Was Tonya Harding really the best figure skater in the world for a time?

She’s not graceful on the ice.

No. She was heavy-footed and awkward. She was never the best.

She was an athletic skater. Say what you will but she was talented. It's a sad tale.

Why does she show her ass and crotch to the world. It’s gross.

Yes. Tonya Harding had the talent, but not the image that the figure skating association wanted to promote.

In 1990-91, Tonya was the winner of the US National Championship, and she came in second in the World Championship. She was a great skater.

Harding's breakthrough year came in 1991 when, at the U.S. Championships, she completed her first triple Axel in competition on February 16 – the first American woman to execute the jump. She landed seven triple jumps in the long program including the triple Axel. She won the 1991 U.S. Ladies' Singles title with the event's first 6.0 technical merit score since Janet Lynn's 1973 performance at the U.S. Championships. She won the long program when seven of the nine judges gave her first place, and in doing so won the whole competition

Tonya was athletic and all about power and jumps, especially that impressive, elusive triple axel.

As for any form of musicality or grace, all you need to know is that while her competitors were skating to Rachmaninoff and Swan Lake, Tonya was skating to the music of Jurassic Park.

No. She was an amazing jumper. She never had the full package.

R6 She also skated to ZZ-Top and Latour's "People Are Still Having Sex." Remember that? You do have to give her [italic]some[/italic] credit for pushing the envelope.

Tonya Harding did win the US Nationals and finished 2nd (Silver) in the Worlds in 1990-91 so she had the talent. This was the height (depths) of pitting female athletes against one another for a better story. Too bad Tonya's hardscrabble pluck was no match for the patrician looks of the traditional skating princesses that were then popular in US sports coverage. In retrospect it's rather infuriating that someone who rose to the top of their sport by sheer force of will and the relentless pursuit of excellence (traits that you would think would be appealing to sports journalists) was treated so shabbily because she didn't fit "our idea" of what a female should be in a given sport.

She got shafted and the shit that got poured on her was unfair, chauvinistic, classist, and misogynistic. Those other dips have faded away but Tonya's redemption story is truly an American tale.

This was my personal favorite Tonya performance. 1991 Skate America. She nailed her program and made it look so effortless. Her 1991 Nationals is great as well.

She sucked except for her jumps. And she wasn’t consistent with those either.

She was her own worst enemy.

She was a True Deplorable before it was even a thing.

she was never graceful

She had the raw talent and athleticism to have potentially been one of the best, but she lacked the funds and family support to refine her dancing and was too much of a loose cannon to have ever fit in with the snobbery of the sport's subculture. She was never going to be "the best," but yes, she did have exceptional talent on the ice.

Her mother was a fucking cunt.

She was never graceful in the sense of a Kristi or Nancy (who I think is a dial tone on ice), but some of her early years she had some artistic qualities that I think could have developed had her career not been derailed by bad choices. Go back and look up some of her routines from the late 80's and listen to the commentators. They gave her a lot of credit for her spins and other moves she did. It was only when the USTA started promoting Nanzzzzzzz Kerrigan and others ahead of her (and getting involved with Jeff) did her skating start to suffer. I think she grew frustrated with the lower scores she started to receive and her dedication slipped some. Her music choices were always awful.

This routine is from when she was a junior in high school.

R16, interesting. Thanks for sharing that -- I've never seen any early Tonya skating performances before.

A chainsmoking Olympian.

[quote] She also skated to ZZ-Top

I forgot -- did she skate to "Legs?" Somehow that one would have been quite fitting!

Her jumps were technically perfect - the problem was her artistry. Plus her work ethic - She had none.

If she just put in the time and training. she would've had MORE success than she achieved.

[quote] t she lacked the funds and family support

She didn't lack the funds, she had sponsors and the backing of the USFSA

She did lack family support, and she was lazy.

[quote]Why does she show her ass and crotch to the world. It’s gross.

You should have seen some of Katarina Witt's skimpy costumes. You could practically see up her butt.

R12 Ugh, your reply is elitist and classist as fuck. What does her lower class taste have to do with her politics? Has she ever said that she's on the right? Sorry not sorry that not everyone can be as well to do as you, ya jerk. Poor unfortunate souls!!

r23, do you seriously not think she's a trumpster who is giving it to the libtards?

r16, thank you for sharing that clip, I can't believe that skating was down by a 15 year old!

