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The New Jersey Olympian who was notoriously found too insane to be convicted of shooting an award-winning equestrian in the chest reckons he is now preparing for “the biggest comeback story in the history of sports.”
Michael Barisone, 62, made the sensational claims in a bonkers interview with the New Yorker, seemingly overlooking the fact that he is permanently banned from equestrian events for shooting Lauren Kanarek at his sprawling Morris County farm in August 2019.
Barisone, a member of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games squad, had faced up to 60 years in prison for the attempted murders of Kanarek and her fiancé, Robert Goodwin — whom he shot at but missed — but was found not guilty by reason of insanity in April 2022.
Despite his insanity defense, he was soon released from psychiatric state custody in November 2023, and once again runs a dressage farm in Loxahatchee, Florida, about 20 miles from Palm Beach.
There, he told the New Yorker that he was the real victim — calling himself a “terrific guy who snapped” at his victims, whom he called the “scum of the earth.”
“I want my dignity back. I want my reputation back,” he said — while teasing his plans for a triumphant return to the sporting spotlight.
“If this goes right, if I can make another team, a World Cup, a world championship, I will be the biggest comeback story in the history of sports,” he wildly claimed.
Barisone has never denied being the gunman, but has filed a slew of lawsuits — including one where he claimed the shooting could’ve been avoided — as part of his desperate bid to repair his reputation.
He was a famed dressage coach – competing in the Grand Prix and winning more than 100 competitions — before his remarkable fall from grace. He went viral for teaching Stephen Colbert dressage, which he labeled “horse ballet.”
He called the equestrian industry an “incestuous cesspool of filth,” labeling horse dealers “shysters.”
Barisone began working with Kanarek in March 2018 at his Loxahatchee facility – before allowing her and her boyfriend, Robert Goodwin, to live in a vacant apartment on his New Jersey farm while she continued training.
But their relationship deteriorated. Barisone claimed the trainee and her boyfriend had violated a verbal agreement to leave the farm once they finished training.
Cops were also called to the home in the 10 days before the shooting.
Barisone shot Kanarek twice in the chest and she told 911 dispatchers, “I’ve been shot in the heart.
“Michael Barisone shot me,” she said.
Kanarek recalled how she couldn’t breathe properly, comparing the feeling to “being in a pool and stuck under a raft that someone was on.”
Barisone also tried to fire at Goodwin during the struggle, but the bullet missed him.
The dressage expert was charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of weapon possession – but during his trial, doctors claimed he was legally insane, suffering from delusions and paranoia.
He is now writing a memoir called “Pure Evil,” he told the New Yorker — in which he claims the old him “died” in the shooting from “a shattered dream and a broken heart.”
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