Nancy Ann Kerrigan (born October 13, 1969) is a two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist and 1993 U.S. champion.
The death of the father of Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan was ruled a homicide Tuesday when an autopsy showed he died of a heart rhythm problem after a fight with his son in which he suffered a neck injury so severe it damaged his windpipe.
A lawyer for the Kerrigan family criticized the autopsy report about 70-year-old Daniel Kerrigan's death, calling it "premature and inacurrate." The family said Kerrigan had a pre-existing heart condition and they do "not blame anyone" for his death.
The examiner's findings could prompt new charges against Kerrigan's brother, Mark, who has pleaded not guilty to assault and battery on a person over 60 and is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital.
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Kerrigan died Jan. 24 after what authorities said was a struggle with his son.
Police say Mark Kerrigan told them he put his hands around his father's neck and his father fell to the floor after the two argued at their Stoneham home.
Health complications
The autopsy results released Tuesday by Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said the elder Kerrigan also had underlying health conditions, including high blood pressure and clogged heart arteries.
"As a result of these conclusions of the medical examiner, the investigation into Daniel Kerrigan's death, and whether any charges in connection with his death are appropriate, remains ongoing," Leone said in a statement.
The findings imply a strangulation-type injury in a man already vulnerable to heart problems, said an expert not connected with the autopsy, Dr. Ian Paul, associate medical examiner for the state of New Mexico.
"The assault itself would have caused significant physiological stress," Paul said. "It would have put direct stress to the heart itself because the heart is working faster, and in somebody with underlying heart disease, they would be at a much greater risk of experiencing sudden cardiac death."
Leone said the medical examiner determined the cause of death was "cardiac dysrhythmia" after a physical altercation "with neck compression causing injury to the neck in the form of a cartilage fracture to the larynx area."
Cardiac dysrhythmia is loss or interruption of a normal heartbeat, which can lead to cardiac arrest and death.
Neither Nancy Kerrigan, nor her mother, Brenda Kerrigan, could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. A spokeswoman said the family planned to issue a statement.
Denise Moore, an attorney who represented Mark Kerrigan at his arraignment, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
'Belligerent and combative'
Daniel Kerrigan was found unconscious on the floor of his home by police responding to an emergency call at 1:30 a.m. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Image: Daniel and Brenda Kerrigan
Susan Walsh / AP file
A 1994 photo shows Daniel and Brenda Kerrigan, the parents of Nancy Kerrigan, a silver medalist in figure skating at the 1994 Olympics, outside their home in Stoneham, Mass.
Police said Mark Kerrigan appeared intoxicated when he was found on a couch in the basement of the home. He was "belligerent and combative" but coherent when questioned, police said.
"He stated that he wanted to use the phone and his father would not let him," the arresting officer wrote in a report. "He said he struggled with his father and put his hands around his father's neck and his father fell to the floor."
The officers said they saw blood near where Daniel Kerrigan had been treated by emergency workers and signs of a struggle, including three pictures that had apparently been knocked off a wall and a broken piece of the telephone.
Click for related content
Nancy Kerrigan buries dad after tragic death
Mark Kerrigan has a lengthy criminal record, with convictions dating to 1991, including drunken driving, assault and battery, domestic assaults, resisting arrest and violation of a restraining order.
In 2008, Kerrigan's parents sued him to recover $105,000 they had spent paying his mortgage at his Wilmington home, taking care of his dogs while he was in jail and paying for a lawyer who represented him on a 2006 assault conviction. A judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying there was no documentation of such an agreement.
He was released from county jail in November after serving time on an assault conviction.
