VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Paralympic Star Beatrice Lalvette On Losing Her Legs In A Suicide Bombing & Finding Salvation In Sports

A victim of the 2016 suicide bombings at Brussels’ main airport 2016, which killed 32 people, U.S. equestrian Paralympic star Beatrice Lalvette spoke to uInterview exclusively about her journey.

The Paralympic Games, a series of international, multi-sport events for athletes with disabilities, recently concluded in Paris following the Olympics. Lalvette, alongside her horse Clarc, was a member of the US Para-Dressage Team for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and 2024 Paris Games.

Lalvette remembered the traumatic experience that changed her life. “I was standing literally right next to the first bomber at the Brussels airport when the bombs went off in 2016,” she said. “And I, unfortunately, was very badly injured – the worst of all survivors – and named the most critically injured survivor of all three bombs, both in the airport and in the train stations.”

She further detailed, “As result of those attacks, I lost both of my legs below the knees, and have a spinal cord injury that we don’t know what the cause is, unfortunately, and I have burns from head to toe, second and third-degree burns and flesh burns.”

Asked what her darkest moment was in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Lalvette reflected, “Not knowing what my life was going to look like. I mean, I was a young 17-year-old, relatively attractive – OK, I mean, I was hot, I’m not going to lie – but I was just a teenager, I had my entire life ahead of me,  I had a plan and that whole plan was destroyed, literally. Within seconds.”

Lalvette shared what led her to become an equestrian. “Equestrianism has always been in my life, always. I went to my first horse show when I was two weeks old. So I’ve been in it my whole life – my mom rode, my dad rode when he was younger, and my brothers rode – so for me, it was a natural transition as well. But after the accident, it was the most natural transition I’ve ever had in my life…”

She continued, “I knew that I was capable of doing great things with the horses, but also the connection I had with my horse saved my life, mentally.”