R19 Tone Loc, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, she had some interesting choices. I always loved it, kind of a middle figure to the skating world that shunned her.

R21 she had some support, but she didn't fit the ice princess mode, so they promoted other skaters (mainly Kerrigan at the time) over her and she rarely got the marks she deserved. I think after a while it wore her down and her discipline suffered. Her main downfall though was Jeff. It was all downhill once he came into her life.

[quote]She didn't lack the funds, she had sponsors and the backing of the USFSA

Yes of course she eventually had sponsors. But she didn't come from the financial privilege that would have imbued her with a sense of conventional grace & demure femininity that the ice skating community conflates with "class" at a young age. By the time she had the money, it was too late to develop the instincts.

Bullshit.

She was fucked up, but there's no doubt Jeff ruined her life and career. He fully admits it these days IIRC.

Is it acknowledged that she knew what Jeff was going to do to Nancy Kerrigan beforehand? Orr did she find out after the fact?

R30 she says she didn't, he says she did. The verdict is that no one really knows for sure.

Tonya should have been a gymnast. I think all of those flips and tumbling would have suited her better.

She was the best white trash figure skater for sure.

Great spins and jumps, Barbara flowers who choreographed for roz sumners put together her routines which really emphasized her strengths as a jumper. Had she trained like she should’ve and didn’t just rely on her jumps she could’ve been one of the greats. She had asthma and smoked and was often undertrained.

Her school figures were better than Kristi or Nancy’s and had the stayed in for the 92 Olympics and had Harding trained properly she could’ve been Olympic champion.

Before Albertville she was no longer landing the triple axel in competition and was advised to take it out of the short program and do a triple lutz double toe combo which she was still consistent with. Had she done that she would’ve finished no lower than third in the short and could’ve of contended for gold.

She was also told she needed to arrive and train in albergville at least a week before the ladies program she she wouldn’t be jet lagged and could also adjust to the time and altitude change. Harding didn’t listen and insisted on staying in Portland. She arrived 3 days before the short program and it was a disaster.

NO. She was a good jumper, but that was it. She had no grace, no style. She was nowhere near "the best figure skater in the world."

Her leaked honeymoon sex tape fascinated a 24-year-old me in 1994. It was one of the early celebrity sex tapes I can remember. Before that, all we had was Rob Lowe.

Her spins were great, but didn’t like much of the artistry part of the sport. I think Kristis 92 programs were probably some of the best ever. I think she would’ve looked odd skating to classical music so some I do credit flowers for putting together programs that accented her strengths.

The latour short for the 91-92 Olympic season was great for her and only Tonya could’ve done it.

Nancy did Neil diamond instrumentals and Muzak type stuff.

Women’s skating isn’t judged on athleticism alone. Tonya wasn’t feminine and graceful enough, and frankly was just not what they wanted a skater to be. Another athletic skater from the same period had the same problem, Suraya Bonali. They were both interesting to watch. I never cared for the Miss Polly Prissypants factor in skating that penalized women for being too athletic.

The answer is complicated for the reasons given already and made worse because (to my knowledge) no official standings were in place as in other sports (e.g. tennis, golf). It looks like ISU started figure skating standings In 2001. Those standings help to identify a #1 at a given time.

In terms of artistic and gracefulness I think yuka sato and lu Chen were the best from the girls that era.

Chen probably had the best skate of the night in the long program in albertville.

Along with the training issues and gillooly, I think if she had gone the Linda fratianne route and got a nose job and more glamorous costumes I think she would’ve been much more accepted by USFSA.

No, not even close. She was one of the best jumpers for a brief time and that carried her quite a bit, but even at Tonya's peak, Midori Ito was way better.

Tonya could have been one of the best based on her natural abilities, evident in the video at R16, but she squandered those skills for a number of reasons. Many sympathetic, some not.

USFSA not "accepting" her was not a real problem in any meaningful way. That was just Tonya's excuse when she was lazy and feeling insecure. They put Tonya on the Olympic team TWICE, the second time under very suspicious circumstances. There wasn't a damn thing USFSA could do to hold her back when Tonya was training and skating well. When she was at her peak, she was top 3 in all major US and international competitions.

USFSA was not Tonya's problem. Her mother, her husband, and her own demons were.

The funny thing is that Nancy Kerrigan has the protypical white trash background, too. Difference was she had the right look.

