Sports Related Tragedies

Remember Nancy Kerrigan? She is a two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist and 1993 U.S. champion.

In January 6, 1994 at a practice session during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, a mysterious man wielding a police baton clubbed Kerrigan on the right knee. As a result, Kerrigan was forced to drop out of the competition and her teammate, Tonya Harding, won the event and was consequently placed on the Olympic team. Kerrigan recovered in time to compete for the U.S. at the Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway; and in February, joined Harding at the Olympic Village. By this time, Kerrigan's assailant has confessed to the police that the persons who hired him were Tonya Harding's husband and her bodyguard. Tonya Harding later admitted to covering up the attack.

Is crime a part of sports strategy? Just recently, on the first day of the Olympics game, a Chinese man stabbed to death Todd Bachman while leaving his wife Barbara in critical condition. After committing the crime, the knifeman then jumped to his death from the 130ft-high second floor of The Drum Tower where the incident happen. Their daughter Elisabeth, a former U.S. Olympian, who was also there as the assault happened was unharmed but was as bewildered as the other onlookers. The Bachmans travelled to Beijing to support Elizabeth’s husband, Hugh McCutcheon, coach for U.S. men’s volleyball team. Full story...

Could this hullabaloo be a part of a plot to disorient Olympic players?

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More to come.

See also:
Beijing Olympics 2008
Olympic Trivia







Reference on Nancy Kerrigan attack:
www.massmoments.org
photo source: wikipedia&sports.yahoo.com

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