The man who delivered the baton blow to ice skater Nancy Kerrigan’s knee has revealed there had been discussions about crippling her by cutting her Achilles tendon.
Shane Stant revealed how he had plotted the attempted kneecapping with Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and Harding’s bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt.
In a chilling interview with Inside Edition, he revealed just how far they were ready to go to stop Kerrigan competing against Harding in the Nationals.
‘There was initial talk of cutting her Achilles tendon, which obviously would cripple her,’ he alleged. ‘I didn’t think it was necessary. I wasn’t willing to do that on top of that.’
Shane Stant revealed how he had plotted the attempted kneecapping with Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and Harding’s bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt
‘Their plan was to basically take out Nancy Kerrigan and then it would guarantee that Tonya is going to the Olympics,’ he said in another clip, obtained by DailyMailTV.
‘Nobody could have foreseen how huge it would’ve become.’
He may have drawn a line at crippling the ice skater, but he did deliver a baton blow to her knee on January 6, 1994, at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan, that almost destroyed her dreams of Olympic glory.
Stant would later plead guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and spend 18 months in prison.
Harding has revealed she knew about the plot to hurt her rival two months before the 1994 US National Championships.
The disgraced figure skater, 47, claimed that she began to suspect a plan was being hatched after overhearing a conversation her then-husband Jeff Gillooly was having with his friend Shawn Eckardt.
Harding’s then-husband Jeff Gillooly was the mastermind behind the attack. He served two years in prison for his role in the scheme
Rivals: The infamous attack on Nancy Kerrigan (right) was carried out to ensureTonya Harding would make it to the 1994 Olympics
‘I did overhear them talking about stuff, where, “Well, maybe we should take somebody out so we can make sure she gets on the team.” And I remember telling them, I go, “What the hell are you talking about? I can skate,”‘ confesses Harding in a preview for the special.
‘This was, like, a month or two months before [Kerrigan’s attack], but they were talking about skating and saying, “Well, maybe somebody should be taken out so then, you know, she can make it.”‘
Harding told ABC News host Amy Robach at one point in the interview that she is done repenting for her sins, and is ready to move on with her life once and for all.
‘Enough apologizing,’ declares Harding.
‘She’s got her life. I’ve got my life. We both have wonderful lives and that should be all that matters.’
Kerrigan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Stant followed Kerrigan to Detroit where she was practicing and ‘went through the curtains and the curtains closed so it was just her and I,’ he explained. He then clubbed her in the right knee. Above she is pictured after the attack
Harding is adamant however that she did not plan the attack or suggest that Gillooly hire Shane Stent to carry out the whack-heard-round-the-world.
The skater ultimately worked out a plea deal where she entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiring to hinder prosecution.
She was forced to pay a $160,000 fine and sentenced to three years’ probation as well as 500 hours community service.
In a final, devastating blow, Harding was also stripped of her 1994 US Championship and banned for life from the US Figure Skating Association.
In another clip, obtained by DailyMailTV for an upcoming documentary, Stant told how he dodged past security to get close to Kerrigan, then 24, by following camera crews covering the 1994 US Figure Skating Championships.
Until now, Stant, 46, has never spoken in detail about the moments leading up to the crime which is the subject of Golden Globes winning movie, I, Tonya, which stars Margot Robbie as Harding.
The culprit: Shane Stant, 46 (pictured right during his arraignment) was a 22-year-old drifter at the time, and was contacted by his uncle who asked if he would ‘take down a skater’ for $6,500. He is pictured right with his younger sister Maile present-da
At the time of the attack, he was a 22-year-old drifter living in Chandler, Arizona and the product of ‘an abusive childhood,’ that put him on the wrong path, claims his sister Maile, 26.
Stant’s involvement began when he was contacted by his uncle Derrick Stant a few days before Christmas 1993 who wanted to know if he would ‘take down a skater’ for $6,500 in cash.
Short of cash, he agreed and traveled to Oregon to meet with Gilooly and Eckhardt, who served two years and 18 months respectively for their involvement in the bungled attack.
After agreeing a price and a plan, Stant flew to Massachusetts, arriving at Kerrigan’s Cape Cod training rink on January 4, where he failed to find her.
Realizing where she had gone, he traveled to Detroit by bus. And there, on January 6, 1994, he infiltrated the Cobo Arena by posing as a cameraman.
Speaking in the exclusive footage, he said: ‘I’ve always found that if you mentally believe you belong somewhere, that no one will question you.
‘I just walked through [security] with authority like this is where I belong, this is what I’m supposed to be doing.
‘I went past security and I was watching the cameramen, basically kind of going with them […] I had a pretty good rotation of how everyone was moving
Stant, who is unmarried and has no children, lives in Hermosa Beach, California, where he runs a legal marijuana business called Greenlit 13. His younger sister Maile (pictured with him) 26, says he was a product of ‘an abusive childhood,’ that put him on the wrong path
Stant has agreed to take part in Maile’s documentary, My Hero’s Shadow (pictured) which tells the story of having a brother who is seen as a villain
‘I just went and the cameraman followed her and I was, no exaggeration, only about a foot behind him.
‘He put his camera down and turned to the left, I turned around him and turned to the right, and I just scooped in right behind her.
