Not Always a Love Match : Sports celebrities are increasingly the targets of non-sporting nuts

Athletes are among the most publicly accessible of celebrities--their job is to compete regularly before thousands of screaming fans. It is such accessibility that on occasion has made famous performers the open targets of people both deranged and violent.

This vulnerability was evident Thursday in the shocking assault on U.S. figure skating champion Nancy Kerrigan in Detroit. Kerrigan, who had just stepped off the ice after a practice session, was injured by a man who struck her across the legs with what appeared to be a metal rod. As a result she will miss the U.S. Figure Skating Championships this weekend and perhaps a chance at an Olympic gold medal.

The assault is frighteningly reminiscent of an incident last April in which Monica Seles, at the time the No. 1-ranked women’s tennis player, was stabbed in the back by a spectator at a tournament in Germany. It appears that the attack on Kerrigan, like that on Seles, was intended to keep the athlete out of competition.

Predictably, Thursday’s incident has again raised the question of whether security at sporting venues is adequate. The issue is significant especially in the contexts of the coming Winter Olympic Games and the World Cup Soccer Tournament.

Several steps could be taken immediately to make athletes at least slightly safer: tighter standards for admission to practice sessions, more closed sessions, more security guards. But the larger issue of violence in the United States and elsewhere cannot be answered with such simple and obvious actions; only fundamental changes in society hold the promise of a remedy.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when fans could literally reach out and touch sports heroes, who basked in the adulation. Sadly, the day may be nearing when athletes automatically recoil rather than reach for those outstretched hands.