Her Olympic dreams ended when lightning spooked her million-dollar horse, lawsuit says

An equestrian set to represent Norway in the Olympics said her career ended abruptly when her million-dollar horse was spooked by lightning and fell on her during a competition in North Carolina.

Eirin Bruheim suffered "catastrophic" brain injuries and hasn't been able to compete since that day in July 2015 at Tryon International Equestrian Center in Tryon, according to a lawsuit she filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Asheville. The center is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 80 miles west of uptown Charlotte.

Organizers should have delayed the event until the storms passed, but the jumping competition continued, the lawsuit filed by Raleigh lawyer Gary Rickner says.

Sharon Decker, the center's chief operating officer, said center officials will not comment about the case, because of the litigation.

When her panicked horse rolled over her, Bruheim had already joined the Norwegian national team and was preparing to help Norway qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, according to the lawsuit. Norway is her home country.

Bruheim is a U.S.-based equestrian who lives near Houston, Texas. She "was well on her way to becoming, if she was not already, an international equestrian jumping star," her lawsuit says.

In 2010, at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, Bruheim, then 18, was the only show jumper representing the United States to qualify for the Games, according to the lawsuit.

The day she was hurt, the lawsuit says, Bruheim had entered the U.S. Equestrian Federation's "Premier-rated Level 5 jumping competition" at the center. After the Tryon event, she planned to enter competitions at the Spruce Meadows equestrian venue in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and the Old Salem Horse Show in New York before traveling to Europe to show in the Global Champions Tour, her lawsuit says.

More than halfway through the round of competition at Tryon, "a combination of lightning, thunder, rain, and wind hit near and inside the arena," according to the lawsuit. The bad weather caused her horse "to spook and react suddenly and uncharacteristically during the technical aspect of the round and topple into the next jump and fall and roll over" Bruheim.

"Bruheim's "head and brain injuries were, and continue to be, tragically severe and forever life-changing," the lawsuit says. "And they do not cover her emotional and psychological injuries, including mental anguish, depression, anxiety and panic attacks."

Because of their "physical and psychological injuries," Bruheim and her horse, "N1F Favorite," were never able to compete again, the lawsuit contends.

Bruheim seeks at least $75,000 in damages from Tryon Horse Shows LLC, Tryon Showgrounds LLC and the managers of the LLCs, Mark Bellissimo and Roger Smith.

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 2:33 PM.