SOCHI, Russia – Twenty years later, Nancy Kerrigan tries to chuckle when she recounts the plots against her as the 1994 Lillehammer Games approached. She does that, she says, because she has to.
Kerrigan suffered a badly bruised right knee when an associated of Tonya Harding's ex-husband whacked her with a baton after a practice during the national championships. She was able to recover in time for the Olympics, where she earned a silver medal.
It was later learned that some of the plots from the group had a lot more sinister intentions. FBI transcripts that Kerrigan reviewed showed that they discussed myriad ways to keep her from the Olympics, including hitting her with a car, tying her up and slashing her Achilles tendon and killing her. But the group proved to be a bumbling one, getting lost on the way to her practice facility and generally bungling the operation.
"I'm so lucky for bad guys not knowing what they're doing," Kerrigan said Friday after a screening of the NBC special "Nancy and Tonya." ''It's not funny because they still did attack me and there's nothing really funny about getting attacked. But I had to literally try to find some humor. That helps heal. Humor is healthy."
— By Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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Associated Press reporters are filing dispatches about happenings in and around Sochi during the 2014 Winter Games. Follow AP journalists covering the Olympics on Twitter: http://apne.ws/1c3WMiu
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