Figure skating attacker: ‘They suggested I cut her Achilles tendon’

He obstructed her and hit her right leg with a baton, causing her to scream. On January 6, 1994, Shane Stant caused one of the biggest scandals in sports history when he seriously injured American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. ‘I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I’m right-handed, she stood with her back to me. “So I had the perfect angle to hit her in the right leg,” Stant said in an interview with “Bild am Sonntag”.

The then 24-year-old was training in Detroit and preparing for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The two starters for the Winter Olympics would be determined six weeks later in Lillehammer. Kerrigan competed with Tonya Harding, now Tonya Price, but the match never materialized.

Because when Kerrigan temporarily left the ice and disappeared into the catacombs, Stant followed her and struck exactly once. “After the blow she fell to the ground. I didn’t look back, but I could hear her screaming,” he continued. Harding’s biggest competitor was eliminated and the perpetrator initially escaped unnoticed.

But eight days later, Stant turned himself in to the FBI. He was hired by Harding’s former husband, Jeff Gillooly, and his friend Shawn Eckardt. “I received $6,800 plus expenses. But if we are successful, we should still get an addition – perhaps four to five times as much. “They thought Tonya Harding would get a lot more sponsorship if Kerrigan missed the Olympics,” Stant said.

But things turned out differently than expected. Kerrigan’s knee healed in record time, and although she did not qualify athletically, she was given a free pass by the US Federation and allowed to compete. Harding was also there, but was ultimately unsuccessful: Kerrigan took silver, Harding failed by herself when her shoelace broke during the warm-up for the free skate. In the end she only finished eighth. The prominent case was later even made into a film under the title ‘I, Tonya’.

The clients did not expect the rapid healing and, according to Stant, wanted something different anyway: “They suggested that I cut Kerrigan’s Achilles tendon,” he said. But Stant himself was of the opinion that ‘that would not be necessary. If it’s just a matter of her not being able to compete, you don’t have to cut off her foot.”

Stant did not expect the attack to go down in history: “Immediately afterwards I was confident that I would not be caught. No one had photographed me, there was no video,” he said. He escaped with the help of his uncle, who was waiting in the car outside Detroit’s Cobo Arena. “It was clear to me that anyone who had anything to do with it would keep their mouths shut. Tonya wouldn’t say anything, nor did her husband Jeff, nor did my uncle Derrick. Of course, I thought the other client, Shawn Eckardt, wouldn’t say anything either, but that turned out to be a big mistake.”

According to Stant, Eckardt had let slip that “something big would happen soon. There would be an attack on a world-class athlete. When the others did not believe him and ridiculed him, he resigned,” says Stant. Eckardt is said to have recorded the planning discussions. Stant then turned himself in to the FBI after the TV images in which his uncle was allegedly seen. He was given 18 months prison, of which he served 15 months. Plus a probation period of 36 months. He had never met Tonya Harding in person.

Harding denied all allegations against her at the time. She swore at the time that she suspected nothing and was as shocked as everyone else. Only 24 years later did the ‘Ice Witch’ admit that she had not been so innocent: she had heard a conversation between her husband and the future attacker before the events and had an idea what it was about. In 1994, nothing could be proven about her.

The now 53-year-old was sentenced in Lillehammer to three years in prison and 500 hours of community service for obstruction of justice. There were also fines and a lifetime ban from the American Ice Skating Association. Her public image also deteriorated: “People smeared feces on my front door, my mailbox and my trucks. I knew this incident would stay with me for the rest of my life,” said today’s Tonya Price.