Kerrigan, Harding Practice : Figure skating: They take to the ice at opposite ends of the nation as new questions surface.

America’s two women Olympic figure skaters returned to the practice ice Monday while a new report surfaced and seemed to further implicate Tonya Harding, or someone very close to her, in the rink-side attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.

NBC News and the Portland Oregonian newspaper said that investigators now suspect the assault on Kerrigan was financed with money that supporters donated to Harding through the U.S. Figure Skating Assn.

The amount involved was $6,500, the newspaper said without revealing its source. Previous reports said conspirators in the case spoke of amounts as high as $100,000.

NBC also said that authorities have bank and wire transfer records that could tie Jeff Gillooly, Harding’s former husband, to the three men already in custody.

Harding, a native of the Portland area, has not been charged with any crime, and her coach said the skater categorically denies involvement and is angry that someone around her may have been involved. A sheriff’s spokeswoman said the case remained under active investigation Monday.

The county district attorney disclosed that he has arranged a tentative meeting with Harding, the first since last week’s arrest of three men in the case. At least one suspect has a two-year tie to the skater, although an attorney denied that the man was a full-time bodyguard.

The New York Times, in today’s editions, said Harding has earned about $200,000 since 1991, including $150,000 from ice skating tours. It also said that in the past three years, she received $12,000 from the U.S. Olympic Committee through a trust fund, and additional sums through private donors, including $20,000 from New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, who is also a USOC vice president.

The trust funds are supposed to be used only for training, competition and education, and skaters are required to provide an accounting of expenditures. Throughout her career, Harding, the daughter of a waitress, has been uncommonly dependent on the largess of fans and skating supporters.

Early in the pre-dawn hours Monday, Harding returned to skating practice at her home-town rink near Portland, and said she was trying to cope with the situation. And she also acknowledged that she has a hard-boiled reputation among figure skaters.

“It’s an obstacle to get over and I may not be the normal figure skater image that everybody wants me to be, but I’m my own person and I may be a little rough around the edges sometimes, but overall I think I’m a good person,” she said on ABC’s “Good Morning, America.”

Kerrigan also skated Monday, at a hometown rink in Stoneham, Mass., her first public practice session since she was struck on the knee Jan. 6 by a man wielding a baton. The attack occurred in a hallway near the ice before the U.S. skating championships in Detroit.

For an hour Monday, she glided in circles and spins, executing small hops. She attempted none of the jumps or other complicated moves required in the Olympics.

“I was kind of stiff at first--my knee, especially,” Kerrigan said at a news conference later. “After I kept going, it loosened up more and more and I felt better.”

Said orthopedic physician Mahlon Bradley, who is attending Kerrigan: “With cautious optimism, Nancy is doing very well.”

Kerrigan said she had not been contacted or received a letter from Harding, although Harding’s coach said such a letter expressing regret was in the mail.

“Everything’s going great, couldn’t be better, better than we hoped for,” said Kerrigan’s coach, Evy Scotvold. The coach said it would be two weeks before Kerrigan starts to do more complicated maneuvers, and that might mean that she will skip the opening ceremonies of the Olympics next month in Norway.

“We’d love her to be there, but all that matters is how well she can be prepared for Feb. 23 to 25,” the coach said. Those are the dates of the skating competition.

Meanwhile, in Portland, Gillooly issued another denial of involvement in this “bizarre and crazy event,” said his lawyer, Ron Hoevet. Gillooly and Harding have conducted a stormy seven-year relationship, and currently are reconciled and living together.

Gillooly has been implicated as the mastermind of the assault by a suspect, Shawn E. Eckardt, frequently described as Harding’s bodyguard.

Eckardt, who was photographed at Harding’s side when she returned from Detroit, was arrested and confessed a role in the crime. He is believed to have helped arrange the attack. Hoevet told the Associated Press that Eckardt was hired only once to help with Harding’s security and that he should not be considered her bodyguard. Harding’s long-time coach has also said she saw the man only twice in two years and could not believe he was hired as a bodyguard.

Two other men, both of them formerly from Portland and now residents of Phoenix, have been charged with conspiracy to commit assault in the case: Derrick B. Smith and his nephew, Shane M. Stant. Authorities suspect Stant, a bodybuilder and martial arts experts, committed the attack on Kerrigan.

Stant was scheduled to fly to Portland today under guard by sheriff’s deputies after waiving extradition, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee has given itself until Feb. 21 to decide whether Harding will remain on the team.