Nancy Kerrigan's Competition

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All it took was one swing of the baton for it to be named the “Whack Heard ‘Round the World.” After national figure skating champion Nancy Kerrigan was bashed in the knee, many people were shocked to find that her rival, Tonya Harding, could have been behind the plot to ensure Kerrigan would not be able to compete in the upcoming Olympics. What followed the assault on Kerrigan was a long and tedious court case; the assailants claimed that Harding was behind the plan to physically assault, and at one point even kill, Kerrigan, while Harding claimed she had nothing to do with it. It all started on January 6, 1994 (Brennan). Nancy Kerrigan was practicing for the upcoming American figure skating championships at a Detroit rink when she was attacked by a baton wielding man flanked by three other men (Moony). The baton …show more content…

The FBI began investigating to determine who could have possibly wanted to harm the figure skater (Nye). They soon turned their attention to Kerrigan’s competition. Both Nancy Kerrigan and national figure skating champion Tonya Harding had been vying for their own spot on the upcoming United States Winter Olympics Figure Skating Team that was heading for the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics (Nye). Having no previous feuds between themselves, Kerrigan was shocked to find that her adversary could have been a co-conspirator to the onslaught (Nye). As the trial progressed, the FBI unmasked the identity of the four men who had attacked Kerrigan. Shawn Eckhardt, Derreck Smith, Shane Stant, and Tonya Harding’s ex husband Jeff Gillooly were questioned for the assault on Nancy (Nye). Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy to charge the assailants as everyone had hoped. Jeff Gillooly’s divulgences to the FBI claimed that Tonya Harding had been in on the plot from the very beginning. Gillooly’s claims place Harding at a meeting on December 28, 1193 meeting in which she turned over a photograph of Kerrigan to Gillooly and

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