Very interesting. Nancy Kerrigan mentions this in her book. She says that one year there was a requirement in the short program of a triple loop combo.
There was never a short program requirement of a triple loop combo. In the 1980s when one of the jumps in the combination was specified, it was always a double jump. (Remember all the 1988 men's medalists at the Olympics doing triple axel-double loop in their short programs?)
So probably what you're remembering is that Kerrigan had difficulty putting a double loop after any triple, so she came up with the solution of doing double loop first followed by triple toe.