Princess Anne is a “trooper,” royal commentator Michael Cole has claimed after the Princess Royal made a triumphant return to the Olympics just months after “having her brain shaken up”.
The daughter of the late Queen left fans overjoyed when she made an appearance and awarded GB swimmer Adam Peaty his silver medal.
This comes just weeks after she was rushed to hospital with a head injury after being kicked by a horse.
Speaking about her return, Michael Cole told GB News: “She’s a trooper. She’s 73 at the moment, and she was an Olympian herself.
Timothy Laurence and Princess Anne are enjoying the Paris OlympicsPA“She competed at the Montreal Olympics, which I think was in 1986, and she fell off a horse and she was quite badly injured, but she got up and got back on.
“She also had a similar experience at the World Championships in Kiev.
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He added: “I think that it gave the late Queen a tremendous amount of pleasure to see her daughter following in the equestrian footsteps of many other members of the Royal Family.
“It was only June 24 that she had this accident at her estate in Gloucestershire. We don’t know how it happened, because she says that she has no recollection of it.
“She certainly collided with a horse and she sustained a concussion. Now, concussion is never a trivial matter. It’s a serious matter.
“Your skull gets you beaten up and your brain gets shaken up. She was in the hospital for four or five nights.
“She came out and she said to people she was walking around her estate and a horse and she came into collision. But she’s back there doing her job.”
Talking about the princess’s personality he added: “People warm to her. You know, they accept that she’s very much her father’s daughter.
“She’s very plain-spoken. She doesn’t put up with idiots.”
The Princess Royal, a former Olympian herself, is in the French capital for the 142nd International Olympic Committee (IOC) session, which is convening to select the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics.
Princess Anne is a skilled equestrian having taken part in the 1976 OlympicsPABoth Zara Tindall and her brother, Peter Phillips, were on the estate when Anne was injured, though it is not known who raised the alarm.
And during her stay in hospital, it emerged that Anne would only listen to three family members in a sensational reveal by a medical worker who treated her Aberdeen Royal Infirmary when she sustained a chest infection in 2016.
“The best advice is to keep her husband, Sir Tim Laurence, or one of the children [Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall] on hand… They’re the only people who can tell her to behave,” the staff member told the Daily Mail.
Timothy Laurence and Princess Anne are enjoying the Paris OlympicsPA
Princess Anne is a skilled equestrian having taken part in the 1976 OlympicsPA
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