Early life and skating career
Kerrigan was born in Woburn, Massachusetts to Daniel Kerrigan and Brenda M. (Schultz) Kerrigan. She began ice skating at age six at the local rink in her hometown of Stoneham, Massachusetts. Her two older brothers, Michael and Mark, played hockey, but hockey was not considered an appropriate activity for girls at that time so she took up figure skating instead.[1] She did not start private lessons until age eight, and won her first figure skating medal at age nine.[2]
The Kerrigan family was of modest means. Kerrigan's father, a welder, sometimes worked three jobs to fund her skating career, and also drove the ice resurfacer at the local rink in exchange for lessons.[3]
Kerrigan was coached by Theresa Martin until she was 16, then after a brief period with Denise Morrissey began working with Evy and Mary Scotvold.[4]. They remained her coaches through the rest of her competitive career.
Kerrigan began to reach prominence at the national level when she placed 4th at the junior level at the 1987 U. S. Figure Skating Championships. She made an early impression as a strong jumper but was comparatively weak in compulsory figures.[5]. Kerrigan made her senior debut the following season, moving up the national rankings each year: 12th in 1988, 5th in 1989, and 4th in 1990.[6] However, she continued to be held back by compulsory figures until they were eliminated from competitions after the 1990 season.
[edit] 1991–1993 competitions
Kerrigan's rise at the national level continued when she placed 3rd at the 1991 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She qualified for the 1991 World Figure Skating Championships, where she won the bronze medal. Her achievement was considered especially astonishing in that it was part of the first-ever sweep of the ladies podium by a single country at the World Championships, as her teammates Kristi Yamaguchi and Tonya Harding won gold and silver, respectively.[7].
In the 1992 season, Kerrigan again improved on her placement at the previous year's national championships by placing 2nd. She received a bronze medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics (Yamaguchi won the gold), and the silver medal at the 1992 World Championships.
The following season, with Yamaguchi retired from eligible competition, Kerrigan became United States Champion, although with a flawed performance she admitted she would have to improve upon for the World Championships.[8] She won the short program at the World Championships in Prague, but had a disastrous free skate that resulted in her tumbling to fifth in the standings. (The World title was instead won by Oksana Baiul.) This was followed by an even worse performance at a televised pro-am event, where Kerrigan fell three times and botched the landing of another jump, and appeared dazed and depressed.[9]
Kerrigan determined to redeem herself in the following season. After the 1992 Olympics, she had received many corporate sponsorship contracts (with companies such as Seiko, Reebok, Campbell's Soup, and Evian)[10] as well as opportunities to perform professionally, which was permitted after the International Skating Union abolished the earlier strict amateur status rules that had governed eligibility for the sport. In preparation for the 1994 Olympic season, she curtailed these activities in order to focus on her training instead. She also began working with a sports psychologist to better handle her nerves in competition.[11]
[edit] January 1994 attack
Main article: Tonya Harding: The Kerrigan attack
Kerrigan gained considerable fame beyond the skating world when, on January 6, 1994, she was hit in the knee with a collapsible baton by Shane Stant at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, an assault planned by rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and friend Shawn Eckardt.
Kerrigan's sobs and cry of "Why, why?" immediately after the attack was captured on video which was replayed frequently during subsequent news coverage. Though Kerrigan was forced to withdraw from the U.S. Championships due to injury, the USFSA chose to name her to the Olympic team rather than second-place finisher Michelle Kwan.
