Injuries Nancy Kerrigan received when attacked by a club-wielding man will keep her out of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships tonight, but that doesn't mean she won't make it to next month's Winter Olympics.
Kerrigan's severely bruised right knee worsened overnight and doctors who drained blood from it this morning decided that skating would risk further injury.The decision "was based on pain in her right knee, even after the doctor used a local anesthetic to numb the knee," Dr. Mahlon Bradley said.
U.S. figure skating rules preclude a competitor from being selected for the Olympic team if the athlete doesn't participate in the national championships and did not win a medal in the previous world championships. Although Kerrigan was fifth at the 1993 worlds, she was a favorite for a medal at the Lillehammer Games next month.
But U.S. Figure Skating Association president Claire Ferguson said the organization's international committee can place athletes on the Olympic team. The top two finishers at nationals qualify for the Games.
"Certainly there is a rule that would allow for the committee to pick the members for the Olympic team," Ferguson said.
On Thursday, Kerrigan was doing what she had done a thousand times, going through her program in practice on the eve of an important competition.
Stepping off the ice, she stopped to talk to a reporter. A stranger approached and, in a flash, the secure world of figure skating was shattered and Kerrigan crumpled to the ground, screaming "Why me? Why me?"
With their fancy costumes and elegant image, many skaters never thought something so frightening and ugly could invade their sport. Kerrigan, the 1993 U.S. champion and 1992 Olympic bronze medalist, was assaulted by a man who hit her on the right leg with a club or metal bar, then fled the building.
"How do you get out there after someone's done that to you?" wondered skating coach Frank Carroll, who unknowingly identified Kerrigan to the assailant minutes before the attack. "How do you concentrate on the triple lutz-double toe loop when you don't know what kind of madman's out there?"
Tennis star Monica Seles, stabbed by a spectator last April 30, still can't compete. Kerrigan's injuries weren't nearly as severe. But what about the mental anguish?
"I just don't want to lose faith in all people, or anything like that," Kerrigan told ABC-TV Thursday night from her hotel room. "It was one bad guy, and I'm sure there are others, because this kind of thing has happened before in other sports, but not everybody is like that."
Kerrigan, the favorite to retain her national title as well as contend for a medal next month in Lillehammer, Norway, skipped a scheduled practice Thursday night after doctors detected additional swelling in her knee. Dr. Steven Plomaritis, who examined her, said there was no fracture, but "the discomfort could preclude her from participating at her capacity."
"She sustained quite a blow, not only physically but mentally," said her agent, Jerry Solomon.
The attack was similar to the one on Seles during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany, April 30. In that case, a supporter of Steffi Graf stabbed the world's No. 1 player in the back so Graf could move up in the rankings.
Police were searching for a 6-foot man wearing a black leather jacket who attacked Kerrigan. Although his motive is unknown, Plomaritis said the assailant clearly intended to debilitate the 24-year-old skater.
Like Kerrigan, Carroll's skater, Michelle Kwan, had just finished practice at Cobo Arena when a man with a camera asked the coach who Kwan was.
"He seemed very weird," Carroll said. "Then he pointed at Nancy and said, `Is that Nancy Kerrigan?' and I told him it was. The next thing I knew, there was Nancy screaming like a maniac. She was absolutely hysterical."
Two other female skaters have been targets of threatening behavior.
Last November, Tonya Harding had to forgo competing in an event in her hometown of Portland, Ore., after a death threat was phoned to the rink.
And German skater Katarina Witt was harassed by a man who sent her obscene and threatening mail. He was convicted in 1992 and was sentenced to 37 months in a psychiatric facility and ordered not to contact Witt.
"I think it scares everyone out there that something like this could happen," said skating star Kristi Yamaguchi, in Phoenix Thursday for a Stars On Ice performance. "You just have to go on, focus your concentration on what's the important thing and do your best."
Witnesses to the attack on Kerrigan said there was little security at the arena. Joan Ryan, a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, said reporters were able to enter the area without being checked.
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships are being held next door to Cobo Arena at Joe Louis Arena. A private firm called Crowd Management is in charge of security at the arena. A supervisor said the company had no comment on the attack.
Dorothy Larkin, manager of the Tony Kent Arena in South Dennis, Mass., where Kerrigan works out daily, said everyone was shocked by the news.
"This has kind of turned our arena upside down today," she said. "The phone hasn't stopped ringing since this happened."