Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994 TAG: 9402230145
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE DeARMOND KANSAS CITY STAR
DATELINE: LILLEHAMMER, NORWAY LENGTH: Long
Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding - cast by circumstances as Cinderella and a jealous stepsister - slip into frilly costumes, strap on their skates, powder their noses and, as Harding so daintily put it, try to "whip . . . butt."
First, a fast-forward rerun of all that brought us here:
The whack above Kerrigan's right knee.
The unraveling in Harding's camp of the conspiracy to commit the attack.
The lawsuit bullying the U.S. Olympic Committee into dropping the merest question as to whether Harding could skate.
The media watch as the skaters ignored each other on practice ice.
The topless video that resulted in the photo layout of Harding in the London tabloid.
Harding's throbbing ankle.
The walkout, when Harding left Connie Chung holding an open microphone.
All was but rehearsal. Now, it's opening night of a limited two-evening engagement that will command an audience that will by itself allow CBS-TV to bilk its advertisers for enough to offset what once resembled pay-through-the-nose rights fees for the entirety of the Winter Olympics.
"It's hard to even think about," said Rick Gentile, senior vice president of production for CBS Sports. "The expectation is that something major is going to happen in the next few days. It could be really extraordinary."
"I'm sure we'll go over 100 million [viewers]," said Verne Lundquist, who will handle play-by-play coverage of the women's figure-skating showdown for CBS. "There's hope we might approach Super Bowl numbers."
CBS, which paid $295 million for the rights to the Games, is already on track toward the highest ratings for any Olympics, winter or summer.
Through the first 10 days of the Winter Games, the network has averaged a Nielsen rating of nearly 26 for its prime-time telecasts. That compares to the previous record of 23.6 set by ABC at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, which featured the American ice hockey team's "Miracle on Ice."
Each rating point equals 942,000 homes.
And you know what? While Harding and Kerrigan are dueling, the Olympic medals may be decided by other skaters, at least based on the most recent World Championships.
The U.S. Olympic Committee, a Portland circuit judge, countless Olympians and the skaters themselves have decried the monkey business that has transformed tonight's technical program of women's figure skating and Friday's freestyle program into a circus.
But when it gets right down to it, as Frank Carroll, coach of not-to-be-skating U.S. alternate Michelle Kwan, said, "Publicity is publicity."
Kathy Casey, the coach of U.S. men's champ Scott Davis, joked, "I made the National Enquirer, and I didn't even talk to them."
But at another point, Casey advanced a different view. "It's sick," she said. "You don't train for the Olympics your whole life to come here and have to deal with this. It's pathetic."
It is THE GAME within The Games of '94, and the stage has been set with brinkmanship.
Tonya, unable to fulfill her announced heart's desire to hug Nancy, hugged another skater instead. That was after Nancy left the ice following that first practice session last week.
Nancy quite intentionally wore the same white skating outfit to that first practice that she wore on the day of the attack.
"Nancy, Nancy. You're not," Mary Scotvold, one of Kerrigan's coaches, pleaded.
According to Scotvold, Nancy said, "I am. I have to. I want to make sure Tonya sees me in this again."
This has been so hard on Tonya, she's told us.
"I must put everything aside but the training if I am to reach my goal," she said in a combative news conference several days after her arrival. "When all this is over, I can sit down and cry."
In a soon-to-be released series of Reebok commercials - filmed months in advance - you get Nancy's side.
"There is a voice," we'll hear her say. "I know it well. It's a voice of doubt that creeps in and doesn't let go. . . . You can listen to only one voice. The one that says get up."
Kerrigan publicly has appeared the more relaxed of the two skaters. At her packed-house Olympic news conference, she compared it all to reading a thriller.
"I always liked mysteries," Kerrigan said. "I can't wait to get to the end."
For her part, Harding has thrust forward a stiff upper lip to go with her eternally out-thrust chin and has taken a "heaven will protect the working girl" approach.
"I thank God for this," she said of her Olympic opportunity.
Now it will all, at least temporarily, be removed from the court of public-opinion discussion and placed into the hands of nine international skating judges.
Will they be able, as few others have, to separate the sideshow from the performance?
"If I was on that panel," Carroll said, "I'd want to do my utmost to be totally objective and do the very best job I could, because I think this television show with the ladies is going to be the most watched in the history of Olympic sports. If I were one of those nine people, I would want to do my job very well."
If, under these incredible circumstances, that seems nearly impossible?
"Oh, yes," Carroll said. "But if you're a top judge, isn't that the test? For the most incredible, the most difficult decision to make. If you can't make it, then you shouldn't be an Olympic judge."
Harding will skate eighth tonight, Kerrigan 26th of 27 competitors.
The Associated Press contributed some information in this report.
by CNB