Kerrigan recovered quickly from her knee injury and resumed her intensive training. She practiced by doing complete back-to-back double runthroughs of her programs, until she felt completely confident in her ability to do them under pressure.[12] At the same time, the fame she had acquired from the attack led to further professional opportunities; it was reported that she had already signed contracts for $9.5 million before the Olympic competition began.[13] Some wondered if Kerrigan landed better and higher-profile endorsements than Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi because Kerrigan better fit an "all-American" image where as Yamaguchi is of Japanese ancestry.[14]
[edit] 1994 Winter Olympics and post-event controversy
Seven weeks after the attack, Kerrigan skated what she considered to be the best two performances of her life[15] and won the silver medal in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics at the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre, finishing second to Oksana Baiul. Kerrigan had won the short program, but lost the free skate to Baiul in a close and controversial 5-4 decision. CBS Television further played up the controversy by portraying it as a Cold War east/west split, particularly singling out German judge Jan Hoffmann for supposedly biased judging.[16]
Then, while Kerrigan and bronze medalist Chen Lu waited over 20 minutes for Olympic officials to find a copy of the Ukrainian anthem, someone mistakenly told Kerrigan the delay was because Baiul was putting on make-up. Kerrigan, showing obvious frustration, was caught on-camera saying "Oh, come on. So she's going to get out here and cry again. What's the difference?".[17] CBS chose to air the undiplomatic comment, marking a distinct shift in the way Kerrigan was portrayed in the media, which had been somewhat protective of her image up to that point because of the attack against her.[18]
Kerrigan then chose not to attend the closing ceremonies at the Olympics; her agent claimed this was because Norwegian security had advised her not to do so due to death threats that had been made against her, but this was later denied.[19] Instead, Kerrigan left Norway to take part in a pre-arranged publicity parade at Walt Disney World, her $2 million sponsor. During the parade, she was caught on microphone during the parade saying "This is dumb. I hate it. This is the most corniest [sic] thing I have ever done."[20] She later said her remarks had been taken out of context: she was commenting not on being in the parade, but on having to wear her silver medal in the parade.
Building on the negative publicity, news articles described Kerrigan as "grumpy" and "bitchy", as well as shy and uncomfortable with the attention that was focused on her as a result of the attack.[21] Commenting on the media backlash, Mike Barnicle of The Boston Globe said "Now the thing is over so we've got to kill her. That's us [the media], not her."[22] Whether as a result of the bad publicity or her own inclinations, some of Kerrigan's previously-announced endorsement and television deals were dropped following the Olympics.[23]
[edit] Kerrigan's Olympic skating fashions
Nancy Kerrigan's Olympic skating outfits were designed by noted fashion designer Vera Wang. Along with Christian Lacroix's designs for Surya Bonaly in 1992, it marked a new trend for couture designs in figure skating.[24] Kerrigan's white 1992 free skating costume resembled a wedding dress with sheer illusion sleeves and a basketweave design on the bodice. For the 1994 games, Kerrigan wore another white dress trimmed with black velvet bands and sheer black sleeves for the original program, and a champagne-colored dress set with 11,500 rhinestones for the free skate. Wang donated the latter two dresses to Kerrigan, but their value was estimated at $9,600 and $13,000, respectively.[25]
[edit] Post-Olympic skating career
Kerrigan retired from active competition after the Olympics. She subsequently appeared in a few professional competitions such as Ice Wars, but instead chose to focus her professional career on performing in a variety of ice shows.[26] She has appeared in Champions on Ice, Broadway on Ice, and an ice show adaptation of the musical Footloose, among other productions.
She played a small part in the 2007 film Blades of Glory with Will Ferrell. Kerrigan also appeared in the 2006 FOX television program Skating with Celebrities.
She hosted Nancy Kerrigan's World of Skating on the Comcast Network and has also done commentary work for other skating broadcasts. She has written an instructional book on advanced figure skating techniques, Artistry on Ice (ISBN 0-7360-3697-0).
Kerrigan was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2004. She was honored at Ice Theatre of New York's annual benefit gala in 2008.[27]
[edit] Personal life
Kerrigan graduated from Stoneham High School and attended Emmanuel College in Boston to study business.
She created The Nancy Kerrigan Foundation to raise awareness and support for the vision impaired. Kerrigan's mother, Brenda, is legally blind.
Kerrigan married her agent, Jerry Lawrence Solomon, on September 9, 1995.[28] They have three children together: Matthew Eric, born December 1996; Brian, born April 14, 2005; and Nicole Elizabeth, born May 14, 2008.[29] The family currently resides in Lynnfield, Massachusetts.
