Harding to Compete in Olympics, Drop Lawsuit

After initially taking a hard line on the question of whether figure skater Tonya Harding should compete in the Winter Olympics, the U.S. Olympic Committee decided here early this morning to switch rather than fight and allow her to skate.

In an announcement that came shortly after 1 a.m. here, barely 12 hours into the XVII Olympic Winter Games, the USOC said that it had reached an agreement with Harding’s attorneys for her to participate in the competition, which begins Feb. 23 in nearby Hamar, Norway.

The agreement came less than 24 hours after Circuit Judge Patrick D. Gilroy of Oregon City, Ore., ordered attorneys representing the two parties to meet over the weekend in an effort to settle the $25-million lawsuit filed by Harding to block possible USOC action against her.

In return for being allowed to skate, Harding agreed to release the USOC from all legal claims.

“Tonya Harding will skate in the 1994 Olympics,” Gilroy said after attorneys for the two sides met in his chambers in Portland, Ore., for much of Saturday.

Her attorneys released a statement after the settlement was reached. “Tonya Harding regrets any inconvenience the Oregon court proceedings have caused to the United States Olympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee and the other Olympic athletes,” it said. “Tonya simply wants to skate in the Olympics and be treated fairly. She appreciates the United States Olympic Committee working with her to resolve this matter.”

Harding was not present at the courthouse as her fate was being decided. As she has been throughout much of the ordeal, Harding stayed with Stephanie Quintero, a close friend, in Beaverton, Ore.

While her attorneys were meeting with USOC representatives, Harding spent about two hours with Portland detectives in Quintero’s apartment. Police refused to say why they talked to Harding, but their visit was believed to involve an incident Friday in which Quintero’s husband had an altercation with the apartment manager over the number of reporters that had camped out at the apartment complex.

Harding is under investigation by the FBI, the Multnomah County prosecutor’s office and the U.S. Figure Skating Assn., but not Portland police.

As Harding and Quintero tried to drive away from their apartment Saturday evening, they were besieged by reporters who have kept a vigil outside the complex for weeks.

Harding brushed away questions, but Quintero said “she is very, very happy. She is jumping for joy.”

The USOC announcement would seem to close at least one chapter in the saga that began on Jan. 6, when Nancy Kerrigan, Harding’s rival, was assaulted after a practice during the national figure skating championships in Detroit.

Kerrigan was unavailable for comment, but her coach, Evy Scotvold, seemed unsettled by the decision.

“It seems kind of contradictory when you see the opening ceremonies and all they stand for,” he said.

When associates of Harding were arrested in connection with the attack--her ex-husband later pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy--law enforcement authorities in Portland and Detroit focused their investigation on whether she was involved. She has not been charged.

At the conclusion of its own investigation, however, a U.S. Figure Skating Assn. hearing panel determined that reasonable grounds existed to believe that Harding was involved in the plot to injure Kerrigan and the subsequent cover-up.

The USOC scheduled a hearing of its Games Administrative Board for Tuesday in Oslo and later postponed it until Friday. At the hearing, the board was to review those charges and also deliberate on whether Harding’s admission that she did not immediately report information she learned about the attack to law enforcement authorities was a violation of the USOC’s code of conduct.

In its announcement today, the USOC did not address those issues.

“We are appalled still by the attack on Nancy Kerrigan, which was not only an attack on the athletes but an assault on the basic ideals of the Olympic movement and sportsmanship,” the USOC’s executive director, Harvey Schiller, said, reading from a prepared statement.

“The attack was designed to cripple her, alter the competition, and could have ended her career. We remain deeply concerned about this incident.”

The USOC decided, however, that prolonging the decision on whether Harding should compete while her attorneys fought the process through the courts would steal attention from the Winter Olympics and continue to be a distraction for the other 156 members of the U.S. team, USOC spokesman Mike Moran said Sunday.

In his ruling, Judge Gilroy applauded the USOC’s decision.

“The court commends the USOC for their efforts in resolving this dispute and for putting their overriding interest in a distraction-free Olympics ahead of the legitimate concerns which brought them to this forum.”

As an example of the media interest in Kerrigan here, she was greeted at the front door of the Main Press Center on Saturday afternoon by close to 100 photographers when she arrived for a news conference, which was attended by at least 500 reporters. Moran said it was the largest media gathering ever for a USOC news conference.

Asked if she knew how she would react if Harding came to the Games, Kerrigan said: “Not really. I don’t know how I’m going to feel when I see her. I don’t know what will happen. That is personal and between the two of us, not you guys.”

Now, it seems likely that Kerrigan and Harding will not only live in the same dormitory in the athletes’ village, although not on the same floor, but also practice at the same time in the same rink in Hamar.

USOC officials made a request to the International Skating Union that Kerrigan and Harding be assigned separate practice times, but it was denied.

The U.S. Figure Skating Assn. president, Claire Ferguson, said potential problems between the two U.S. skaters in practice are exaggerated.

“We have skaters from countries that are at war who skate at the same practice,” she said. “I went to the opening ceremonies and looked at the doves of peace. We are all part of that.”

Times staff writer Elliott Almond contributed to this story from Oregon City, Ore.