Jealousy on Ice

By JERE LONGMAN

DETROIT [Thursday] - Nancy Kerrigan, the United States' best female figure skater and one of the goldmedal favorites for the 1994 Olympics, was attacked after practice today by an unidentified man who struck her on the right knee with a blunt object and escaped. The attack jeopardized Kerrigan's chances of qualifying for the Winter Games next month in Lillehammer, Norway.

Kerrigan, who is 24 and lives in Plymouth, Mass., had just completed a practice at Cobo Hall in preparation for tomorrow's competition at the United States championships. A witness said the attacker, described as a white man about 6 feet 2 inches and 200 pounds, hit Kerrigan with a club-like instrument resembling a tire iron, a crowbar or a nightstick. Kerrigan was taken to a local hospital for X-rays then released. No fracture was found, according to the doctor who treated her, who said she suffered a cut and a bruise and swelling but was able to walk with a limp. The doctor, Dr. Steven Plomaritis, said the attack appeared calculated.

"He was clearly trying to debilitate her," Plomaritis said.

Kerrigan's father, Dan, rushed to his sobbing daughter, lifted her and carried her into the locker room. "It hurts, it hurts so bad; I'm so scared," Kerrigan told her father.

It was not immediately known whether Kerrigan would be able to skate tomorrow in the short program. The right leg is the one that Kerrigan uses to land jumps during her skating routines. Competing in the two-and-half-minute program would not make the injury worse, Plomaritis said. Essentially, it would be a matter of how much pain she could withstand, he said. The women's competition concludes Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Jerry Solomon, her agent, said late tonight that Kerrigan's knee continued to swell, forcing the cancellation of a planned practice. She will be examined again by doctors tomorrow morning. "She sustained quite a blow, physically and emotionally as well," Solomon said. Kerrigan told ABC Sports tonight that she would attempt to skate tomorrow. "It's not the most important thing, skating," Kerrigan said. "If I can't I'll have to deal with it. I'm O.K. It could have been a lot worse."

Today's attack was the third threatening incident recently that involved a figure skater. Tonya Harding, the 1991 national champion and a 1992 Olympian, reported a death threat on Nov. 4, which caused her to withdraw from the northwest regional championships in Portland, Ore. Harding said she has been traveling with a bodyguard. Katarina Witt of Germany was threatened by a man who sent her obscene mail and who was later ordered to spend 37 months in a psychiatric hospital and ordered not to contact Witt.

Tonya Harding pleaded guilty to conspiring to hinder prosecution in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan and was placed on three years' probation and fined $160,000. Jeff Gillooly, Harding's former husband, and three others, including her bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt, accused of having hatched the plot, spent time in prison. Harding was permanently barred from all amateur skating competition.