On January 6, 1994, Nancy Kerrigan gained considerable fame beyond the skating world when she was clubbed in the knee with a collapsible baton by Shane Stant at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, an assault planned by rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and bodyguard Shawn Eckardt.
Stant followed Kerrigan to Detroit after failing to find her at her training rink in Massachusetts, and struck her on the thigh a few inches above the knee with a collapsible police baton. Kerrigan's leg was only bruised, not broken, but the injury forced her to withdraw from the national championship. Harding won that event, and both Kerrigan and Harding were selected for the 1994 Olympic team. After Harding admitted to helping to cover up the attack, the USFSA and United States Olympic Committee initiated proceedings to remove her from the Olympic team, but Harding retained her place after threatening legal action.
Seven weeks after the attack, Kerrigan skated what she considered to be the best two performances of her life and won the silver medal in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, finishing second to Oksana Baiul. Kerrigan had won the short program, but lost the free skate to Baiul in a close and controversial 5-4 decision. CBS Television further played up the controversy by portraying it as a Cold War east/west split, particularly singling out German judge Jan Hoffmann for supposedly biased judging. Harding finished in eighth.
Legal Battles
Harding avoided further prosecution and a possible jail sentence by pleading guilty on March 16 to conspiring to hinder prosecution of the attackers. She received three years probation, 500 hours of community service and a $160,000 fine. As part of the plea bargain, Harding was also forced to withdraw from the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships and resign from the USFSA.
On June 30, 1994, after conducting its own investigation of the attack, the USFSA stripped Harding of her 1994 title and banned her for life from participating in USFSA-run events as either a skater or a coach. The USFSA concluded that Harding knew about the attack before it happened and displayed "a clear disregard for fairness, good sportsmanship and ethical behavior". Although the USFSA has no control over professional skating events, Harding was also persona non grata on the pro circuit because few skaters and promoters would work with her. Consequently, Harding failed to benefit from the pro skating boom that ensued in the aftermath of the scandal.
Harding maintained her innocence of, and disgust at the attack, and got a tattoo of an angel on her back, allegedly as a symbol of her innocence. In her 2008 autobiography, The Tonya Tapes, Harding said that she wanted to call the FBI to reveal what she knew, but refused when Gillooly allegedly threatened her with death following a gunpoint gang rape by Gillooly and two other men she did not know. Gillooly, who subsequently changed his name to Jeff Stone, called the allegations "utterly ridiculous".
Since the attack, Tonya Harding has gone on to participate in less-than-foxy boxing, and is shown here in all her boxing glory weighing in at an astonishing 132 lbs, up an estimated 30lbs from her championship figure skating weight:
Sourcres used for this week's Hammer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Kerrigan#January_1994_attack
If there is a topic you'd like to see in a future edition of The Hammer of Thor please email your idea to: hammer.thor@rocketmail.com
If there is a topic you'd like to see in a future edition of The Hammer of Thor please email your idea to: hammer.thor@rocketmail.com
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