Kerrigan's father died at age 70 on January 24, 2010[30] allegedly due to a violent struggle with her brother Mark.[31] As of January 25, 2010, Mark Kerrigan has been charged with assault and battery
The death of the father of Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan was ruled a homicide Tuesday when an autopsy showed he died of a heart rhythm problem after a fight with his son in which he suffered a neck injury so severe it damaged his windpipe.
A lawyer for the Kerrigan family criticized the autopsy report about 70-year-old Daniel Kerrigan's death, calling it "premature and inacurrate." The family said Kerrigan had a pre-existing heart condition and they do "not blame anyone" for his death.
The examiner's findings could prompt new charges against Kerrigan's brother, Mark, who has pleaded not guilty to assault and battery on a person over 60 and is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here
Kerrigan died Jan. 24 after what authorities said was a struggle with his son.
Police say Mark Kerrigan told them he put his hands around his father's neck and his father fell to the floor after the two argued at their Stoneham home.
Health complications
The autopsy results released Tuesday by Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said the elder Kerrigan also had underlying health conditions, including high blood pressure and clogged heart arteries.
"As a result of these conclusions of the medical examiner, the investigation into Daniel Kerrigan's death, and whether any charges in connection with his death are appropriate, remains ongoing," Leone said in a statement.
The findings imply a strangulation-type injury in a man already vulnerable to heart problems, said an expert not connected with the autopsy, Dr. Ian Paul, associate medical examiner for the state of New Mexico.
"The assault itself would have caused significant physiological stress," Paul said. "It would have put direct stress to the heart itself because the heart is working faster, and in somebody with underlying heart disease, they would be at a much greater risk of experiencing sudden cardiac death."
Leone said the medical examiner determined the cause of death was "cardiac dysrhythmia" after a physical altercation "with neck compression causing injury to the neck in the form of a cartilage fracture to the larynx area."
Cardiac dysrhythmia is loss or interruption of a normal heartbeat, which can lead to cardiac arrest and death.
Neither Nancy Kerrigan, nor her mother, Brenda Kerrigan, could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. A spokeswoman said the family planned to issue a statement.
Denise Moore, an attorney who represented Mark Kerrigan at his arraignment, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
'Belligerent and combative'
Daniel Kerrigan was found unconscious on the floor of his home by police responding to an emergency call at 1:30 a.m. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Image: Daniel and Brenda Kerrigan
Susan Walsh / AP file
A 1994 photo shows Daniel and Brenda Kerrigan, the parents of Nancy Kerrigan, a silver medalist in figure skating at the 1994 Olympics, outside their home in Stoneham, Mass.
Police said Mark Kerrigan appeared intoxicated when he was found on a couch in the basement of the home. He was "belligerent and combative" but coherent when questioned, police said.
"He stated that he wanted to use the phone and his father would not let him," the arresting officer wrote in a report. "He said he struggled with his father and put his hands around his father's neck and his father fell to the floor."
The officers said they saw blood near where Daniel Kerrigan had been treated by emergency workers and signs of a struggle, including three pictures that had apparently been knocked off a wall and a broken piece of the telephone.
Click for related content
Nancy Kerrigan buries dad after tragic death
Mark Kerrigan has a lengthy criminal record, with convictions dating to 1991, including drunken driving, assault and battery, domestic assaults, resisting arrest and violation of a restraining order.
In 2008, Kerrigan's parents sued him to recover $105,000 they had spent paying his mortgage at his Wilmington home, taking care of his dogs while he was in jail and paying for a lawyer who represented him on a 2006 assault conviction. A judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying there was no documentation of such an agreement.
He was released from county jail in November after serving time on an assault conviction.
Early life and skating career
Kerrigan was born in Woburn, Massachusetts to Daniel Kerrigan and Brenda M. (Schultz) Kerrigan. She began ice skating at age six at the local rink in her hometown of Stoneham, Massachusetts. Her two older brothers, Michael and Mark, played hockey, but hockey was not considered an appropriate activity for girls at that time so she took up figure skating instead.[1] She did not start private lessons until age eight, and won her first figure skating medal at age nine.[2]
The Kerrigan family was of modest means. Kerrigan's father, a welder, sometimes worked three jobs to fund her skating career, and also drove the ice resurfacer at the local rink in exchange for lessons.[3]
Kerrigan was coached by Theresa Martin until she was 16, then after a brief period with Denise Morrissey began working with Evy and Mary Scotvold.[4]. They remained her coaches through the rest of her competitive career.
