Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 24, 1994 TAG: 9402240250
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: HAMAR, NORWAY LENGTH: Long
After seven weeks of unyielding media attention and unprecedented worldwide anticipation, the competition between the two U.S. figure skaters turned out to be no contest. Kerrigan's near-perfect technical program gave her the lead in the women's figure skating competition and put Harding in 10th place.
Kerrigan, the victim of a Jan. 6 attack on her right knee, confidently skated one of the finest performances of her life, while a visibly nervous Harding, who has been linked to the attack by her former husband, stumbled early, her skating taut, her smiles forced.
Kerrigan's performance puts her within easy reach of an Olympic gold medal in Friday night's free skate program. Harding, who made two crucial mistakes during an uncomfortable 2-minute, 40-second program, has very little chance of winning a medal.
"It's great," said Kerrigan, who was voted first by seven of the nine judges. "You can really feel how excited everybody is for me, as well as what I feel. I'm just really proud of myself."
Harding, who had a poor, two-footed landing on her triple Lutz-double toe combination jump, and later two-footed the landing on an easy double flip, said she was pleased with her effort.
"I feel good," she said through a U.S. Figure Skating Association spokesman. "It went good. You can't be perfect every time."
While Harding clearly had troubles, Kerrigan was as close to perfect as any of the 27 skaters were Wednesday night. One by one, Kerrigan's top competitors came onto the ice as the evening grew late, and put on a performance better than the last. By the time Kerrigan, skating next-to-last, arrived at center stage, she knew she had to skate well just to reach the top five.
The technical program counts for 33 percent of the overall score. Friday's free skate competition is 67 percent.
Only Ukraine's Oksana Baiul, the reigning world champion, came close to pleasing the judges as much as Kerrigan did. Baiul, who landed with two feet on her triple Lutz-double toe combination, was marked down technically, but came back with six 5.9s for artistic impression and won the judges from Britain and Ukraine.
France's Surya Bonaly, the European champion, is third, followed by China's Lu Chen, and Germany's Tanja Szewczenko and Katarina Witt.
After waiting for the appreciative audience of 6,000 to quiet after loudly cheerly her arrival, Kerrigan slowly, methodically built to her big move: the triple Lutz-double toe combination.
As she glided to the corner of the rink, only a few feet from Evy and Mary Scotvold, her long-time coaches, Kerrigan tore into the air, rotated three times and landed without a scratch.
She then jumped again, spun twice and softly came back to the ice. Evy Scotvold's arms reached toward the ceiling as he yelled out in delight. The crowd roared. Kerrigan knew the most difficult part of her program was over.
"She's been perfect on the combinations in practice," Scotvold said, "and that is the short program. So I expected her to do this. She's on top of her game."
In the final two minutes of her program, Kerrigan nailed her double Axel and double flip with ease, had a tiny, inconsequential slip on footwork, and spun to a finish as spectators rose to applaud and dozens of U.S. flags danced in the stands.
Kerrigan wore a classic white skating dress, with sheer black sleeves; Harding's costume was red, covered with sequins and notable for the thin sequined strips that ran down the otherwise backless dress.
"To go out there was really exciting, to have all the crowd behind me and everyone at home as well," said Kerrigan, who has boxes and boxes of mail awaiting her at home in Stoneham, Mass. "Before I went out I felt a little too calm, but once I stepped out there, I felt it and I was ready.
"It was a real long day. But I've been skating so well, so I was very confident and just knew I would skate well."
What did she think about before her music, an original work titled "Desperate Love," by her choreographer Mark Militano, came over the public-address system?
" `OK, this is it, this is the Olympics,' " Kerrigan said she said to herself. Kerrigan's marks reflected her precision: two 5.6s and the rest 5.8s and 5.9s for technical performance, and one 5.6, two 5.7s, two 5.8s and four 5.9s for artistry.
After it was over, the magnitude of what Kerrigan had done began to sink in with her coaches and friends.
Seven weeks ago, she was hit on the knee and had to withdraw from the U.S. Olympic trials. She missed nearly two weeks of practice. Now, for one night anyway, she was on top of the Olympic world.
"I'm just so emotionally moved by it," Mary Scotvold said. "She was so deliberate in everything she did, every gesture, every jump. It was just very exciting to see her do her best after these seven weeks."
"She can go out there and write the script [Friday night]," said 1992 Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie, one of Kerrigan's best friends. "It is a tremendous feat. She can look back at this moment and say, `I did a great job. When everybody was saying I had a fragile psyche, I went out there and nailed the combination against all odds.' "
Harding, too, was fighting the odds after a grueling month in which Jeff Gillooly, her former husband, accused her of helping plan the attack on Kerrigan. Looking tired and tentative, Harding came onto the ice to warm applause - and neither a boo nor a whistle.
She said a prayer before her music, "Much Ado About Nothing," began. Back in the Olympic Village, preparing to come to the arena, Kerrigan watched Harding on television
While Harding clearly was trying, she seemed to be overwhelmed as she skated. Nothing went right. Her arms arm movements were rigid, forced. Her footwork was too slow. She didn't look anything like the skater who won last month's Olympic trials. When she finished, it was clear she had not done enough. Her scores were low: 4.8s to a 5.3 for technical merit, 5.3 to 5.6 for artistic impression.
The scores weren't good enough to pass Witt, the returning German legend who skated very well out of the fourth position, and as the evening wore on, Harding dropped further and further back. But if Harding was perturbed, and she surely had to be, she didn't show it.
"The landing on the double flip was probably just not long enough," she said. "I only held it for a couple of seconds and then went. . . . I feel great. I'm happy with the performance. . . . I'm looking forward to Friday."
by CNB