How it unfolded
A month before the Games, in January, the United States' Nancy Kerrigan was struck in the knee by an assailant during training, throwing her participation into doubt; the attack was later revealed to have been arranged by rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband, turning it into a global scandal. At Lillehammer, Kerrigan overcame the injury to deliver a nearly flawless free skate, but 16-year-old Ukrainian Oksana Baiul countered by improvising an added back combination jump at the last moment. The two were nearly tied on technical marks, and the final decision split five judges to four in favor of Baiul, who edged ahead narrowly on program component scores, with four favoring Kerrigan. A tearful Baiul claimed Ukraine's first Olympic gold since independence, while Kerrigan settled for silver. The event was recorded as one of the most-watched broadcasts in American television history.
Why it still matters
Combined with the attack on Kerrigan, this final turned figure skating from sports news into a global media event, and the audience of well over 100 million estimated viewers has been cited for decades since as evidence of the sport's television value. The narrow judging margin also reignited debate over the subjectivity of program component scoring.