The Price of Gold

     Tonight NBC will be broadcasting the Ladies Figure Skating Final from Sochi.  As mentioned in last night's entry, this competition is known as the "Crown Jewel" of the Games.  Before we get into that though, I figured it fitting to take a look back at what is without a doubt the most infamous Ladies Figure Skating contest in Olympic history, the one that took place at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.  For your information, most of the details discussed here come from the 30 for 30 documentary The Price of Gold.  It's a good primer on the subject, and I recommend it if you want to find out more.

     In the early 1990s, US Figure Skating was dominated by 2 women, Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.  They shared a yo-yo rivalry that always seemed to fluctuate back and forth, with Kerrigan always seeming to come out on top.  But Harding was no slouch.  At the 1991 National Championships, she became the very first American woman to successfully execute a triple axel jump in competition(for comparison's sake, people nowadays do the triple axel with somewhat more regularity).  Even beyond all of that though, Harding and Kerrigan were often portrayed as coming from different social classes.  Kerrigan was the girl who had grown up in a New England blue collar setting, while Harding was the girl whose mother had been married five times and abused her as a child.

     As the years kept going, Kerrigan started getting more and more endorsement deals, which led to Harding getting more and more(according to her) "envious", and just wanting to win once.  In the 1992 Albertville Games, Harding finished off of the podium in 4th Place, while Kerrigan ended up winning the Bronze Medal.  1992 was the final year of the IOC holding both the Summer and Winter Games in the same year, and so the Games were staggered, with the next Winter Games falling in 1994.  This was a unique opportunity, as it allowed everyone another shot in only 2 years rather than 4.  Heading into the qualifications for the Games that year, Harding was sure that her time was arriving.

     The Date: January 6, 1994.  The Place: Detroit, Michigan for the 1994 US Figure Skating Championships.  Nancy Kerrigan is taking some practice runs before her qualifying heat.  As she steps behind a curtain to relax, a blood-curdling scream comes out from behind the curtain.  Nancy is down for the count and it doesn't look good.  Meanwhile, Tonya Harding skates her qualifying and takes the Gold, stamping her ticket to Lillehammer.  Afterwards, USOC officials hold a closed-door meeting where they debate whether or not they will send Kerrigan to the Olympics with the one remaining spot.  Ultimately they decide to accept Nancy to the team, which removes the actual second-place finisher, a 13-year old skater by the name of Michelle Kwan.  But Kerrigan has been impacted by the attack, and so she faces an arduous trail to make it onto the ice in good form.  Over the next 6 weeks, Kerrigan completes what may be the most exhaustive and difficult recovery ever seen to make it back to the Olympic ice a little more than a month after she was attacked.  Meanwhile, rumors start swirling that Tonya Harding may have known more about the attack than she was letting on, a perception that is fueled by her connections to Harding's accused attacker.

     Once Team USA's wheels touched down in Lillehammer, the media frenzy was turned all the way up to Eleven.  All kinds of media were there, desperate to get the scoop on the rivalry.  At some points, you had writers from the New York Times right up next to writers from the National Enquirer.  Finally, on February 23, the time came for the Ladies competition.  Tonya Harding took to the ice and promptly laid an egg.  After barely making it onto the ice in time, she had to stop her program to adjust a skate lace, and things just went from there.  When all was said and done, Harding finished in 8th Place.  Then it was Kerrigan's turn.  When she took to the ice, she was one skate away from completing the Ultimate Cinderella Story, going from clutching her leg in pain to Olympic Gold all in 6 weeks.  Ultimately, Kerrigan only took home the Silver, but her progress was still phenomenal.

     After the Olympic Games, the stars of Harding and Kerrigan took off in separate directions.  One month after the Games, Tonya Harding pled Guilty to Obstruction in the attack on Kerrigan.  3 months later, she was summarily banned for life from skating in USFSA events.  Because of her 'banishment' from the skating world, she had to turn to other various avenues to bring in money, such as professional wresting, a music career that was shorter than Miley Cyrus' VMA performance, and even a celebrity sex tape.  On the other hand, Kerrigan went on to star in a myriad of ice shows and professional gigs, and even appeared in several television shows.  In 2004, Nancy Kerrigan was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame. 

     The 1994 Figure Skating Finals were the highest rated Olympic program of all time, in no small part thanks to the Harding/Kerrigan controversy.  So even as we witness these Games in Sochi, and even as amazing things continue to happen at the Iceberg, rest assured that the Olympics has seen crazier.  Much crazier.