Never has a training session in any sport been anticipated as much as the two that will take place Thursday in the Hamar Olympic rinks.
Those practices have become the hottest events at the Winter Olympics, because one should be the first meeting of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding in the relatively close quarters of an ice rink since the Jan. 6 assault on Kerrigan by associates of Harding, including her ex-husband.
Although the skaters may have calmed the frenzy somewhat by meeting briefly Wednesday evening, security has been quadrupled at the figure skating venue because of an expected media crush and phone threats against each skater called in Wednesday from the United States to Olympic figure skating venue manager Bjorn Ruud.
Ruud said one call was from “someone who wanted very much for Tonya Harding to win, and she (the caller) knew how to do it.” He said the other call came from a man who identified himself as being from Santa Barbara, Calif., who said, “I will have to stop Tonya Harding so she can’t take part in the competition, and if I do that, God will bless me forever.”
The two U.S. teammates met on the street in the Olympic Village a few hours after Harding arrived Wednesday in Norway from Portland, Ore. Both were on their way to pose for a team picture.
They had not been together since three days after the clubbing on the knee that knocked defending champion Kerrigan out of the 1994 U.S. championships, won by Harding.
“It was very brief, but very natural,” said Gale Tanger, the U.S. Olympic figure skating team leader, who was accompanying Harding to the team photo when they met Kerrigan. “Nancy initiated it, and it was great for all of us. We feel comfortable now.”
Few expect that encounter will entirely thaw the chill between Kerrigan, the 1992 Olympic bronze medalist, and Harding, the two-time U.S. champion.
“I’m hoping the ice breaks, and it won’t go on for the next week,” said Lee Lily Lyoonjung, who lives in Virginia, competes for South Korea and shares the practice group with the two U.S. skaters and three others.
Asked how that might happen, Lee said, “Some smiles here and there. They don’t have to be friends, just relax the atmosphere.”
For six days, Lee and Kerrigan, both 24, have had the practice sessions here to themselves. It is not known when the others-Czechs Lenka Kulovana and Irena Zemanova and Bulgarian Zvetelina Abrasheva-will arrive.
While few think anything untoward will happen in the dozen practices left before the Feb. 23 start of the Olympic women’s event, collisions are not uncommon in practices and warmups.
Perhaps the most famous occurred in the technical program warmup at the 1991 world championships, when Laetitia Hubert of France slammed into favorite Midori Ito of Japan. Ito, who sustained a minor foot injury, had a disastrous technical program performance and wound up fourth.
A year later, a rare example of skating intimidation took place during Olympic practices, when France’s Surya Bonaly did a hot-dog backflip periously close to Ito. The next day, Ito did a circle of double Axel jumps around Bonaly.
A skater such as Harding al-ways creates dangers on a practice rink because of her speed.
“Tonya is as fast as the guys,” said former Olympian Yvonne Gomez of Spain, who used to train with 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano of the U.S. “She’s fast and explosive and jumps so high. You don’t even hear her coming. She’s scary.”
