U.S. figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was injured when a club-wielding man with connections to Kerrigan’s rival Tonya Harding attacked her at a Detroit ice rink.
After hammering Kerrigan’s knee with a club, Shane Stant fled in Derrick Smith’s car.
The two men, investigators later learned, were hired by Shawn Eckardt, an acquaintance of Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly. In mid-December 1993, Gillooly met with Eckardt and discussed eliminating Kerrigan from the Olympic trials.
Once arrested, Gillooly implicated Harding. But by then, she already had won a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. The U.S. Olympic Committee considered removing Harding from the Norway-bound team, but she filed a successful lawsuit to stop it.
Harding skated her way to eighth place, at one point breaking down in tears over a broken shoelace.
Kerrigan took home the silver medal. Harding was fined $100,000 because of the attack and sentenced to 500 hours of community service.
