Answer:
I assume you are referring to the article written by Jessica McBirney. According to this text, the scandal was both triggered and magnified by the media representations of the two skaters.
Explanation:
While both Harding and Kerrigan were excellent skaters, <u>the general public and corporate sponsors preferred Kerrigan who was "the media darling of American figure skating"</u>. No wonder, then, that Harding would appear to be the prime suspect right after the incident - especially when the attacker confessed to having been hired by Harding's ex-husband.
Even though the prosecution failed to prove Harding's direct involvement in the incident, the media would keep on inflating the scandal and, in a way, conducting their own trial. They went on pestering Harding and building <u>their own version of the story, completing "the caricatures they had begun building for each woman: Tonya Harding, the scrappy, disadvantaged athlete who fought for everything she thought she deserved; and Nancy Kerrigan, the elegant, natural performer who had now, in the media’s eyes, become a victim of ruthless ambition"</u>.
The stories went on even as both skaters made it to the Olympics, where Kerrigan would significantly outperform Harding. Eventually, Harding would "plead guilty to conspiring to hinder a prosecution", which led to her stripping of her sport titles and retreating from skating altogether. Even so, she keeps on denying her involvement to the present day.
The media wouldn't leave Harding alone even after she retired. <u>They went on exploiting the story, turning it into "a universal story about competition, ambition, victimhood, and justice". From there, the story would evolve into a "pop culture trope" exploited in sitcoms and movies, across all media outlets.</u>
