Nancy Kerrigan: 5 Things to Know About the New 'DWTS' Star

Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars premieres Monday at 8 p.m ET on ABC

Nancy Kerrigan is trading her ice skates for dancing shoes when she begins her ballroom journey on Dancing with the Stars‘ 24th season with pro partner Artem Chigvintsev.

Read on to learn five interesting facts about the 47-year-old retired professional athlete, who will be slipping back into sequins and tights once again to perform in front of a national audience.

ABC/Craig Sjodin

1. She’s a two-time Olympic medalist.
The married mother of three competed in two Winter Olympic Games and took home a medal both times.

She first competed in the event at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, where she won the bronze medal. Two years later, Kerrigan competed at the 1994 Winter Olympic games in Lillehammer, Norway, where she nabbed the silver medal.

2. ‘Why, why, why?’: She was attacked with a police baton at a competition.
In January 1994, Kerrigan was attacked at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit a month before the Winter Olympics. Following a practice session, the figure skater was the victim of clubbing when Shane Stant took a police baton to her right knee in the hopes of breaking it and sidelining her from the Olympic games. He was hired by skating rival Tonya Harding‘s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and Harding’s bodyguard at the time.

Directly after the attack, Kerrigan was recorded saying, “Why, why, why?” and the incident became known as “The Whack Heard ‘Round the World.”

Harding avoided serving prison time for the attack after Gillooly took a plea bargain in exchange for implicating her, but she was placed on probation for three years, sentenced to 500 hours of community service and fined $160,000.

3. Her feud with Tonya Harding is soon to play out on the big screen.
The Harding-Kerrigan spat will be featured in the upcoming Harding biopic, I Tonya. Harding, now 45, is most known for her career-ending moment, when she was almost immediately implicated in the attack against Kerrigan. Australian actress Margot Robbie has signed on to portray Harding in the film, which is slated for release in 2018.

4. She’s a Hall-of-Famer.
In 2004, Kerrigan earned perhaps one of the highest honors as a former professional figure skater when she was inducted into the United States Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Though she no longer competes competitively on the ice, she has taken her talents behind the camera lens where she has served as a commentator. For the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Kerrigan worked as a special correspondent for Entertainment Tonight.

5. Kerrigan skated her way onto Blades of Glory.
Though only brief, Kerrigan made a cameo appearance in the 2007 ice-skating comedy Blades of Glory, starring Will Ferrell.

“Hey, Nancy Kerrigan,” Ferrell’s character, Chazz Michael Michaels, says to Kerrigan.

“Hey,” she says, briefly acknowledging him.

“You an official here?” he proceeds to ask rhetorically. “Because you have officially given me a boner.” Cue eye glare.

Season 24 of Dancing with the Stars premieres Monday at 8 p.m ET on ABC.