Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 3, 1994 TAG: 9402030048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DENNIS, MASS. LENGTH: Medium
A panel of figure skating judges Wednesday pronounced Nancy Kerrigan physically and mentally fit for the Olympics, despite an attack last month that knocked her out of the national championships.
Although Kerrigan missed the championships in Detroit because of the Jan. 6 attack that left her with an injured knee, she was selected with Tonya Harding to the U.S. Olympic team anyway - contingent upon Wednesday's evaluation. Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, has pleaded guilty to racketeering in the assault on Kerrigan and reportedly has implicated Harding in the planning of the attack.
"If there were any doubt or any questions about Nancy Kerrigan's skating condition, she answered them for us this afternoon," said Chuck Foster, secretary to the U.S. Olympic Committee and one of the four judges who watched Kerrigan perform at her practice rink. "We expect that she is going to do very well in Norway."
The judges, who watched Kerrigan on Wednesday at a closed performance at Tony Kent Arena, said they were impressed by her stamina after she skated her long program twice, which Foster said "people in the best of conditions haven't done."
"We have given the green light for her to go to the Olympics," James Disbrow, chairman of the figure skating association's international committee, said from Minneapolis after speaking with the judges.
Kerrigan is scheduled to perform in a charity exhibition Friday night at Northeastern University's Matthews Arena in Boston - her first skate in front of an audience since the attack.
by CNB