Assault on Nancy Kerrigan

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Nancy Ann Kerrigan (born October13, 1969) is an American figure skater and actress. She won bronzemedals at the 1991 World Championships and the 1992 Winter Olympics,silver medals at the 1992 World Championships and the 1994 WinterOlympics, as well as the 1993 US National Figure SkatingChampionship. Kerrigan was inducted into the United States FigureSkating Hall of Fame in 2004.


In January 1994, an assailant used apolice baton to strike Kerrigan on her landing knee; the attacker washired by the ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding. The attackinjured Kerrigan, but she quickly recovered. Harding and Kerriganboth participated in the 1994 Winter Olympics, but after the Games,Harding was permanently banned from competitive figure skating. Atthe Olympics, Kerrigan won the silver medal in a controversialshowdown with gold medal winner Oksana Baiul. She then startedtouring and performed with several ice skating troupes that includedChampions on Ice and Broadway on Ice. In 2017, she was a contestanton season 24 of Dancing with the Stars.


Early life


Kerrigan was born in Stoneham,Massachusetts, the youngest child and only daughter of welder DanielKerrigan (1939–2010) and homemaker Brenda Kerrigan (née Schultz,b. 1940). She is of English, Irish and German ancestry, and hasstated: "There's very little Irish in me, just my name."While her brothers Michael and Mark played hockey, she took up figureskating at age six. She did not start private lessons until age eightand won her first competition, the Boston Open, at age nine.


Kerrigan's family was of modest means.Her father sometimes worked three jobs to fund her skating career; healso drove the Zamboni at the local rink in exchange for Nancy'slessons. Kerrigan was coached by Theresa Martin until she was 16,then began working with Evy and Mary Scotvold after a brief periodwith Denise Morrissey. The Scotvolds remained her coaches through therest of her competitive career.


Skating career


Kerrigan began to reach prominence atthe national level when she placed fourth at the junior level at the1987 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She made an early impressionas a strong jumper, but was comparatively weak in compulsory figures.She made her senior debut the following season, moving up thenational rankings each year: 12th in 1988, fifth in 1989, and fourthin 1990. She continued to be held back by compulsory figures untilthey were eliminated from competitions after the 1990 season.


1991–1993 competitions


Kerrigan's rise at the national levelcontinued when she placed third at the 1991 U.S. Figure SkatingChampionships. She qualified for the 1991 World Figure SkatingChampionships, where she won the bronze medal. Her medal was part ofthe first-ever sweep of the women's podium by a single country at theWorld Championships, as her teammates Kristi Yamaguchi and TonyaHarding won gold and silver, respectively.


In the 1992 season, Kerrigan againimproved on her placement at the previous year's nationalchampionships by finishing second. She won a bronze medal (Yamaguchitook the gold) in the 1992 Winter Olympics and earned the silvermedal at the 1992 World Championships.


The following season—with Yamaguchiretired from eligible competition—Kerrigan became United Stateschampion, even though her performance was flawed. She admitted thatshe would have to improve her skating in time for the WorldChampionships. She won the short program at the World Championshipsin Prague, but had a disastrous free skate that resulted in hertumbling to fifth in the standings. This was followed by an evenworse performance at a televised pro-am event, where Kerrigan fellthree times, botched the landing of another jump, and appeared dazedand depressed, losing to 1988 Olympian Caryn Kadavy.


Before and after the 1992 Olympics, shehad many corporate sponsorship contracts (with companies such asCampbell's Soup, Evian, Reebok, and Seiko) and opportunities toperform professionally, which were permitted after the InternationalSkating Union abolished the earlier strict amateur status rules thathad governed eligibility for the sport. In preparation for the 1994Winter Olympics, she curtailed these activities to focus on hertraining, instead. She also began working with a sports psychologistto better handle her nerves in competition.


1994 assault


On January 6, 1994, at the U.S. FigureSkating Championships in Detroit, Kerrigan was the victim of a crimethat brought her international fame far beyond the skating world. Asshe was walking through a corridor at Cobo Arena immediately after apractice session, Kerrigan was bludgeoned on the right lower thighwith a police baton by an assailant, who was later apprehended andidentified as Shane Stant. The assault was planned by rival TonyaHarding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and co-conspirator Shawn Eckardt(1967–2007). The conspirators' goal was to prevent Kerrigan fromcompeting in both the National Championships and the Lillehammer 1994Olympics.


