By: ELISABETH BECK
Staff Writer
Have you ever wanted something so bad, you would just kill to have it? Let me paint a picture for you. Growing up on the wrong side of the family to become an ice skater, Tonya Harding had a deep and burning passion within her heart, an art she religiously practiced for years, so she could make it to the Olympic team yet it’s still not enough. She’s just off by one person and her name is Nancy Kerrigan. Harding and Kerrigan had been rivals for a long time, but Harding was desperate to move on with her career. She had to win the 1994 US Nationals and qualify for the Olympic team. Harding’s husband at the time, Jeff Gillooly, asked his friend Shawn Eckardt how a hit can be arranged, who eventually contacted his uncle, who eventually arranged his nephew, Shane Stant who agreed to commit the attack on Kerrigan. Not long before the competition, Kerrigan came off the ice and was assaulted with a 21-inch metal baton right above her right knee; in pain cries out” Why? Why me?.” Stant was able to escape with a getaway car, but later on, the entire mob was caught. Harding did end up winning the US Nationals and qualifying for the Olympic team, but they held the spot open for Kerrigan to compete if she was able to recover. Kerrigan did eventually move on and be named on the Winter Olympic team. Harding is now not able to skate professionally and has moved on to boxing.