Harding’s Spot on Olympic Team Is Under Review

Although she has not been charged in the attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, figure skater Tonya Harding’s hold on a berth in next month’s Winter Olympics appeared less secure Saturday as U.S. Olympic Committee officials contemplated whether it would be in the best interests of other athletes to remove her from the U.S. team.

Discussion of the Harding issue--a late addition to this weekend’s regularly scheduled USOC executive committee meeting in Durham, N.C.--focused on whether her presence would result in a media circus that would create security problems and distractions for other athletes.

In a statement, USOC President LeRoy Walker strongly hinted that those concerns could cause the executive committee to dismiss Harding from the team for the Feb. 12-27 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, even if she is not implicated in the attack.

“While awaiting additional information from various (law enforcement) agencies, the USOC cannot prejudge any of the issues relating to any individual,” he said. “But we are concerned about . . . the potential of disruptive elements within the U.S. delegation at the Games, and we have an obligation to protect the competitive environment . . . so that the 154 athletes representing the United States can compete at the highest level.”

In an interview later, Walker added: “Timing doesn’t permit us to say we can’t take any position because she (Harding) has not had her day in court. We have to make a decision without the consideration of whether or not her rights have been abridged.”

Although such action would be unprecedented, he called the situation “extraordinary” and said it calls for “unusual deliberation and action on our part.”

Claire Ferguson, president of the U.S. Figure Skating Assn., told the Associated Press that the chances of Harding competing in Norway are “looking pretty grim.”

“It may be a rolling stone that rolls right over her,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said later that she does not believe the USOC should rush to judgment.

“It’s a terrible thing to say she should be removed without us knowing what happened,” she said.

However, Walker said the USOC is the final authority on members of the Olympic team.

Harding, 23, of Portland, earned one of two Olympic berths for U.S. women by winning the national championship on Jan. 8 in Detroit. The other berth was awarded by the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. to Kerrigan, 24, of Stoneham, Mass., who withdrew from the competition after she sustained knee injuries in a Jan. 7 attack by a man wielding a club.

One USOC official, who did not want to be identified, told The Times that the executive committee is aware that it would be “exploring uncharted waters” by removing Harding from the team if she is not implicated in the crime.

“Obviously, that’s being discussed,” he said. “We’re trying to juggle her right to compete against the welfare of the entire team.”

If she is not allowed to compete in Norway, Harding’s berth would go to Michelle Kwan, 13, of Torrance, Calif., who finished second to Harding in the national championships and was named by the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. as the first alternate to the Olympic team.

Although her coach, Frank Carroll, said Kwan has continued to train in case she is called upon, he said she has not been paying much attention to news reports about the investigation.

“It has nothing to do with her,” he said. “She doesn’t understand it. Her job is to skate.”

Meanwhile, there were intensifying but unconfirmed reports implicating Harding in the attack--allegations that were said to come from two of the three men arrested in the case.

News accounts from Phoenix said accused “hit man” Shane Minoaka Stant, 22, told authorities that Harding was involved “way back” in the plot. Quoting an unnamed source, the Boston Globe reported that Stant also told authorities that he first stalked Kerrigan in Massachusetts prior to the national championships.

“He said he was sent to Boston to do the job and flew there but never could get a good shot at Kerrigan alone,” the law enforcement source told the Globe.

Further, Stant reportedly said that Harding faked a death threat against herself in November as part of the plan, presumably to make it appear someone was stalking top female ice skaters.

Stant, of Chandler, Ariz., surrendered Friday in Phoenix. There were reports that he turned himself in because reporters were pestering his family in Portland. Sheriff’s deputies late Friday cited a woman identified as Stant’s 74-year-old grandmother for firing two shots in the air to scare off a Portland TV crew that was filming her house.

Stant’s allegations against Harding followed a confession to the “elements of the crime” by the skater’s bodyguard, according to the bodyguard’s attorney. The bodyguard, Shawn Eric Eckardt, 26, further told investigators that Harding was involved in the “planning and cover-up” of the assault, according to broadcast and published reports.

Eckardt was arraigned and released on $20,000 bail Friday in Portland.

Eckardt’s attorney, W. Mark McKnight, said his client may have been a victim caught up in the plot. The lawyer told reporters that Eckardt was not “smart enough to be anything else. He’s not a mastermind kind of guy.

“He had a deep and profound sense of remorse, and he still carries that sense of remorse,” McKnight said. “I believe that sense of remorse began when he watched on national television a beautiful and promising Miss Kerrigan cringing and crying on the floor.”

The third man arrested was Derrick Brian Smith, 29, the uncle of Stant and a friend of Eckardt’s. He recently moved from Portland to Phoenix.

Harding and her former husband, Jeff Gillooly, have denied responsibility and said they would cooperate with investigators.

The two, who live together in suburban Portland, emerged from the seclusion of their home Saturday and drove off in a rental car. Harding told reporters that she was tired but “fine” and was looking forward “hopefully to getting some rest, maybe.”

Before leaving, Harding met with attorneys. One of them, the husband of her coach, reportedly referred her to criminal defense counsel Robert C. Weaver Jr.

So far, authorities have been closed-mouthed in public as they apparently sift statements and evidence. At least twice, officials have denied that arrest warrants had been issued for Harding.

“I can’t say she’s involved,” said Michael Schrunk, Multnomah County district attorney. “I can’t say she’s not involved.”

In Detroit, police completed their investigation into the incident on Saturday and submitted a report to prosecutors. The Detroit News reported in today’s editions that an arrest warrant was requested on Gillooly, in addition to the three people who have been arrested.

The Portland Oregonian newspaper reported that authorities believe Eckardt went through Smith to hire his nephew, Stant, for $100,000, but the bill went unpaid.

The newspaper said also Smith had shared a rural house with Stant until recently.

Smith’s wife told reporters that he had worked with disabled people but also had a dream of starting a training camp for bodyguards.

In a profile, the Oregonian reported that Eckardt took a correspondence course and attended a two-week training program from Executive Security International in Aspen., Colo., but washed out. The president of the company said Eckardt “thinks he is James Bond.”

Meanwhile, Sarah Bergman, 20, who described herself as a longtime friend of Eckardt’s, said he confided the outline of the plot to her and that she remained convinced that it was masterminded by Gillooly.

“Jeff was doing this for Tonya, so he could look better in her eyes,” she said in a television interview.

Balzar reported from Portland and Harvey from Los Angeles.