Kerrigan began to reach prominence at the national level when she placed 4th at the junior level at the 1987 U. S. Figure Skating Championships. She made an early impression as a strong jumper but was comparatively weak in compulsory figures.[5]. Kerrigan made her senior debut the following season, moving up the national rankings each year: 12th in 1988, 5th in 1989, and 4th in 1990.[6] However, she continued to be held back by compulsory figures until they were eliminated from competitions after the 1990 season.
[edit] 1991–1993 competitions
Kerrigan's rise at the national level continued when she placed 3rd at the 1991 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She qualified for the 1991 World Figure Skating Championships, where she won the bronze medal. Her achievement was considered especially astonishing in that it was part of the first-ever sweep of the ladies podium by a single country at the World Championships, as her teammates Kristi Yamaguchi and Tonya Harding won gold and silver, respectively.[7].
In the 1992 season, Kerrigan again improved on her placement at the previous year's national championships by placing 2nd. She received a bronze medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics (Yamaguchi won the gold), and the silver medal at the 1992 World Championships.
The following season, with Yamaguchi retired from eligible competition, Kerrigan became United States Champion, although with a flawed performance she admitted she would have to improve upon for the World Championships.[8] She won the short program at the World Championships in Prague, but had a disastrous free skate that resulted in her tumbling to fifth in the standings. (The World title was instead won by Oksana Baiul.) This was followed by an even worse performance at a televised pro-am event, where Kerrigan fell three times and botched the landing of another jump, and appeared dazed and depressed.[9]
Kerrigan determined to redeem herself in the following season. After the 1992 Olympics, she had received many corporate sponsorship contracts (with companies such as Seiko, Reebok, Campbell's Soup, and Evian)[10] as well as opportunities to perform professionally, which was permitted after the International Skating Union abolished the earlier strict amateur status rules that had governed eligibility for the sport. In preparation for the 1994 Olympic season, she curtailed these activities in order to focus on her training instead. She also began working with a sports psychologist to better handle her nerves in competition.[11]
[edit] January 1994 attack
Main article: Tonya Harding: The Kerrigan attack
Kerrigan gained considerable fame beyond the skating world when, on January 6, 1994, she was hit in the knee with a collapsible baton by Shane Stant at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, an assault planned by rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and friend Shawn Eckardt.
Kerrigan's sobs and cry of "Why, why?" immediately after the attack was captured on video which was replayed frequently during subsequent news coverage. Though Kerrigan was forced to withdraw from the U.S. Championships due to injury, the USFSA chose to name her to the Olympic team rather than second-place finisher Michelle Kwan.
