Nancy Kerrigan Still Skating 32 Years After Assault
It was 32 years ago today that figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed with a baton following a practice session at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit.
The immediate aftermath was caught on camera and it instantly became headline news. Who would attack Kerrigan right before the 1994 Winter Olympics?
We would soon learn that Shane Stant was the assailant, hired by Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of another figure skater, Tonya Harding. Gillooly and his friend, Shawn Eckardt, wanted to prevent Kerrigan from competing at the Championships in Detroit and the Olympics in Lillehammer.
Their plan did not work – Kerrigan recovered quickly and although she wasn’t able to compete at the National Championships, she was awarded one of the two spots on the U.S. Olympic team. The other spot went to Tonya Harding.
Seven weeks after the attack, Kerrigan and Harding competed at the 1994 Olympics. Kerrigan won the silver and Ukrainian Oksana Baiul won gold. Harding came in 8th.
Today, 32 years later, Kerrigan is still putting on her ice skates. She performs in the Holiday Spectacular on Ice, a yearly family-friendly event in the Northeast described as a Broadway musical on ice. She is married and a mother of three.
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Harding ended up pleading guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution. She was also banned from figure skating and stripped of her 1994 National Champion title. She was a professional boxer, competed on “Dancing with the Stars,” and won “Worst Cooks in America” in 2019.
The infamous attack is portrayed in the 2017 film, “I, Tonya,” starring Margot Robbie and Allison Janney.
