She wanted gold – at any price 20 years ago, U.S. figure skater Tonya Harding was convicted of involvement in an assassination attempt on her Olympic rival Nancy Kerrigan. The brazen attack wrote sports history.

Detroit, Michigan, 6 January 1994. Nancy Kerrigan is still turning a final round on the ice – oval of the Tony Kent Arena. Every jump , every pirouette looks so easy as you would expect from a favorite for the Olympic title . Immaculately as the whites of their skates, her hair bands , their ruffled Kleidchens . The 24 -year-old is relaxed yet focused , their goal in the upcoming Winter Games in Lillehammer : Gold . She has no eyes for the two men sitting in the stands of the hall lurking . Also, they have one goal: money.

Shane Stant and Derrick Smith organized a getaway car and a baton while , painted black and collapsible , so Stant can make him disappear into his leather jacket . The two finally want a bit more out of life , but they came here from Portland, Oregon. They have dreams . This can be fulfilled , is to end Kerrigan’s dream. Here and now, on 6 January 1994 in Detroit.

As Kerrigan leaves the ice , the red saver draws on their skate blades and exits through the curtain into the catacombs of the hall, towards her cabin , follows her Stant few meters away . There is film footage showing the young American woman in those seconds , detached from the force of history, there are unspectacular pictures, they show the routine of an athlete. The next pictures that are made of Kerrigan , go around the world .

A red runner leading from the hall into the booth tunnel. Then crouching Kerrigan, his face contorted with pain and shock. She screams, she cries, “Why?”, Over and over again: “Why?”. Quick people are with her, trainers, paramedics, officials. Someone they’ve beaten, with a “black, hard stick,” Kerrigan pressed out. A blow to her right knee, the knee of the leg on which she lands her jumps.

Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan Scandal:A job for $ 6,500

The why was soon answered : Kerrigan should no longer jump – that was the plan . He only struck once , hard, ” but not so hard that bones are broken ,” said Shane Stant recalls 20 years later. Stant is, however, since long gone Stant , he has a new name , allegedly due to facial surgery and a new look. 14 months had the then 22 -year-old for his actions in prison . He then wanted to leave behind his old life . He left his old home Oregon , moved to Southern California , and later in the solitude of Montana. He does not want to be reminded of his past, even talking about it.

If you still tried to reach him , Mayor and bar owners calling in communities where Stant shall dwell and in the end actually gets a number where a man picks up the phone and you ask ” I speak with Shane Stant ? ” Then listen is not a ” no”, then you only hear ” click”. And the conversation that was none is finished.

Only for the U.S. journalist Matt Crossman Stant made ​​this year an exception. A long time he took me to convince him, Crossman . Ultimately Stant agreed to the interview , he wanted to let the world know that he was a new man , a better . In prison, he became religious, he realized that he was an idiot and a criminal. He apologizes to Kerrigan for the assassination never .

$ 6,500 had Stant get then from his uncle Derrick Smith, the other man then in the ice rink, the driver of the getaway car. He should put a figure skater knocked out, was the task. The plan came from Smith, Shawn Eckhardt and Jeff Gillooly, husband of Tonya Harding, Kerrigan’s great rival.

Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan Scandal:The Ice Witch

In fact, Kerrigan can not start at the national qualifications . Nevertheless, they must travel at the decision of the U.S. Committee for the Winter Games , as the second starter next to Harding who qualify.

Harding was a good skater , occasionally even a very good one. In 1991, she had jumped in a competition as the first U.S. citizen a triple Axel . But above all she was the exact opposite of Kerrigan . The had elegance, Harding had athleticism. Kerrigan looked with her long dark hair like Snow White , the blond Harding was already before the assassination for some, the ice witch.

Unlike Kerrigan Harding did not come from a dysfunctional family in the United States called the circumstances and social relations under which Harding grew up ” white trash.” Her mother beat her regularly with your hand or a hairbrush , though rightly made ​​the daughter for a competition . The otherwise so elitist figure skating is their refuge , says Harding in the ESPN documentary ” The Price of Gold” , the price of gold. The sport was Harding’s only chance is to “create out of the gutter up,” says her coach Diane Rawlinson .

Fame gets Harding for national success, but hardly any money . Harding know : Gold at the Olympics would change everything. But it must first create the national qualification , just like Kerrigan , who had already won bronze in Albertville in 1992. In order to qualify to Lillehammer , she agonizes in training. But she was also willing to let inflict pain on others ?

Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan Scandal:Evidence in garbage bags

Her ex-husband Gillooly is exactly the claim later in court, both charge each other hard . Unlike Stant Harding speaks often about the assassination and everything that happened afterwards. It is not a different person , has hardly changed , in essence at least , she says . Why should they? You ‘ve hardly done anything guilty of the plan they knew nothing . , After the assassination she had gradually discovered that her husband , with whom she was no longer together then, but still lived together in a house that was responsible for the attack , at least not from the start.

Speaking against the Fund, Kathy Peterson on 30 January makes behind their restaurant. Besides their own garbage bags she finds more sacks. Peterson is acidic, they want to know who had the audacity – and opens one of the bags . You will find papers on which plans for the Kerrigan – Attenat recorded – including name : Eckhardt, Gillooly , Stant , Smith. And Harding. Their handwriting is later identified by the FBI. However, unlike the four men she gets off with a suspended sentence and community service .

As mastermind applies Eckhardt . His friend Gene Saunders had reported to the then 26 – year-old as suspicious. He had bodyguards , Eckhardt had often boasted to Saunders recalls. But he had not believed him , Eckhardt had always been quite loud-mouthed . Therefore Saunders Eckhardt does not believe , as this announces plan ” something with a figure skater .” He wanted to make it clear by assassination , the importance of personal protection and then get a job in the industry. As Saunders then learns of the attack on Kerrigan , he counts one and one together and tried in vain to persuade Eckhardt to face . Saunders turns the FBI, the Eckhardt listening and transferred him.

On 12 January, less than a week after the assassination, and exactly one month before the start of the Winter Games, this admits the planning of the crime and calls his accomplices.

Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan Scandal:Together on the ice

Tonya Harding is sentenced until mid- March 1994 , it starts as Kerrigan in Lillehammer. The Olympic Committee rejects an objection of Americans that both gymnasts may train them separately . You have to work together on the ice – and ignore each other as much as possible . When competition finally Harding at odds with their skates , a shoelace travels , they will end up eighth. Good, but far from the dream of gold. Much further than Kerrigan , which runs perhaps the best freestyle of her life. And with the scarcest outcome of the story , one-tenth point , second is behind the Ukrainian Oksana Bajul .

For Kerrigan and Harding was the last major competition , both then quit their careers. Harding still seeks the spotlight again. She tried to sit in boxes, on ice-skating revues and on talk shows .

For Kerrigan , however, it was also the complete withdrawal from public life. For the 20th Anniversary , they made ​​an exception for a TV documentary . What do you think in retrospect about their attacker , she was asked . Kerrigan replied, “I just had great luck that there were extremely untalented criminals. ”

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