European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 22, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 28 the stars and stripes sports saturday january 22,1994 let us see Harding is. Kerrigan Tony Kornheiser for selfish reasons i want to see Tonya har Ding skate in Lillehammer. I want to see Harding skate against Nancy Kerrigan even if they re never actually on the ice together not even in warmups. I want to see How they handle this How Harding handles the pressure of being cast As the villain in a morality play whether for All her toughness she s Tough enough to withstand the scorn. I want to see How Kerrigan handles the pressure of being everybody s Angel whether she can hold up All those Well wishers and not collapse under the weight of so much sympathy. I want to see How they Greet each other if they smile at each other or stare at each other or ignore each other. It s a sportswriter s dream Story. It s a Story about greed about pathos about violence about stupidity about compassion maybe even about redemption. It s the Best Story in sports. If they both go to Lillehammer it will be the Only Story in  the moment the Only crime that we know Tonya Harding has committed is not being Nancy Kerrigan. She in t As Beautiful or As polished or As Graceful or As stunningly bejewelled. She in t within the Safe Boundary of the image police. Bert Parks would never have gazed at Tonya and Sung there she is walking on air she is fairer than fair she is miss  she s a smoker and a Pool player and a hot rodder and she married Young and apparently married wrong. Maybe she got it from her Mother who married six  cookie Tonya Harding. Maybe too Tough talking about kicking Nancy s  if that was a male athlete confidently talking about kicking butt we d applaud. And if you look at How Tough it was for a poor girl like Harding to climb the unfriendly skating ladder kicking butt is precisely How she got from rung to rung. But that s not How we like our ladies figure skaters. We like them elegant like Peggy Fleming or Perky like Dorothy Hamill. But not Tough like Tonya Harding. Not trailer Park honeys with bleach Blond Curling Iron hair like Tonya Harding. Nancy Kerrigan May be a Tough cookie too but it s commentary on the inside where we can t see it and it does t make her hair frizz. Kerrigan was born luckier than Harding. She had a face As Bob Seger Sang that let her get her  every Day now Kerrigan gets closer to that Gold medal. Mike Lupica wrote in the daily news that Kerrigan probably does t even have to skate they la give her the Gold just for Clearing customs. It was t hard to conclude Harding was getting shafted by the frenzy in the Media that was fed by the Prim and insulated skating Community being punished for not being demure or delicate. People looked at Harding s hardscrabble past and the Shady crowd surrounding her including that lifelike husband she can t quite Wash out of her hair and took eager Liberty to pile , Harding could have been More gracious after Kerrigan was knee capped. Instead of saying she d kick her butt in Lillehammer she could have said to horrified to hear of allegations that people in my Camp Are being connected with this tragic mean incident. My heart goes out to Nancy. And Nancy i pledge myself to doing whatever i can do to help and support you and i look Forward to being your olympic teammate and rep resenting our  she could have said that but David Gergen was t around to write it. Do you think someone who had so Little Money for skating clothes that she had to sew on her own sequins would know about a spin doctor the problem with writing a column about How Tonya Harding has become a victim is that this Story is a moving target. It does t Stop conveniently for dead lines. ,.  was not a Good Day for Tonya. Her husband or sex husband or quasi husband Jeff Gillooly was charged with conspiring to whack Nanc Kerrigan. And for the first time other than in hearsay Tonya herself was linked to the conspiracy on a claim by the fat oaf bodyguard that she made some phone Calls to abet the process. The Fri interviewed her for 10 hours tuesday that s a Long time. By this time they know More about Tonya Harding than you know about your brother. If they Don t charge her How could anyone say she should to to Lillehammer on the basis of what Rumor hearsay Kerrigan has already said she can handle being on the same team with Harding. Let Harding skate. Give her the Chance to show people what she s made of. Did her rough and Tumble upbringing fortify her to skate Well enough to convince the judges she s not Matahara what we know now does t disqualify her. Testimony of one fat oaf who might be trying to save his considerable skin in t enough. Two fat oafs and an  fee Showtime. Most of my friends say this is hopelessly naive they think Harding is in this up to her eyeballs but i think it s possible if not plausible that Harding was unaware of the plot athletes can go into a zone and be oblivious to almost everything. You can live with someone and not know what they Are up to every life is not an Oliver Stone movie. She might have heard bits and pieces and not connected the