The attack's immediate aftermath wasrecorded on a TV camera and broadcast around the world. The initialfootage showed the attendants helping Kerrigan as she grabbed at herknee, crying out: "Why, why, why?" Kerrigan was alsoseen being carried away by her father Daniel. Harding won thechampionship, with Michelle Kwan second. Although Kerrigan's injuryforced her to withdraw from the U.S. Championships, her fellowskaters agreed that she merited one of the two spots on the Olympicteam. The USFSA chose to name her to the Olympic team rather thanKwan, who was sent to Lillehammer as an alternate in the event thatHarding was removed from the team.


Kerrigan recovered quickly from herinjury and resumed her intensive training. She practiced by doingcomplete back-to-back, double run-throughs of her programs until shefelt completely confident in her ability to compete under pressure.The fame she had acquired from the attack led to furtheropportunities; she was reported to have already signed endorsementcontracts for $9.5 million before the Olympics began.


Harding denied any involvement in theplanning of the attack but later pleaded guilty to conspiring tohinder the prosecution. In late 2005, Kerrigan expressed objectionsto Shane Stant's wishes to have the attack removed from his record sohe could join the Navy SEALs, which do not recruit anyone with afelony conviction. Kerrigan stated in a letter dated November 25,2005, that "to allow Stant to have the attack removed fromhis record would not only be an insult to [her], but it [also] wouldsend the message that a crime like that can ultimately be swept underthe rug." Stant's request had already been denied by ajudge, saying that it is against the law to expunge an assaultconviction. Stant was 34 when he tried to remove the attack from hisrecord.


The attack was depicted in the 2017film, I, Tonya.


1994 Winter Olympics


The ladies single skating event of the1994 Winter Olympics in the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre took placeseven weeks after the attack, and Kerrigan skated what she consideredto be the best two performances of her life in the short program andfree skate. She won the silver medal, finishing second to OksanaBaiul and ahead of Chen Lu as Tonya Harding finished in eighth placeamid controversy. Harding had trouble with her equipment (the laceson her skates) and was given a reskate by the judges. Kerrigan was infirst place after the short program, but lost the free skate and thegold medal to Baiul in a close and controversial 5–4 decision.


Kerrigan appeared to displaydissatisfaction and disappointment with her second-place finish.While Kerrigan and Lu waited over 20 minutes for Olympic officials tofind a copy of the Ukrainian national anthem, someone mistakenly toldKerrigan the delay in the presentation was because Baiul had criedoff her make-up and was getting it retouched. Kerrigan, with obviousfrustration, was caught on-camera saying, "Oh, come on. Soshe's going to get out here and cry again. What's the difference?"CBS chose to air the undiplomatic comment. This marked a distinctshift in the way Kerrigan was portrayed in the media, which had beensomewhat protective of her image up to that point because of theattack against her.


Kerrigan elected not to attend theclosing ceremonies at the Olympics. Her agent claimed this wasbecause Norwegian security had advised her to leave due to deaththreats that had been made against her, but this was later denied.Instead, she left Norway early to take part in a prearrangedpublicity parade at Walt Disney World, her $2 million sponsor.


1994 Walt Disney World parade


Following the 1994 Winter Olympics,Kerrigan participated in a Walt Disney World parade. She was caughton microphone saying to Mickey Mouse, "This is dumb. I hateit. This is the corniest thing I have ever done." She latersaid that her remark was taken out of context and she was notcommenting on being in the parade but rather on her agent'sinsistence that she wear her silver medal in the parade. She saidthat her parents had always taught her not to show off or brag abouther accomplishments. She added that she had nothing against Disney orMickey Mouse: "Who could find fault with Mickey Mouse? He'sthe greatest mouse I've ever known."


Commenting on the media backlash, MikeBarnicle of The Boston Globe said, "Now the thing is over sowe've got to kill her. That's us [the media], not her."Either because of the bad publicity or her own inclinations, some ofKerrigan's previously announced endorsements and television dealswere dropped after the Olympics.


Skating results


Kerrigan was inducted into the UnitedStates Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2004. She was also honored atIce Theatre of New York's annual benefit gala in 2008.