I agree r42 but I think USFSA put more emphasis on the perfect ice princess image then some of the other competitive countries. If you thought Tonya was graceless look at trixie schuba and some of the other Eastern Europe ladies.

If katarina Witt was an American skater no way would she have gotten away with the sex pot image she had.

Nancy came from a blue collar/working class family, but they had stability. If women’s hockey was big when Nancy started skating I think she would’ve gone that route.

After her practices, the ice would be littered with hundreds of french fries the spectators would toss at Tonya in hopes of luring her over so they could get a better look.

R43, that and she had the nice stable family that could pass for middle class even though they weren't. Her family's demons didn't show up until much later. Also Nancy wasn't married to a douchebag, didn't smoke despite having asthma, and listened to her coaches. After a terrible 1993 season, Nancy's coaches sent her to a sports psychologist. She complied and doubled down on her training (a huge reason she was able to bounce back so fast after the assault). Contrast that to Tonya, who habitually showed up last minute to major competitions, half-assed her training, and complained that anyone trying to give her good advice was not recognizing her greatness.

The USFSA put up with a lot of shit from someone they supposedly never accepted.

R16 Thanks for that. Tanya had great natural skating ability from a young age. I think you can tell in this clip, she had so much potential, looseness and more light on her feet. It's too bad things didn't improve so she could reach her potential as a skater.

[quote]She was the best white trash figure skater for sure.

FUCK YOU!

I liked Tonya Harding. She had a rough life most of which was not her doing and some of it was. Tonya was great, but as you get into international competitions at her level, you need to focus, practice and get the distractions out of your personal life. Tonya's personal life just seemed to get more complicated. Plus she didn't fit the image. But despite it all she was a national champion and an international silver medalist. For several years she rose above it all. Just imagine if she didn't have all those demons when she really needed to focus. She would have stayed great, remembered as great and gone on to make a fortune.

Fuck both of You

She had such an overwhelming kneed to win it was shinful.

[quote] If katarina Witt was an American skater no way would she have gotten away with the sex pot image she had.

You mean to tell us you didn't think Playboy centerfold Frau Manarina Witt oozed sex appeal?

never!

For the year 1991, when she won US Nationals in January, was 2nd to Kristi at worlds in March, but then destroyed her at Skate America in the autumn, Tonya was the best figure skater in the world (yes better than Midori).

The is the best program she ever did.

R16, that was fantastic, thanks. I'd never seen her earlier routines, she was quite impressive, especially on jumps and her form while gliding. What she needed was training in overall presence and form, which I think she could have accomplished had she had the opportunities the pretty princess rich girls had.

Something that doesn't get talked about very much in America is that once you get to a certain income level, you can have as much drama as a lower-class person, but the social status and the money cushions the blows. You don't take a huge hit to your reputation, you have fights but rarely fistfights, you don't have to work 40-hour weeks while also practicing, things like that. Tonya was always going to be at a disadvantage in some respects, but if she'd had some support network she may have been able to overcome.

Tanya is more exciting to watch than the other Americans (most of them).

Tanya, Midori and Surya made skating fun.

Between Tanya's antics, Midori literally flying off the ice and into the crowd and Surya snubbing the audience after doing one-legged backflips, these gals knew how to entertain.

They would later be joined by Oksana Baiul who went from Olympic gold to drunk driving and proving you can never take the drunken Russian out the ice ballerina!

R19, It was ZZ Top's "Sleeping Bag." They had already crested, and it wasn't a very catchy song. I didn't understand why she didn't go with "Legs" or "Sharp Dressed Man." Even "Gimme All Your Lovin'" would have been better.

R47 is the harsh realness. A lot of us had fucked up lives and/or childhoods. We don’t bash the knees of our lives. I liked the movie as much as anyone else, but I’m tired of the “Tonya is a victim” narrative that it popularized.

The “Tonya is a victim” narrative didn't fly back in 1994, though. Everyone was against her. If anything, the movie balanced things out ... twenty-four years later.

[quote]I think if she had gone the Linda fratianne route and got a nose job and more glamorous costumes I think she would’ve been much more accepted by USFSA.

Taking the trashiness out of her personality would have helped a lot too.

Obvious flaws. I blame the mother. The competitor is a vessel, not an engine. If you don't understand that you'll get killed.

Lmao @ R63

The video of 15-year-old Tonya at R16 is so sad to watch because she had so much talent and promise. And it's not just that she didn't improve on her artistry; she actually regressed in that department.

