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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.

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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.

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DISGRACED figure skater Tonya Skater has finally admitted that she knew about the plot to break the leg of her Olympic rival in 1994.

The now 47-year-old says she overheard her then-husband Jeff Gillooly and bodyguard Shawn Eckardt talking about attacking one of her competitors.

The pair would later hire Shane Stant, who assaulted US skater Nancy Kerrigan with a baton - striking her above the knee, five weeks before the Olympics.

Kerrigan, who was attacked in Detroit after a training session, only suffered bruising and managed to win Silver at that year's games in Norway.

Speaking on ABC's Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story, the shamed athlete said she heard a conversation between her husband and Eckardt - who she described as "dumb as a post."

"I knew something was up, "confessed Harding, who still insists she had no role in the vicious attack.

She said: "I did, however, overhear them talking about stuff where, 'well, maybe we should take somebody out to make sure she gets on the team.'

"I go what the hell are you talking about?"

The skater, from Portland, Oregan, calls herself a "pawn" who paid the "ultimate price."

She said: "I'm always the bad person. And I never understood that."

Harding, who finished eighth at the '94 Olympics, was the subject of intense media scrutiny during the event in Lillehammer because of the alleged plot by her husband.

The 47-year-old, who has now remarried, claims she thought her former spouse Gillooly would kill her "many times."

Harding spoke about the moment she realised the American people were going to find out the truth behind the attack.

She said: "I get angry, nobody wanted to ever believe me. When I found out that the truth was finally going to come out."

She continued: "My skating was great. But my life was in shambles."

After Eckardt was shopped to the FBI by one of his friends, he implicated Gillooly who then agreed to testify against his own wife in exchange for a plea bargain effectively ending their troubled marriage.

In March 1994, after key evidence was found in a dumpster, Harding pleaded guilty to conspiring to hinder prosecution of her husband and the others involved.

She received three years probation, 500 hours of community service and was hit with a $100,000 fine.

Controversy raged over whether Harding should be allowed to skate in the Olympics.

But when the US Olympic Committee scheduled a hearing to discuss whether she should be removed from the team, Harding filed a $25million lawsuit against the Committee, and the USOC backed down and agreed to let her skate in the Olympics.

Six months after the attack Harding was stripped of her titles and banned from US figure skating for life.

The extraordinary story is the subject of a critically acclaimed movie I, Tonya which stars Wolf of Wall Street actress Margot Robbie as Harding.

The film, which has a string of award nominations, hits UK screens on February 23.
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Ice skater Tonya Harding admits she knew about plot to break rival's leg

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DISGRACED figure skater Tonya Skater has finally admitted that she knew about the plot to break the leg of her Olympic rival in 1994. The now 47-year-old says she overheard her then-husband Jeff Gillooly and bodyguard Shawn Eckardt talking about attacking one of her competitors.

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It is hard to believe that 24 years have elapsed since the attack on Nancy Kerrigan's knee dominated the news cycle. We watched every day as the story unfolded, revealing increasingly unbelievable, but true, parts of an insane conspiracy. At the time, any given person in America could have told you the names and details of all involved in the attack and the likelihood of Kerrigan's recovery in time for the Olympic games in Lillehammer.

Since then, most of the details have been forgotten, replaced in our collective mind by their bare bones. Tonya Harding attacked Nancy Kerrigan's knee, Tonya was trashy, she cried at the Olympics, and we haven't heard much from her since then.

In 2014, Nanette Burstein made a documentary for the ESPN film series "30 for 30," titled "The Price of Gold." It told a story none of us remembered. It was the story of Tonya Harding, abused American girl who overcame so many odds to make it to the Olympics, where no one wanted her.

In '94, we all had a good laugh judging this girl who was dominating the news. She had impossibly stupid friends, and a very bad perm. She didn't look the part, and it was so easy to make fun of her. But as we learned in the "Price of Gold," she wasn't a goofy, recurring character on "Saturday Night Live"-she was a real person. She was a woman who couldn't always afford dinner, and who would go home from skate practice and get punched in the face by her husband.

A Reversal of Sentiment

This winter, "I, Tonya" was released to critical acclaim. Screenwriter Craig Gillespie pens a humorous and touching account of Harding's personal life, with "the incident" and subsequent fallout serving as the film's climax, but not the whole story. Margot Robbie portrays a version of the former figure skater that expects the audience's allegiance, and deserves it.

Whether Harding was involved in the attack is neither confirmed nor denied in the documentary or movie, and it isn't of particular interest to the viewer. There is no argument that she wasn't always making the best decisions, and was susceptible to bad people.

Harding, now married with a young son, is finally getting a moment of redemption. She deserves it. I cannot imagine the nightmare of having my dreams destroyed in the most public way possible, then being forced to disappear, constantly wary of the next person looking to take advantage of me.

I judged Harding back in 1994. I didn't hate her, I didn't wish her ill, but I looked at this seemingly trashy girl, saw all the other shiny figure skaters around her, and thought she seemed hilariously out of place. After years of living my own life as a woman in America, complete with very bad choices and a lot of help from loved ones, I deeply regret choosing to judge Tonya for a story I only knew from TV.

What Equal Opportunity Requires From Us

Today, I can appreciate not only her stamina and confidence in the face of adversity, but also her incredible athleticism. In 1991, Harding became the first American woman to successfully complete a triple axel in competition, and went on to win the U.S. Championship. Despite the figure skating world cumulatively agreeing that she was not the ideal representative of the sport, her talent and tenacity demanded global attention. She made it to the mainstage on pure talent.

The triple axel became such a poignant moment in the movie, showing a modern-day Tonya reflecting on the accomplishment, and through teary eyes, saying to the camera "No one really asks me about that anymore."

We ask for equal opportunities for everyone in America, but we need to remember to give equal opportunities too. As a record-breaking athlete, Harding should not have had to fight for her right to stay in competition. She should have been embraced by the public for being the most talented, not laughed out of the arena for having a cheap costume.

Maybe the knee-bashing incident would have been avoided if Tonya got a few sponsorships, a little confidence from the media, and the ability to walk away from her husband and his group of goons long before they hatched their plan.

Last Sunday, I saw Harding sitting with the cast and crew of "I, Tonya" at the Golden Globes, and it brought a tear to my eye. Knowing that she was a victim of profound abuse, stripped of a lifetime of access to skating, and had spent years of her life walking the earth as a punch line, it's right that she finally gets to enjoy a moment in the sun.

The documentary and the feature film show us a Tonya Harding who represents the American Dream. She came from nothing, was told she was nothing by the people closest to her, and somehow succeeded anyway-but without a Hollywood ending. Because of her redemption story, today I'm giving Tonya a cheer.

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'I, Tonya' Offers A Moment Of Redemption For Tonya Harding's Rough Life

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It is hard to believe that 24 years have elapsed since the attack on Nancy Kerrigan's knee dominated the news cycle. We watched every day as the story unfolded, revealing increasingly unbelievable, but true, parts of an insane conspiracy.