DETROIT – It’s hard to believe one of the most heinous attacks on an athlete happened 31 years ago today.
On Jan. 6, 1994, Nancy Kerrigan, one of the rising stars in American figure skating, was ambushed while walking down a corridor in Detroit’s Cobo Arena. The assailant, later ID’d as Shane Stant, attacked Kerrigan with a telescopic baton.
His aim was to injure Kerrigan so badly that she couldn’t skate in the ongoing 1994 United States Figure Skating Championships and the 1994 Winter Olympics.
Later it was determined that rival skater Tonya Harding and her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and his friend Shawn Eckardt were behind the attack. Harding was jealous of Kerrigan, and the attack was meant to stop Kerrigan from competing, ostensibly so that Harding could get all the glory.
Kerrigan recovered in time to skate in the Olympics, and Harding participated as well. However, not long after, Harding was banned for life from U.S. Figure Skating. at the Games and became one of the most sympathetic and beloved Olympians of all time.