she spoke to Harper’s Bazaar about her time competing in Tokyo.
“Tokyo 2020 was such an incredible experience, but because of that year and all the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, you know, you couldn’t have your family and your friends there,” she said.
Jessica added that she hoped to qualify for the Paris Olympics. “So I was like, ‘oh my gosh, I would love to go to another Olympics and be able to share that with my family, who’ve been so supportive of my career for so many years,'” she added.
“There really is no other sport like it, and I think the connection you develop with the horses is something really special,” Jessica continued, “That’s what has drawn me to it since I was little, and that is what I still love the most about it: how in sync you can be with your horse. Once you’ve created that partnership, the horses can read what you are thinking before you even ask them to do it.”
The only daughter of Bruce and his wife Patti started riding when she was four years old when she grew up on her family’s 368-acre Stone Hill Farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey. She’s the couple’s middle child, born between her brothers Evan and Samuel.
