Tonya Harding Knew Something Was Up Before Nancy Kerrigan Attack

Nearly a quarter of a century after a whack to the knee with a police baton nearly took skating rival Nancy Kerrigan out of the 1994 Olympic Games, Tonya Harding is speaking out about what she knew about one of the biggest scandals in sports history. In a clip aired by ABC News Tuesday morning ahead of its Jan. 11 two-hour special, “Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story,” Harding said she “knew something was up” about a month before the attack, but didn’t agree to the plot and had nothing to do with it.

Kerrigan recovered enough after the attack to skate in the 1994 Lillehammer, Norway, Olympics, winning a silver medal. Harding got off to a rocky start. She tearfully skated over to judges and said the lace on her right skate had broken, and they allowed her a reskate. She eventually finished eighth, landing only three of her planned triple jumps planned in her program.

Kerrigan was attacked in Detroit on Jan. 6, 1994, as she was practicing for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The assailant was later identified as Shawn Eckardt, a friend of Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, who hired him to attack Kerrigan. Both pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in connection with the incident, dubiously dubbed “the whack heard around the world.” Both spent time in prison.

Harding didn’t have to go to jail, but she was ordered to pay a $160,000 fine after pleading guilty to conspiring to hinder prosecution. She was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service. After her guilty plea, the U.S. Figure Skating Association banned her from competitive skating for life.

Harding and Kerrigan, both rising stars in the figure skating world in the 1990s, were fierce rivals, but they couldn’t have been more different. Harding had a hardscrabble background, made her own costumes and had no sponsorships. She was not only the first American woman to land the difficult triple axel, she nailed it twice in a single competition and was the first to execute the maneuver in combination with a double-toe loop.

Slightly less accomplished on the ice, Kerrigan was more artistic and poised, wore costumes designed by Vera Wang and had a load of sponsorships, including Campbell’s, Revlon and Reebok. She, too, came from a blue-collar background, but a more stable homelife. The attack on Kerrigan set up a quintessential "good girl versus bad girl" conflict that persists today.

In the interview with ABC’s Amy Robach, Harding said she overheard Gillooly and Eckardt “talking about stuff” that would increase her chances of making the Olympic team by knocking Kerrigan out of the competition.

“And I remember telling them, I go, ‘What the hell are you talking about? I can skate,’ ” Harding said. "This was, like, a month or two months before [the attack]. But they were talking about skating and saying, 'Well, maybe somebody should be taken out so then, you know, she can make it.' "

Harding said she empathized with Kerrigan as she cried in pain after the attack.

“It makes you cringe, hearing it,” Harding said. “Because you know how much that it had to have hurt.”

Harding said she has apologized to Kerrigan multiple times, though Kerrigan told ABC in March that Harding has never apologized directly. “Does it matter at this point?” Kerrigan said.

The infamous events are replayed in a new biopic, “I, Tonya,” released nationwide on Dec. 8, 2017. Margot Robbie plays in the title role, and Caitlin Carver plays Kerrigan.

Harding has endured as something of a cult villain, and the movie capitalizes on her difficult childhood. “West Wing” star Allison Janney, who plays Harding’s tough mother in the film, says Harding has been misjudged — and that she was one of those judging the skater.

“I kind of, I looked at her the way they portrayed her — to be this bad girl, and when I watched her skate at the Olympics, I had ... my hand over my eyes, kind of like I couldn't watch it unravel in front of me,” Janney told NPR. “It was almost unbearable, and I definitely judged her in a way that I think the media wanted me to. She was portrayed as the bad girl. I definitely thought she did it, and I feel differently now having worked on this incredible movie.”

To ABC, Janney said: “I thought one thing about her and now I think something altogether different. Having done the movie, I have a lot more empathy for her."

In the interview that will be aired by ABC at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Jan. 11, Harding said the media have always portrayed her as the villain.

“The media had me convicted of doing something wrong before I had even done anything at all, before I had talked to anyone, before I get out of bed. I'm always the bad person,” Harding said. “Is it a challenge from the Lord to see how far I can be pushed until I break and become nothing?”

She remains estranged with her mother, LaVona “Sandy” Golden, who Harding says was abusive.

“She wants forgiveness, she wants to see me, she wants to make amends, she wants to meet and be a part of the family, hell no,” Harding said.

Harding has remarried and has a son.

Photo: Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, foreground, pass one another during figure skating practice in Hamar, Norway, Thursday, Feb. 17, 1994. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)