Wow! It’s Another Harding-Kerrigan Anniversary Four Years Ago, Kneecapping Turned Spotlight On Skating World

It’s an anniversary, but not quite. More like the day your divorce went through - momentous, sure, but not exactly something that still calls for a split of champagne and a big steak.

No, there don’t figure to be any celebrations marking the four-year anniversary of the kneecapping of Nancy Kerrigan.

It was Jan. 6, 1994, at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, that Kerrigan was attacked by a friend of rival skater Tonya Harding. The lunatic plot was concocted by Harding’s husband and some of his drinking buddies, and Tabloid America quickly became obsessed with their high buffoonery and petty criminality.

The Harding-Kerrigan scandal did propel figure skating from a somewhat marginal sport - under-televised and overly sequined - to one of the most popular sporting events on television. And now, with the U.S. Championships at hand and another Winter Olympics just a month away, it seems like an appropriate moment to catch up with Kerrigan, Harding and the rest of those who were so much in the news four years ago.

Tonya Harding

Throughout the 1994 U.S. Championships in Detroit - which doubled as the ‘94 Olympic Trials - Harding steadfastly denied any part in the attack on Kerrigan. She won the U.S. title in Kerrigan’s absence and was given a spot on the Olympic team.

Moments after beginning her free skate at Lillehammer, Norway, Harding suddenly stopped. She had broken a shoelace, she tearfully told the judges. She was allowed to begin again. She finished eighth overall.

Harding eventually pleaded guilty to hindering the investigation of the Kerrigan attack. She managed to avoid jail but received 500 hours of community service and a $110,000 fine. She worked off her time in a food pantry in Portland. Her probation ended last year, on the Ides of March.

Harding divorced her husband, Jeff Gillooly, who had made a graphic videotape of their honeymoon night. Bootleg copies of the tape are in circulation.

The U.S. Figure Skating Association slapped a lifetime ban on Harding and vacated her ‘94 U.S. title. None of the major ice shows have shown an interest in her.

Harding has refused to give interviews unless she is paid. She did land a skating job last year, performing before a minor-league hockey game in Reno, Nev. She was booed.

Nancy Kerrigan

The U.S. Figure Skating Association gave Kerrigan a spot on the ‘94 Olympic team, and she won the silver medal.

But Kerrigan’s homecoming was less than sterling after she was overheard making backstage, sour-grapes comments about Baiul’s weepiness and some whiny wisecracks about a Disney parade she was in.

She did land plenty of commercial endorsements, however, and has skated professionally since Lillehammer. She married her agent, Jerry Solomon. They had their first child, Matthew, on Dec. 17, 1996.

Jeff Gillooly

Harding’s husband pleaded guilty to racketeering and was sentenced to 24 months in prison. He was released after serving eight months. He divorced Harding, changed his name to Jeff Stone and remarried. He is said to be living in the Portland area.

Shawn Eckhardt

Eckhardt, Harding’s 300-pound bodyguard, soon became the hapless poster boy of the whole sordid affair. He had cast himself as a kind of international secret agent, although the plot to attack Kerrigan was uncovered almost solely due to his blundering: Trying to impress a woman, he played a tape of a meeting at which plans of the attack were discussed. The woman was impressed enough to call the police.

Eckhardt pleaded guilty and received an 18-month sentence. When he was released, on Sept. 22, 1995, he was quoted as saying he didn’t care to speak to Harding.

“It would be a dreadful state of affairs,” he said, “having to listen to her whine again.”

Shane Stant, Derrick Smith

Stant, who actually hit Kerrigan with the metal baton as she was coming off the practice ice at Cobo Arena, pleaded guilty, served 18 months in prison and was released in July of 1995. He’s now on unsupervised probation in Linn County, Ore.

Smith, who drove the getaway car, also pleaded guilty and served 18 months. He has reportedly moved to Arizona.