Nancy Kerrigan she was walking through a corridor at Cobo Arena immediately after a practice session, Kerrigan was bludgeoned on the right lower thigh with a police baton by an assailant who was later apprehended and identified as Shane Stant. The assault was planned by rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and co-conspirator Shawn Eckardt (1967–2007). The conspirators' goal was preventing Kerrigan from competing in both the National Championships and the Lillehammer 1994 Olympics. The immediate aftermath of the attack was recorded on a TV camera and broadcast around the world. The initial footage shows the attendants helping Kerrigan as she grabbed
Nancy Kerrigan many corporate sponsorship contracts (with companies such as Campbell's Soup, Evian, Reebok, and Seiko) and opportunities to perform professionally, which were 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 Winter Olympics, she curtailed these activities to focus on her training, instead. She also began working with a sports psychologist to better handle her nerves in competition. On January 6, 1994, at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, a criminal incident caused Kerrigan to gain international fame far beyond the skating world. As