Tonya Harding at Bally's Atlantic City on June 13, 2009 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding has claimed that she too was a victim of the infamous attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan, two decades after hit men hired by Harding’s ex-husband assaulted Kerrigan.
“You just get hit by everything all at once and you just want to crawl in a closet and say go away and leave me alone because you just don’t know what is going on,” Harding said in an interview with ESPN for the upcoming documentary “The Price of Gold,” pegged to the 20th anniversary of the incident. Harding became a media sensation after the attack on her rival.
“I just couldn’t believe what was being said and stuff,” said Harding, who maintains she did not know of the attack until after it had taken place. Harding eventually pleaded guilty to hindering the prosecution by failing to report the assault.
Kerrigan was severely beaten with a police baton in the right knee, but recovered from the attack to win a silver medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. In contrast, Harding became the subject of popular scorn and performed poorly at the event. Harding went on to a middling career as a boxer. She re-married in 2010 and has a two-year-old son.
Harding tells interviewers she lost everything as a result of the attack, and says Kerrigan failed to respond when she apologized for her ex-husband’s actions, ABC News reports.
[ESPN]