Case file #11
LILLEHAMMER
Filed under sports corruption, 1990s.
- Era
- 1990s (1994)
- Date
- January 6
- Status
- Closed
Spoilers ahead
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On January 6, 1994, Nancy Kerrigan was struck on the leg as she left practice ice at Cobo Arena in Detroit, where the U.S. Figure Skating Championships were serving as the Olympic trials. Shane Stant carried out the attack; Derrick Smith drove; the plot had been organized by Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and her bodyguard Shawn Eckardt. Kerrigan is a person before she is a plot point: a national medallist and Olympic bronze medallist who had done nothing but show up to practice, who was back on the ice within roughly ten days, and who seven weeks later skated arguably the best programs of her life at Lillehammer, taking silver by roughly a tenth of a point. Harding, who skated in the same Games after a bootlace broke during her free skate, finished eighth. She has consistently declined the rivalry framing the coverage built around her: "I was the victim. Like, that's my role in this whole thing." Gillooly apologized to her publicly at his July 1994 sentencing. On March 16, 1994, Harding pleaded guilty in Multnomah County Circuit Court to conspiracy to hinder prosecution, a cover-up charge, admitting she learned of her associates' involvement after the attack, agreed a false story, and lied to the FBI. She received three years' probation, a $100,000 fine, 500 hours of community service and no jail, and resigned from the U.S. team. Gillooly was sentenced to two years; Eckardt, Stant and Smith were each sentenced to eighteen months. The record correction: Harding was never charged with, or convicted of, planning or ordering the attack. The finding that she had prior knowledge came in June 1994 from a U.S. Figure Skating Association panel applying a civil standard of proof; it stripped her 1994 national title, which was left vacant rather than reassigned, and banned her from the association for life. Those are two different findings by two different bodies under two different standards, and collapsing them is the most common error made about this case.
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