Off the ice, but back in the spotlight! Nancy Kerrigan is the latest boldface name to join season 24 of Dancing With the Stars, Us Weekly can confirm.
The Olympics figure-skating icon, 47, will be competing against fellow Olympian Simone Biles and wrestler Mr. T for the mirrorball trophy, a source tells Us, making her the third confirmed celebrity for the popular dance competition show.
As Us previously reported, current Bachelor hunk Nick Viall is also in talks to join the cast, though former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former first lady Michelle Obama have both politely declined the invitation. Singer Ashlee Simpson also passed on the opportunity.
Kerrigan became a household name in the ’90s after winning a bronze medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the silver at the ’94 games. She was also a two-time world medalist.
In January 1994, she also made headlines for a less happy reason; while walking through a corridor at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan, she was viciously attacked by a man later identified as Shane Stant, a friend of her rival Tonya Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly. Stant used a police baton to club Kerrigan’s right knee, and in news footage broadcast shortly after the attack, the Olympic athlete could be seen crying and wailing, “Why, why, why?”
The athlete has since appeared in a number of ice shows, including Champions on Ice, Broadway on Ice, and ice show adaptations of the musicals Footloose and Grease. In 2007, she made a cameo in Will Ferrell’s figure skating spoof, Blades of Glory.
Regardless of who else ends up competing, this season is shaping up to be an exciting one. In this week’s issue, Us Weekly also exclusively revealed that dancing pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd will be returning to the ballroom. “Most people start using the stairs instead of the elevator at nine weeks postpartum — this one is going to be dancing full-out,” Chmerkovskiy told Us in the new issue on newsstands now.
The rest of the cast will be revealed on Good Morning America on Wednesday, March 1. Season 24 premieres on ABC Monday, March 20, at 8 p.m. ET.