Kerrigan recovered quickly from her knee injury and resumed her intensive training. She practiced by doing complete back-to-back double runthroughs of her programs, until she felt completely confident in her ability to do them under pressure.[12] At the same time, the fame she had acquired from the attack led to further professional opportunities; it was reported that she had already signed contracts for $9.5 million before the Olympic competition began.[13] Some wondered if Kerrigan landed better and higher-profile endorsements than Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi because Kerrigan better fit an "all-American" image where as Yamaguchi is of Japanese ancestry.[14]
[edit] 1994 Winter Olympics and post-event controversy
Seven weeks after the attack, Kerrigan skated what she considered to be the best two performances of her life[15] and won the silver medal in the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics at the Hamar Olympic Amphitheatre, finishing second to Oksana Baiul. Kerrigan had won the short program, but lost the free skate to Baiul in a close and controversial 5-4 decision. CBS Television further played up the controversy by portraying it as a Cold War east/west split, particularly singling out German judge Jan Hoffmann for supposedly biased judging.[16]
Then, while Kerrigan and bronze medalist Chen Lu waited over 20 minutes for Olympic officials to find a copy of the Ukrainian anthem, someone mistakenly told Kerrigan the delay was because Baiul was putting on make-up. Kerrigan, showing obvious frustration, was caught on-camera saying "Oh, come on. So she's going to get out here and cry again. What's the difference?".[17] CBS chose to air the undiplomatic comment, marking a distinct shift in the way Kerrigan was portrayed in the media, which had been somewhat protective of her image up to that point because of the attack against her.[18]
Kerrigan then chose not to attend the closing ceremonies at the Olympics; her agent claimed this was because Norwegian security had advised her not to do so due to death threats that had been made against her, but this was later denied.[19] Instead, Kerrigan left Norway to take part in a pre-arranged publicity parade at Walt Disney World, her $2 million sponsor. During the parade, she was caught on microphone during the parade saying "This is dumb. I hate it. This is the most corniest [sic] thing I have ever done."[20] She later said her remarks had been taken out of context: she was commenting not on being in the parade, but on having to wear her silver medal in the parade.
Building on the negative publicity, news articles described Kerrigan as "grumpy" and "bitchy", as well as shy and uncomfortable with the attention that was focused on her as a result of the attack.[21] Commenting on the media backlash, Mike Barnicle of The Boston Globe said "Now the thing is over so we've got to kill her. That's us [the media], not her."[22] Whether as a result of the bad publicity or her own inclinations, some of Kerrigan's previously-announced endorsement and television deals were dropped following the Olympics.[23]
[edit] Kerrigan's Olympic skating fashions
Nancy Kerrigan's Olympic skating outfits were designed by noted fashion designer Vera Wang. Along with Christian Lacroix's designs for Surya Bonaly in 1992, it marked a new trend for couture designs in figure skating.[24] Kerrigan's white 1992 free skating costume resembled a wedding dress with sheer illusion sleeves and a basketweave design on the bodice. For the 1994 games, Kerrigan wore another white dress trimmed with black velvet bands and sheer black sleeves for the original program, and a champagne-colored dress set with 11,500 rhinestones for the free skate. Wang donated the latter two dresses to Kerrigan, but their value was estimated at $9,600 and $13,000, respectively.[25]
[edit] Post-Olympic skating career
Kerrigan retired from active competition after the Olympics. She subsequently appeared in a few professional competitions such as Ice Wars, but instead chose to focus her professional career on performing in a variety of ice shows.[26] She has appeared in Champions on Ice, Broadway on Ice, and an ice show adaptation of the musical Footloose, among other productions.
She played a small part in the 2007 film Blades of Glory with Will Ferrell. Kerrigan also appeared in the 2006 FOX television program Skating with Celebrities.
She hosted Nancy Kerrigan's World of Skating on the Comcast Network and has also done commentary work for other skating broadcasts. She has written an instructional book on advanced figure skating techniques, Artistry on Ice (ISBN 0-7360-3697-0).
Kerrigan was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2004. She was honored at Ice Theatre of New York's annual benefit gala in 2008.[27]
[edit] Personal life
Kerrigan graduated from Stoneham High School and attended Emmanuel College in Boston to study business.
She created The Nancy Kerrigan Foundation to raise awareness and support for the vision impaired. Kerrigan's mother, Brenda, is legally blind.
Kerrigan married her agent, Jerry Lawrence Solomon, on September 9, 1995.[28] They have three children together: Matthew Eric, born December 1996; Brian, born April 14, 2005; and Nicole Elizabeth, born May 14, 2008.[29] The family currently resides in Lynnfield, Massachusetts.
Kerrigan's father died at age 70 on January 24, 2010[30] allegedly due to a violent struggle with her brother Mark.[31] As of January 25, 2010, Mark Kerrigan has been charged with assault and battery
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