Tonya needed more ballet training. Besides her jumps and spins, she moved around the ice like a giant eight-ball on a pool table. And she smelled like whiskey and cigarettes, too!

Lulu, you cheated all your triples and let Sandra Bezic tart you up like Miyoshi Umeki meets Madame Butterfly. Glass houses, bitch.

R67, kiss my two Olympics bronze medals!

[quote] Tanya, Midori and Surya made skating fun.

I would've paid good money to see those three on the practice ice again.

Back off, bitches. We've all choosed between the Kerrigan or the stick.

Although Tonya comes across as large and clumsy on TV, apparently, person, she's petite.

R58 that was the glory years of skating. My friends and I had a drinking game we created and played while watching competitions. I found the rules going through boxes last time I moved. Was a fun trip down memory lane. Even through their scores suffered as a result, it always gave me a thrill to see Tonya skate to some horrific music, or Surya stare down the judges, etc.

If you haven't seen the Surya episode of "Losers" on Netflix, you should look it up. It was a nice catching up with where she's at in life.

R72, I hope Surya is doing well. I enjoyed her antics on the ice, particularly the back flip she did right in front of the judges at Nagano.

[quote] Tonya needed more ballet training. Besides her jumps and spins, she moved around the ice like a giant eight-ball on a pool table.

R66, 8-ball is a great way to describe it. But that's what I love about her (and Bonaly's) performances - the raw power was evident, like a shark in the water. Because Midori was so tiny, she didn't really have that effect. In retrospect, I really prefer Tonya, Bonaly, and Ito.

Tonya Harding could have had a major career as a figure skater but she was her own worst enemy. She had asthma, but smoked. She wore hideous homemade costumes. She wouldn't practice. She had no taste and wasn't interested in getting any. She was a major fuckup and that was her choice.

Tonya was one of the most figure skaters ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had ambition, which is hard to encounter in the lower middle class. At a time when gay men were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her sequins and she theirs.

She could have had a great career as a figure skater. But she was a total fuckup. And that was her choice. Yeah, she had a fucked up childhood, but she had a great talent and could have risen above it all. But she kept shooting herself in the foot. She had asthma, but she smoked. She wouldn't practice. She wore hideous homemade costumes. She married a creep. She had no taste and wasn't interested in developing any. She was/is a train wreck. But she made her choices in life. And her choices were ALL bad.

R74, I do miss all of those '90s figure skaters -- lots of personalities and charisma. That really seemed to be the peak of the sport. I sometimes watch skating every so often now, and the performances these days (excluding some) leave me cold. I do feel the same way about gymnastics as well.

R78, yes! Gymnastics was so much more exciting before as well!

She was graceful on ice. But she was not grateful on ice.

She never learned to roll with the punches. And in figure skating they come left, right, and below the belt. Tanya had no class. No real, down-to-the-gut class. But she was talented. She really had it. Nothing could’ve destroyed her talent, but she destroyed herself.

Was Tonya not even bothering to practice in the leadup to Lillehammer? I know she was under a lot of stress and scrutiny, but I expected at least a better performance than [italic]that[/italic].

She sued to be allowed to compete at Lillehammer after the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. And when it was time for her to skate she didn't even have the right shoelaces! She didn't even have the proper equipment. Here was her big chance (she claimed in an interview that she was going to win the gold medal) and she was totally unprepared for it. Unbelieveable.

[quote] And when it was time for her to skate she didn't even have the right shoelaces!

R83, the shoelaces incident was so weird. I remember watching it live and wondering how she could not have been laced up correctly. She really sort of screwed the next skater, Josee Chouinard, over with that that move, forcing her to begin compete sooner than expected.

After the knee attack, I wasn't expecting either Tanya or Nancy to skate well. It wasn't surprising that they were both, mentally, off their games. Akin to when golfers miss easy putts, basketball players missing free throws. Something that you should be able to do, something you can do in practice time, you can't do under pressure.

I like Tanya, but IMO, she should not have been allowed a do-over b/c of her so-called bad shoelaces. They basically gave her a second chance. If someone fell on their ass and said, let me do it over, the answer would be no.

Nancy wasn’t off her game. As mentioned above she had a terrible 92-93 season and went to a sports psychologist which benefited her tremendously competition wise.

Tonya practiced at the mall ice rink in Portland which at the time was owned by Dorothy hamill.

