The World Competes

One of the things that I like best about the Olympics is all the inspiring stories that surround it. That’s why I’d like to bring up an inspirational story regarding the Olympics on Saturdays. Often these people are the athletes, but there are some inspirational stories about people that aren’t athletes.

Nancy Kerrigan was in the news this week due to the fact that her father, Daniel Kerrigan, died this week, after allegedly being assaulted by her brother. While I have no clue why Mark Kerrigan turned out the way that he did… he spent several years in prison already, from May 2006 to just a couple of months ago. Perhaps it was part jealousy, perhaps it has something to do with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (he served in the military in Egypt, and has been diagnosed with the condition).

Nancy Kerrigan did not have her bronze medal from 1992, or her silver medal from 1994, handed to her on a platter. Her father worked hard to pay for skating expenses, sometimes working three jobs; he worked in a skating rink as an ice resurfacer in exchange for lessons. Daniel Kerrigan also mortgaged their house.

Nancy’s mother, Brenda, lost her vision when she was just a toddler, which most likely added to the family’s difficulties. While the family didn’t have a great deal of support, she did have quite a lot of support from her extended community. When she made the Albertville Olympics, her father’s coworkers banded together to help his family see her in France.

Most people remember Nancy Kerrigan as the recipient of an attack just seven weeks before the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. Tanya Harding had conspired with her ex-husband and a friend, Shawn Eckardt, to hurt her prior to the Olympics. Nancy was hit with a collapsable baton by Eckardt, on the knee. She didn’t let that stop her, however. She was able to recover quickly, and resumed her training. Kerrigan went on to win the silver medal.

Tanya Harding went on to finish in eighth place (she never won an Olympic medal). Harding, meanwhile, has been involved with run-ins with the law and scandals ever since. The attacker, Shawn Eckardt, later changed his name to Brian Sean Griffith; he died of natural causes in 2007 at age 40.

The Kerrigan never asked for the publicity that came from the attacks and the recent death, but they have handled it like true Olympians.