dots. She might also have known and stood mute. I Don t have a neat place to put that one. That s where you conjure Poe and listen for her telltale heart but if Harding is charged she should t go. Pre sumption of innocence does t guarantee her a seat on the 747 to Norway. The olympic team in t a courtroom it s More like a club. When you join it you agree to abide by its rules. One of the rules gives the soc the authority to remove a member for the Good of the team. It s not a right to be on the olympic team it s a privilege. If there s enough evidence to charge her and let s assume the police Are not going to do so capriciously they know Harding has worked her whole life to get to the olympics and they re not going to be cowboys about it too Many peo ple Are watching the soc has to consider the Mes Sage it s sending by sponsoring Harding s trip to Lille Hammer. 1. It will spook Kerrigan. If there s a charge there s no More pretence that Harding did t know about the conspiracy. You have to Bend Over backward for Kerri Gan who s already taken a hit. 2. It says the . Is willing to Send Over an athlete under its Flag and Protection who has Given us reason to believe she participated in a plot to deliberately in Jure another . Athlete. That s Way beyond the Bounds of honest Competition. We re Lucky Kerrigan was t seriously injured. These goons could have crippled her. Our nation does t stand for that.-.", the Washington Post pet Renko fakes men s tit i e Christopher Dean and Jayne Torville move into Conten Tion in the ice dance Competition thursday night. Copenhagen Denmark a olympic Cham Pion Viktor Petrenko skating to music from Verdi operas captured the men s final thursday at the euro Pean figure skating championships. On a night when his skating failed to measure up to his extraordinary standards Petrenko nevertheless won a spot on the ukrainian team for next month s Lille Hammer games. He was followed by ukrainian teammate Viacheslav Zagorodnyuk in second place while Russia s Alexei or Manov took third. Halfway through the ice dance Competition Jayne Torville and Christopher Dean moved into Contention the Best Way they know How with a sultry dance to a romantic beat. We were in love for two minutes while we danced Torville said. And Are still Good  Petrenko won european titles in 1990 and 1991 As a member of the soviet Union team. He took the 1992 olympic title for the unified team and captured the world Crown that year representing the Commonwealth of Independent states. He was t in top form. He tried seven triple jumps and two footed a pair. But two triple axes combinations helped him to get from 5.5 to 5.8 for technical Merit. He did better in artistic impression with 5.8s and 5.9s. Zagorodnyuk came in second with a musical interpretation to music from Jesus Christ  Zagorodnyuk was a Bronze medallist in the european championships in 1990 and 1991 for the soviet Union but lost his spot last year. Ukraine became a separate country and Dmitri Dmitrenko captured the Only spot available and won the european title. Now three ukrainian skaters qualified in Copenhagen. However Only one goes to the olympics and that will be Petrenko. The ukrainians Are allowed Only one skater in Lillehammer based on their performance atthe world championships. Frenchmen Eric Millot and Philippe Candeloro were fourth and fifth ahead of Dmitrenko. Both frenchmen european figure skating won medals last year but faltered in the free skating each falling once and having trouble with three other jumps. None of the top contenders skated a clean pro Gram. In the ice dance Torville and Dean moved into a Vir Tual tie with Maya Usova and Aleksandr Zhuolin of rus Sia to set the stage for a Winner take All free dance final Friday evening. Torville and Dean won the original dance to the Rumba rhythm Worth 30 percent of the total Mark. They tied for second behind the top russians in the compulsory dances on tuesday. It comes Down to the free dance Worth 50 percent. Whoever wins the final portion of the event Between these two will take the title. Tomorrow it depends on the judges and what style they prefer Dean said. The British couple will skate to let s face the music and dance demonstrating their technique Usova Zhuolin Are scheduled to do a Lively program to music from the film la  we re confident about our skating and our Rou Tine Torville said. It depends on the judges  picking the slowest beat allowed under the rules to set the mood the British champions spun and weaved with seemingly Little Effort to music titled appropriately enough the history of  the routine earned three 5.9s for composition and two perfect 6.0s and five 5.9s for presentation. Usova and Zhuolin skating two couples before had a bit More spicier program with her in a Midriff Barin dress they received scores Between 5.7 and 5.9 with a flashier style. Still Torville and Dean were judged Best by seven of the nine judges. Ekaterina Gordeev and Sergei Grinkov paced a russian sweep of the pairs medals wednesday night. Gordeev and Grinkov returning after a four year absence earned four perfect 6.0s for an elegant routine to Beethoven s Moonlight sonata