It was so unnecessary as even with only 2 spots Harding would’ve certainly been named to the team. At 93 nationals she finished 4th and had to compete at sectionals in order to get back to the nationals. Right before she was to compete at sectionals someone called in a bomb threat of Harding competing and she was allowed to withdraw and get a bye to nationals. I think the fbi determined in was someone in Harding’s camp that called in the threat.

The whack also would not have happened had Kristi stayed in through Lillehammer or if Nancy didn’t fall apart at the 93 worlds where she was in 1st after the short program but fell apart in the long and dropped to 5th causing the US to lose a third spot on the Olympic team as only the top three medalists at the time could send 3 skaters to the olympics.

I know Kristi wanted to skate in shows but she had she stayed in through 94 she could’ve had the same record as Witt (2 Olympic golds and 4 world titles).

Kristi couldn't be bothered to hang around for a second gold medal. She was too antsy to start spinning around the ice in a babydoll dress.

I always liked Tonya, and I want to believe she didn’t know anything about the attack beforehand. To me there is always something extra special about someone who is white trash or urban ghetto excelling in a snobby sport. NK’s family was poor but not trashy.

R90, I know I make fun of Tonya for her lack of classical elegance, but I was rooting for her in '94. I at least wanted to see her hit the triple axel in Olympic competition.

I also [italic]really[/italic] did not want Nancy Bore-igan to win the gold. The media would never have let us hear the end of this 'ice princess' if she had won.

The Ice Princess saga brought a lot of drama and attention to the Lillehammer games. It was good PR and caused a lot of people to tune in. The IOC should have paid Tonya.

R92, a lot of those pro skaters owe the money they made doing those cheesy shows/competitions to Tonya's trashy antics. Katarina Witt at least admitted as much.

Everybody thought it would be a showdown between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan when it came to winning the gold medal. But Harding was nowhere near Olympic excellence. Her practices were abysmal and of course when it came time for her to do her routine she couldn't even do it due to ill-fitting shoelaces. And her makeup! She looked like a clown. What a fiasco.

Tonya crying to the judges is all I remember about the Lillehammer games. I don’t even know or care who won gold.

I care about who won the gold.

They should put all of these '90s figure skaters -- Nancy, Tonya, Surya, Nicole Bobek, etc. -- in a house for the summer and record their reality TV interactions. It could be the new Big Brother season.

Team Tonya always.

There's no question Tonya got screwed by the judges over the years. At the 85 US Sports Festival she out skated Debi Thomas and Caryn Kadavy but got jobbed. She had triple lutz and flip when both those ladies struggled to land triple loops (well Kadavy had a good one). She finished 3rd at that event and should have won the free. At the 86 Skate America she lost to Tiffany Chin who had a big lead after figures. Tonya at least did win the free skate there, but the US judges still backed Chin overall.

Tonya and Ito should have both beaten Witt at the 87 NHK Trophy. They beat her in the short (there were no figures) but despite both landing triple lutzes in the free and Witt making mistakes, her over inflated artistic marks (Carmen) were enough to hold them off.

So she knew she was always gonna get screwed and worked to get that triple axel. She just started resting on the memory of it and didn't train like a demon after the 91-92 season win at SA.

Watching the ESPN 30 for 30 episode about these two, I came away impressed with what a superb athlete Nancy Kerrigan was. It was pretty incredible she was able to skate in the Olympics seven weeks after the attack.

I always liked Oksana Baiul, for her graceful performances. Too bad ice skating fell in popularity, it would have given us something to watch as we head into winter.

There's a video that went viral a year or so ago of a French pair doing a routine to Ed Sheeran's Perfect. (I know, I know, won’t link, plus it’s OT.) Papadakis & Cizeron.

These were ice dancers, not a pairs routine—gorgeous, fabulous skating. Floating above the ice, perfectly synchronized. ..Truly wish ice dancing were more popular.

[quote] Too bad ice skating fell in popularity, it would have given us something to watch as we head into winter.

As a very casual fan, I miss seeing figure skating, but I lost the script quite some time ago and I don't even know who the top skaters are in each discipline.

Also, I don't know how you guys can differentiate between the different jumps in real time. The only I can immediately tell apart is the axel jump, and I say this as someone who knows all of the names of gymnastics moves/skills.

My mother always called Witt "that Nazi bitch".

^R103, I always thought Katarina Witt had a very hard, masculine look and presence. She very well could have been one of those East German female swimmers instead.

