Nancy Kerrigan

Nancy Kerrigan
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Nancy Kerrigan

Nancy Kerrigan, interviewed in Turin, Italy
Personal Information
Country represented:	United States
Date of birth:	October 13, 1969 (1969-10-13) (age 39)
Former coach:	Evy Scotvold, Mary Scotvold
Retired:	1994

Olympic medal record
Figure skating
Silver	1994 Lillehammer	Ladies' singles
Bronze	1992 Albertville	Ladies' singles

Nancy Kerrigan (born October 13, 1969, in Stoneham, Massachusetts) is a two time American Olympic figure skating medalist and 1993 U.S. champion.

January 6, 1994, attack

Kerrigan gained considerable fame beyond the skating world when, on January 6, 1994, she was clubbed in the knee by Shane Stant at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. Stant had been hired to assault her by Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and friend Shawn Eckardt. Following the attack, her screaming of the words "Why? Why?" became well-known and were even included in ESPN's Sports Century video, which chronicle the most important sports moments of the 20th century. Though Kerrigan was not able to take part in the Olympic trials due to injury, the USOC gave her a spot on the team with encouragement from Michelle Kwan, to whom the spot would have gone.
1994 Winter Olympics and Walt Disney World controversy

A month after the attack, Kerrigan won the silver medal in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics at the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre, finishing second to Oksana Baiul in a controversial ruling that gave Oksana the gold medal by 0.1 points. Immediately following her program, Kerrigan's public image took a nose-dive. While Kerrigan and bronze-medalist Chen Lu waited over 20 minutes for Olympic officials to find a copy of the Ukranian anthem, someone mistakenly told her the delay was because Oksana was putting on make-up. Kerrigan then made the statement on camera that it would be a waste because Oksana would just "come out here and wreck it."
After Norwegian security had advised Kerrigan not to attend the closing ceremonies citing a lack of security for her, Kerrigan was criticized for leaving the Olympic venue to take part in a pre-arranged publicity parade at Walt Disney World, her $2 million sponsor. It was there that she was caught on microphone during the parade saying

"This is dumb. I hate it. This is the most corniest thing I have ever done."

She later said her remarks had been taken out of context: she was commenting not on being in the parade, but on having to wear her silver medal in the parade. Others have wondered if Kerrigan landed higher profile endorsements than gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi because of the publicized incident, or her better fitting an "all-American" image.