‘I went through the curtains and the curtains closed so it was just her and I.’
Moments later, Stant delivered a powerful baton blow to the back of Kerrigan’s knee, leaving her in agony and screaming ‘Why? Why?’ before she was carried away by her father Daniel.
Miraculously, she recovered in time to take part in the Lillehammer Winter Olympics in Norway one month later – taking home a silver medal. Harding, meanwhile, finished eighth.
By then, Stant was in the hands of the FBI after turning himself in in the days following the attack.
He was sentenced to 18 months in jail but in 2006, attempted to have his conviction overturned so he could join the military. The appeal was denied.
Today, 46-year-old Stant lives in Hermosa Beach, California, where he runs a legal marijuana business called Greenlit 13.
Harding, who was a long-term rival of Nancy, was allegedly behind the plot to take out her strongest competitor
After agreeing a price and a plan, Stant flew to Massachusetts, arriving at Kerrigan’s Cape Cod training rink but failed to find her. He then traveled to Detroit by bus and infiltrated the Cobo Arena (above) by posing as a cameraman
Childless and unmarried, he is understood to be dating but spends his days personally delivering the product to buyers within the South Bay area of Los Angeles.
His sister claims he is a changed man and, in footage taken from a documentary he is taking part in called My Hero’s Shadow, Stant moans he was ‘in an insane place’ at the time of the attack.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV, Maile said: ‘He’s in a great place now and he is nothing like that person.’
Of his new weed-dealing business, she adds: ‘It’s kind of funny because my brother doesn’t even smoke marijuana.
‘And our dad, who passed away when I was little, was a drug dealer and now Shane is a legal drug dealer.’
Maile, who lives in Oahu, says her brother has seen I, Tonya, and thought it ‘was a great movie’ but would have preferred to have been played by the Rock because Ricky Russert ‘wasn’t that good looking’.
She said: ‘He said it was a good movie. He didn’t take any offense. He told me, ‘I understand why it would be interesting. I thought it was funny and witty, but kind of dark at the same time.’
‘He said: ‘It was pretty cool though because I thought I was more attractive than the actor that played me.’
Tonya (pictured talking to reporters days after the attack) did not physically carry out the assault, but was scrutinized after it emerged she was aware of the plot
Shane Minoaka Stant leaves the Justice Center in Portland on Jan 20, 1994, after posting bail
Maile added: ‘Usually it’s the opposite – the person playing them is a glamorous version of themselves. But Shane was like, ‘I think I was more handsome than that guy.’
‘Before The Rock became really famous we used to joke, I wonder if they ever did a movie, who would play you?
‘And because my brother is so big we would be like, ‘for sure The Rock is gonna play you!”
Maile says her brother has ‘come to terms with what he did, and ‘is not ashamed of it.’ She added: ‘It is unfortunate that it happened but it made him the person he is today.
‘He was definitely going down a particular path with nothing slowing him down. And it put a pause on his entire life and stopped him.
‘He was able to look at himself and think – is this really the type of person you want to be. He was able to make that change and have the courage to do it.’
And according to his sister, that is the reason he agreed to take part in My Hero’s Shadow: a documentary which Maile conceived of while working on a farm in New Zealand in 2014.
She said: ‘The documentary The Price of Gold [about Harding and Kerrigan] came out, and the owner [of the farm] said: ‘I remember hating that man [Stant].’
Maile says her brother has seen the film I, Tonya, and thought it ‘was a great movie’ but would have preferred to have been played by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (right) because Ricky Russert (left) ‘wasn’t that good looking’
‘It struck a chord, because at that point I had never heard an ill word spoken about Shane. I was looking at creative outlets and I thought – I am going to counter the entire event with all the positive amazing experiences I have had with him.
At the time of the attack, Maile, who is 20 years younger than Shane, says she didn’t really understand what her brother had done, saying: ‘There were always knee jokes in our family but I didn’t really get it.
‘I remember watching the documentaries so I knew he was a hit man, but I think it was a survival mechanism not really understanding what that meant.
‘And I don’t think I understood the magnitude of the event. But I was never sat down. The first time we spoke about the event was in the documentary. It was the first time I heard about it from him from his mouth.
‘To think he could hurt someone. It was such a weird thing to go back and understand.’
Maile claims her brother’s abusive childhood played a huge part in why he did what he did: ‘His life had to be worse at the time, than the possibility of going to prison.
‘It led us to discussing our father, Gaylord who wasn’t very nice, he was not a nice man. But I was also so young when our dad passed away so I never experienced what he was like.
Harding’s side of the story is now being told in the Golden Globes-winning movie, I, Tonya, which stars Margot Robbie (right) as Harding
‘His childhood put him on a path to him becoming a hit man. My father was [also] a hit man, I didn’t know that.’
Director Justin Young, who made My Hero’s Shadow, added: ‘Just because he did something horrible to one person doesn’t mean he is like that to another.
‘I had some pre-conceived ideas about him going in. Some of them were affirmed, some of them weren’t.
‘I think he is truly sorry about the attack and the effect it had on someone else. Not just the physical pain but the psychological.
‘That she [Kerrigan] will never just be a figure skater. I was impressed he understood all of that.’