Nancy Kerrigan was brought to Boys Town to inspire others.
Nancy Kerrigan, a two-time Olympic medalist, speaks to students at Boys Town in Omaha on Thursday. She talked about the hours of practice it takes to be among the world’s best figure skaters. “But it’s the dedication that I learned,” she said. “It doesn’t matter the outcome.”
Instead, it inspired her.
“It’s been overwhelming in that it is so much more than I even thought,” Kerrigan said, her voice echoing through the auditorium. “You read about it, but seeing it in person and — it’s just different. It’s amazing.”
Earlier that afternoon, Kerrigan delivered a message to Boys Town students about overcoming adversity, something the former figure skater did throughout her competitive career before hanging up the skates more than 30 years ago.
In January 1994, Kerrigan was assaulted while leaving practice. In a plan hatched in part by the ex-husband of a competitor, Tonya Harding, Kerrigan was struck in the back of the leg with a baton in an attempt to keep her off the ice for an extended period.
Six weeks later, she won silver at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics.
“If I can use that notoriety I’ve been able to get through skating to help anyone, I feel so lucky,” Kerrigan told The World-Herald. “To be able to maybe be an inspiration in some way, to anyone, is truly an honor.”
Kerrigan spent more than half an hour telling everyone in the room, scattered through the rows of wooden seats, about perseverance, preparation and perspective.
But every point she made, every story she told, circled back to what’s admittedly Kerrigan’s favorite lesson: Get back up when you fall down.
“And I’ve fallen down a lot,” she said. Kerrigan, who won bronze at the 1992 Winter Olympics, kept coming back to the people around her, the people who helped her get back to her feet and stand tall.
Her mother is legally blind — has been since Nancy was born — and her dad is a welder. Her parents couldn’t afford skating lessons, Kerrigan said, but they made sacrifices so she could chase a dream. That’s why she never took a practice for granted.
Kerrigan’s coaches were always there. Not too long ago, she ran into one she hadn’t seen in forever and burst into tears before she could get a word out. At one point, she needed a sports psychologist.
The people around Kerrigan could tell something was off after she dropped to fifth in the United States — low for her standards — in 1993. Three days a week for the next year, she practiced how to compete after going years without a pre-skate routine.
Getting to this point was a group effort, Kerrigan said, and she encouraged the Boys Town students to lean on the people around them, too.
“It wasn’t easy. I had some help,” Kerrigan said. “There were a lot of hard days, and the ice is really hard on top of it. To go as far as you can in this sport, to that level, is kind of insane and takes a lot of bruising and crying and work.
“But it’s the dedication that I learned. It doesn’t matter the outcome.”
Kerrigan hasn’t slowed down, even after more than three decades since retiring from competitive skating following the 1994 Olympics. She’s a mom to three kids — a costume designer, a gymnast at the Naval Academy and a ballerina — and regularly travels to keep up with them. On top of public speaking. On top of being the executive producer of a movie. Kerrigan is still on the ice, too.
“I do skating shows, which is kind of crazy because I’m way too old to be doing it,” Kerrigan said, laughing. “It’s more about the show than having to do all the triples, thankfully, because I can’t.”
So many people gave to Kerrigan along the way, and now she tries to give back. Thursday’s trip to Boys Town was a reminder of what that means.
“This is inspiring to me. It makes me want to do more,” Kerrigan said. “We should never be done. We always keep learning and growing, and this trip has brought that to me.”
