NANCY KERRIGAN IS NO WEAK SISTER. Ever since she lost the world championship in Prague last March, everyone has been saying she has a fragile psyche. They’re wrong. Since she was attacked Nancy has kept it all together. She’s confused about why this happened, but she’s not thinking much about it. When I speak to her on the phone she sounds great, she sounds up, like the Nancy we know, and that’s what’s so encouraging. This hasn’t thrown her for a loop.
Nancy has really tackled the season, training in a different, tougher way. Skating is one of the most aerobically challenging sports there is, and doing a fourminute program is like a miler running a mile. This is how she’s been training: she puts the music on and does her first full run-through–four minutes or so of jumps, spins and moves. At the end, she’s dog-tired–sweating, her pulse pounding. Then she rewinds the tape and does the whole program again. This is a routine I swear by. By the second time, fingertips tingle and arms start to fall. It’s also mentally difficult: you’ve just climbed the mountain and now You have to climb it again. In competition you can say, “OK, I can do this. I can do it at 80 percent power–I’ve done it.”
Nancy and I have trained together for nine years, shared the same coach, lived in the same house for two summers on Cape Cod. (I’m a slob and she’s a neat freak.) We even Rollerbladed in the dark all around the Cape. I kept saying, “We’re going to get run over,” but Nancy was totally unafraid. When we met I was 20, but she was just a kid. She was so far ahead in her technical ability, more so than anyone I’ve ever seen–and she didn’t even know what she was doing. As a novice competitor. she could do a triple-toe, triple-toe combination; her jumping ability was incredible. But she also developed into a beautiful, lyrical stylist.
Now Nancy has a snap and a crispness that weren’t there before. You can tell that she knows that this is her last year, her last chance. I felt the same way in Albertville. I knew how I wanted to be remembered every time I skated. Nancy was robbed of that in Detroit, robbed of the chance to say goodbye. Bringing closure to her Nationals experiences should have been wonderful, not sad.
There are few times in your life you feel truly prepared, but Nancy was prepared for Nationals. You could see it in practice. It wasn’t about winning a championship but about personal satisfaction. It’s an important rite you want to experience, like accepting your diploma or walking down the aisle at your wedding.
I think it’s a reflection of the times that this is the biggest figure-skating story ever, and skating has suffered a mournful loss of innocence. I’ve never seen anything like the viciousness that happened, and I don’t believe that it’s representative of our sport. Yes, figure skating is competitive; yes, there’s backbiting, but this is an isolated moment of ugliness. I don’t expect to see it again, once we exorcise it. But I hope the rest of the world doesn’t look at figure skating and think, “This is part of that world.” It’s always been a supportive community to me. My competitors are my friends. You want someone to skate well to validate your performance. The point is to win against everyone else’s personal best.
I don’t know Tonya Harding well, and I guess it’s my fault for not having reached out to her. We’ve been on teams together, but she sticks to herself. If her husband, Jeff, is there, you hardly ever see them. Since she got married she’s been somewhat of an outsider. When I was the Olympic-team captain at Albertville, she arrived three days before she skated. I asked her who she thought should carry the flag and she had no opinion. It seems to me that after the attack on Nancy, Tonya’s comments were somewhat insensitive. But I’m sure Tonya’s in a tough position, too. The controversy must be distracting for all athletes training for this event.
I’m confident that Nancy can handle this, that she’s strong enough to put it behind her. She’s a very determined person, especially this year. This may make her more determined than ever. I don’t think the judges will give her a break they’re definitely objective. Also, they’re not Americans, and they look at this as a strange and curious development. I don’t know if Nancy will win in Lillehammer and I don’t want to put pressure on her. I just want her to have fun, to go out there, to hold her head up and to accept the adulation for her courageousness.
