DETROIT _ Michelle Kwan skated toward the edge of the ice _ right into one of the most infamous moments in sports history.
"I'm on the ice with Nancy Kerrigan!" Kwan thought.
It was Jan. 6, 1994, and Kwan was, at the time, an innocent, awestruck, 13-year-old.
"Nancy! Nancy!" the fans were screaming inside Detroit's Cobo Arena.
After finishing a practice session at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Kwan and Kerrigan came off the ice together. Kwan let Kerrigan go first, out of deference and respect. Kerrigan, the reigning national champion, leaned against the boards and slipped covers over her blades. She wore a white lacy costume and black gloves.
"Everybody was screaming Nancy's name, trying to get an autograph," Kwan said. "Back then, it was autographs, not selfies. She was probably 7 or 8 feet in front of me."
Kwan stopped to talk to her coach, Frank Carroll, and Kerrigan disappeared through a blue curtain, heading into the hallway. A moment later, Kerrigan was struck on the knee by a man with a black, retractable metal baton, a vicious attack that changed figure skating forever.
"Why?" Kerrigan screamed, sitting on a red-carpet runway. "Why? Why?"
It was called "The Whack Heard 'Round the World" and it created a world-wide media frenzy long before Twitter or Instagram or even the O.J. Simpson trial, as investigators discovered that a group of bumbling, amateurish thugs had been plotting to take out Kerrigan to help Tonya Harding, Kerrigan's rival. An entire cottage industry spun out of it _ books, movies, a parody on "Seinfeld" and countless jokes on late-night TV.
There was even an opera based on the scandal. The whole situation was absurd and ridiculous, but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to the sport. That single moment catapulted figure skating to a different level of interest. It was the reason behind massive TV ratings at the 1994 Winter Olympics, and the skaters became world-wide celebrities, raking in millions while being treated like rock stars.
Now, 25 years later, the U.S. Figure Skating Championships are returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak.
The 2019 Championships will be held in Detroit this week at Little Caesars Arena _ OK, so it's not at Joe Louis Arena like the 1994 championships, but it's close enough to stir up all those old memories, especially for a young, impressionable, teenager who heard the screams.
"I still have the perspective of a 13-year-old," Kwan said. "It was dark. It was a dark day. It's frightening and scary and sad."
Kwan went on to become a two-time Olympic medalist, five-time world champion and nine-time U.S. champion. But that moment in Cobo Arena changed her. It shaped how she would view gun violence and mental-health issues, as she dealt with different situations with fans over her career.
"You can look at it, ha-ha," Kwan said. "But look at Nancy. I don't know how it changed her, when it's dark and she's in an alley or something."
