Nancy Kerrigan

Passions

Vocation

Notable

Family

American skating champion, an Olympic medal winner. Graceful and elegant, she won the Bronze Medal World Championship in the U.S. Nationals in 1991, later winning a Bronze Medal for figure skating in Albertville, France in the Olympic contention on 21 February 1992, and a U.S. Figure Skating Champion in Detroit. On 6 January 1994, she was attacked in the afternoon while leaving a practice session, severely bruising her right knee. She had to withdraw from competition due to the injury, even though she was named to the U.S. Winter Olympic team. It was later discovered that her attacker had been hired by the bodyguard of competitive skater Tanya Harding. Nancy began skating at the age of six at the local rink. Her father, a welder, took two and three jobs to pay for her skating lessons. With a disease of the retinas, her mother, Brenda, is legally blind. There are two older brothers who play hockey and most family vacations are to skating competitions. They are not affluent but a close-knit family with grandparents living two doors away. Since winning her medal in 1994, she had a time-period of bad press. She pouted after losing the gold medal to Oksana Baiul, snubbed Mickey Mouse at Disney World while doing promotional work and became known for being temperamental. She started a relationship with her manager, Jerry Solomon, in July of 1994. Solomon had been separated from his wife since Oct. 1993. Nancy began a 14-day tour in Dec. 1994. She married Jerry Solomon on 9 September 1995 after his divorce, and they shopped for a home near her parent's house in Stoneham, MA. In November 1999, Kerrigan released a pop single, "Shining Through" which is included on a new CD musical tribute to skating. She recorded the song in 1994 after being approached by songwriter Michael Jay. This is her only recording and she states, "I'm not giving up the day job." On 14 April 2005, Kerrigan gave birth to her second son, Brian Solomon, in Boston, MA; the baby was delivered by Caesarian section. Kerrigan has had six miscarriages since the birth of her first son, eight years old at the time of Brian's birth. Her dad died in the early morning hours of 24 January 2010 at his Stoneham, MA home after a physical altercation with his son. Emergency help was called to the home at about 1:30 PM and the father was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The son, Nancy's brother Mark, was intoxicated according to police reports; he was arrested and charged with assault and battery. After further investigation into the exact cause of death was made, he was tried for manslaughter. The trial was held in late May 2011. On 25 May 2011 he was found not guilty of manslaughter but sentenced to two years in prison for assault and battery. Link to Wikipedia biography