‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : They Don’t Let Fax Get in Way

Tonya and Nancy are teammates.

It is 1 o’clock Sunday morning here and guess who’s coming to Norway? Tonya Harding is coming. Nancy Kerrigan is already here and Harding is packing her suitcase and Michelle Kwan of Torrance is out. Michelle is 13 and presumably will have other chances to skate in the Olympics. But Harding is 23 and, for her, it is now or never. Turns out to be now.

It is 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and faxes are flying. Judge Patrick D. Gilroy in the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for the County of Clackamas “is pleased to announce that the issues now pending before this court have been resolved. . . . Tonya Harding will skate in the 1994 Olympics.”

Harding herself sends word that she “regrets any inconvenience” and “simply wants to skate in the Olympics and be treated fairly” and sincerely hopes that she will “not have to grant interviews, hold press conferences or make additional public statements” and would appreciate everyone’s cooperation because “it’s time to put this matter behind all of us.”

Dmitry Feld is passing out the faxes. Dmitry is usually a spokesman for U.S. luge, not figure skating, but he is here helping out. Dmitry is trapped in a facsimile feeding frenzy, outstretched fingers reaching toward him, hungrily. Dmitry, a Russian immigrant, dispenses the faxes and says, “Is this like a line for bread or what?”

Mike Moran, spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, reads aloud from his own USOC prepared statement, stapled to the faxes. It says, in part: “Because of the resolution of the court proceedings in Oregon today, Tonya Harding will continue to be a member of the Olympic team, and she will compete in the ladies’ event in figure skating beginning on Feb. 23.”

Half a day before, at high noon, Moran was at the front of the same auditorium, riding verbal shotgun for Nancy Kerrigan at her first appearance before the multitudinous world media. Now he has been called back to announce and explain why a woman being investigated in a violent attack on Nancy Kerrigan is on her way to Norway to skate with Kerrigan on behalf of the United States.

Tonya and Nancy are teammates.

“We are appalled still by the attack on Nancy Kerrigan, which was not only an attack on the athlete, but an assault on the basic ideals of the Olympic movement and sportsmanship,” Moran reads from the USOC 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.

“From the beginning, the U.S. Olympic Committee has attempted to bring this matter to a conclusion, and to employ our Constitution and Bylaws and other resources to find the truth in these matters and to be undeniably fair.

“For the moment, the matter is stilled. . . .

“We wish each of them the best of success as they attempt to realize their lifelong Olympic Dreams.”

Dreams, with a capital D.

It is the end of an imperfect day. From slightly past noon, at which time Nancy Kerrigan was saying that how she felt about Tonya Harding was between them, to slightly past midnight, at which time Harding was officially on her way here to Norway and hoping to deliver in person that “hug” she wanted to give Kerrigan, this opening day of the XVII Winter Olympics has been one of extraordinary pomp and circumstance.

Within this time frame, to quote again from the USOC document, “approximately 1,900 of the world’s finest athletes”--neither Kerrigan nor Harding among them--”entered the Olympic Stadium in Lillehammer. The men and women of the 1994 U.S. Olympic team are now part of the Games and the reason why the United States delegation, the nation’s First Lady (Hillary Rodham Clinton) and countless other Americans are here in Norway.”

Tonya and Nancy are teammates. Each would appreciate no more questions. Alas, there are more questions than answers. Where will they practice? At the same place, same session, as is currently stipulated? One international skating official said late last week, coldly, if one cannot skate with the other, “then don’t bring her.”

What about Kerrigan’s state of mind? Her coach, Evy Scotvold, said with understandable concern, “She can’t get any peace.” Yet she also looked her skater in the eye after practice and said, “Get used to it. None of this is going to go away.”

And what of Kerrigan’s physical state? She has lost weight. She skated hard in practice to music by Tina Turner and Neil Diamond, took a fall, got up, flexed her tender right knee. Saturday, she said she was fine. But she also skipped the opening ceremony, reluctant to put much strain on the leg.

What will Harding say to Kerrigan, if anything? How about that hug Tonya said she would give Nancy, given the chance? How would Nancy respond to that?

“Bye,” Kerrigan said, and skated off.

What if Harding had been told to hang her skates on an Oregon peg and watch the Olympics on TV? One of her lawyers, Dennis Rawlinson, said, “If she’s later found innocent, we could never make it up to her.”

The U.S. is sending her.

What else can it do?

Norway is welcoming her.

What else can it do?

It’s a mystery, as Kerrigan called it herself. Neither woman has a clue how it will turn out.

A soap opera, others would call it. It has villains and victims and lovers and lawyers and sponsors and music.

In the background is a 13-year-old girl from the fringe of Los Angeles who acts more mature than most of the grown-ups. Michelle Kwan has been prepared to skate for herself and her country. Now she will stand by and watch, with other Americans by the millions. She is the most innocent of bystanders. Bravo, Michelle. She will never show any more grace or poise in her career than she is showing right now.

Now that Tonya and Nancy are teammates.

Olympic Dreams still alive.

Dreams. Plural.