Skating Outfits


Kerrigan's Olympic skating outfits weredesigned by fashion designer Vera Wang. Along with ChristianLacroix's designs for Surya Bonaly in 1992, Wang's designs marked anew trend toward couture in figure skating. Kerrigan's white 1992free-skating costume resembled a wedding dress with sheer illusionsleeves and a basket-weave design on the bodice. Kerrigan's 1994Olympic dresses were also designed by Wang. She wore another whitedress trimmed with black velvet bands and sheer black sleeves for theoriginal program and a champagne-colored dress set with 11,500rhinestones for the free skate. Wang donated those two dresses toKerrigan, the values of which were estimated at $9,600 and $13,000,respectively.


Post-Olympic skating career


Kerrigan turned professional after theOlympics. She appeared in a few competitions such as Ice Wars, butfocused her career on performing in a variety of ice shows. She hasappeared in Champions on Ice, Broadway on Ice, and an ice showadaptation of the musical Footloose, among other productions.


In 2003, Kerrigan became a nationalspokeswoman for Fight for Sight.


Television, movies and video games


In the 1994 TV movie Tonya and Nancy:The Inside Story, she was portrayed by Heather Langenkamp. Yearslater, Langenkamp commented: "Good girls always get shortshrift in this society, we want the story to be about the bad girl. Ican't imagine a more admirable character than Nancy Kerrigan and it'stoo bad we don't make movies about people like that. People considergood girls boring, unfortunately".


In 1994, Kerrigan hosted Saturday NightLive, season 19 episode 15, featuring musical guest Aretha Franklin.


In Tattoo Assassins, a MortalKombat-style arcade fighting video game developed in 1994 by DataEast (the release of which was cancelled, though rare,nearly-complete prototypes are in existence), one character theplayer can fight as is heavily based on Kerrigan. Namely, thefigure-skater Karla Keller played by Cristine Dupree. In the game,Karla Keller is dressed in full figure-skater attire (even wearingice-skates) and like all other fighters in the game, has magicaltattoos on her skin that come alive when the player performs specialattacks and finishing moves.


In 1995, Kerrigan had a guestappearance on Boy Meets World in the episode "Wrong Side ofthe Track" where she helps Eric Matthews discover hispotential for skating in a dream sequence.


In 2004, Kerrigan sang a cover of "TheBest" for a Tina Turner tribute album.


Kerrigan appeared in the Fox televisionprogram Skating with Celebrities (2006) and played a small part inthe ice-skating comedy feature film Blades of Glory (2007) with WillFerrell. She hosted Nancy Kerrigan's World of Skating on the ComcastNetwork starting in 2005, and has done commentary work for otherskating broadcasts.


During the 2010 Winter Olympics,Kerrigan served as a "special correspondent" forEntertainment Tonight.


She has written an instructional bookon advanced figure-skating technique, Artistry on Ice (ISBN0-7360-3697-0).


In 2014, ESPN aired The Price of Gold,a 30 for 30 documentary about the 1994 attack. On February 23, 2014,NBC aired a documentary during the 2014 Winter Olympics on theincident called Nancy & Tonya.


On July 10, 2016, Kerrigan competedagainst Kayla Harrison on the "Battle of the Olympians"episode of the television program, Flea Market Flip (S7 E2)


On March 1, 2017, Kerrigan was named asone of the contestants who would compete on season 24 of Dancing withthe Stars. She was paired with professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev.Despite receiving higher judges' scores than Bonner Bolton and DavidRoss, Kerrigan and Chigvintsev were eliminated during a doubleelimination in the seventh week of the competition.


In November 2017, she appeared onKeeping Up with the Kardashians in the Christmas special episode.


In December 2017, a fictional movieabout Tonya Harding and the attack on Kerrigan, entitled I, Tonya,was released; Caitlin Carver played Kerrigan.


In January 2018, Kerrigan joined InsideEdition as their Super Bowl correspondent. She also appeared in anepisode of Fresh Off the Boat as herself. In 2021, she played a voicerole in the animated Easter movie, Eggs.


Personal life


Kerrigan graduated from Stoneham HighSchool and attended Emmanuel College in Boston to study business. Shecreated the Nancy Kerrigan Foundation, which aims to raise awarenessand support for the vision-impaired. Her mother Brenda is legallyblind.


Kerrigan married her agent JerrySolomon on September 9, 1995, the year after she retired fromcompetition. The marriage was her first and his third. They havethree children together: Matthew (born 1996), Brian (born 2005), andNicole (born 2008). Solomon also has a son from his second marriage.In April 2017, Kerrigan said that she had six miscarriages in eightyears, while attempting to have her three children. She said that themiscarriages were "devastating" and "astrain" on the marriage.


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