[quote]Why does she show her ass and crotch to the world. It’s gross.

Because doing that got me two Olympic gold medals. Ya.

Nancy Kerrigan’s family is blue-collar, he mom in wheelchair, he dad drove the Zamboni to pay for her rink time. Certainly no “princess”.

R106, I feel like the media didn't really highlight that working-class aspect of Kerrigan's family life back then. They positioned her as a sort of New England princess as opposed to Tonya's white-trashy, bar-fighting lifestyle.

She always sucked, even as a kid.

Tonya Harding was immensely talented. At the time she won the US Nationals, Midori Ito of Japan was kicking everyone's ass if he landed her triple axel. The fact that Tonya had a great triple axel made her a threat because the judges were gazzing over that jump after Ito landed it. But Tonya went to the 1992 Olympics and didn't skate well. If she had trained and been more consistent, she would have had the backing.

In the end, though, at the 1992 Olympics, Ito fell on a triple lutz in the short that was supposed to be a triple axel, and fell again in the long on her first triple axel but landed her second. It wasn't enough to overcome the consistent and more graceful Kristi Yamaguchi, despite Yamaguchi having a fall in the long. If Tonya had actually skated well and landed her triple axel, she may have won that Olympics.

I used to love figure skating, but all the Russian and former Eastern Bloc cheating just ruined the sport. I used to know a couple figure skating judges, one of whom left judging because of all the score cheating. The "fix" the ISU came up with for the cheating at the Salt Lake Olympics pairs competition ruined the sport. Now it's a point grab and the programs are boring and usually uninteresting, and the judging is still corrupt. Every four years the judges way over-inflate whichever Russian women's skater is hot at the time and they win gold. Adelina Sotnikova anyone?

I quit watching because it became obvious the Eastern Block judges were NOT fair and impartial.

Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike, donated $20,000 to Tonya's training costs. But she never had the big corporate support like Nancy eating Campbell's soup in commercials.

I'll never understand why Tonya never received endorsements/training money from the likes of Tonka or some '80s hair band like Def Leppard.

R109 I'm so nostalgic for watching it in the 90s. It just isn't the same now.

She was from the wrong side of the tracks and about as graceful as a cow but she knew the moves. Sort of like Miss Piggy on ice.

I absolutely love the song Sufjan Stevens wrote about her. It’s beautiful but unfortunately she was not impressed

LOL R115. White trash in the lyrics.

Tanya's biggest drawback back in the day was that she was common white trash and had a common white trash attitude, morals, and intellect. She and her idiot ex husband simply weren't smart enough to pull all they did off convincingly.

They hated her because she was white trash. She reminded people of who they were. And she was not ashamed.

Call me white trash all you want but my sibling never murdered our parent.

So there!

Did some skater's sibling murder her parent?

The only think I never understood was how she got on the ice in the first place. As a young gayling, I actually took figure skating classes just so I could make it around the rink without falling down. Eventually that grew into much more and I started competing. Anyways, it got way too expensive for my parents and it was killing them trying to pay for ice time, private lessons, admission the the rink, carting me around, custom boots, expensive blades. We were middle class and that's when I realized I was out of my league. I can't imaging being lower class and having enough money to do that.

Once these kids get good enough to start winning competitions don't they usually get sponsored by some concern associated with the sport.

R120, really???

Yes really, R123, I just googled "skater's father murdered" and it gave me two options, in both cases it was the skater's brother. I presume you mean Nancy Kerrigan's. I may have heard something about it ten years ago when it happened but I also may have missed it altogether.

Lillehammer was awesome.

Not only did you have the backdrop of Tonya v. Nancy but also the return of the geriatric Torville & Dean (Bolero again???) and a skater get her face cut off on live television!

And they said all the falls in 92 could never be topped!

[quote]Was Tonya Harding really the best figure skater in the world for a time?

Yes.

She could spin in the air really fast and had powerful jumps but she didn't have the grace of Peggy Flemming or Dorothy Hamill.

She also wasn't pretty and judges don't like ugly unfeminine skaters.

She also knew about the plot her husband concocted and called up the arena to find out Nancy's skating times. Her handwriting of the times was in the trash.

She wouldn't have done it with out them or hatched the idea on her own but she never really had to do that in the first place. I do feel sorry her abused her and you could see when she freaked out at the Olympics that her conscience got to her. Still I don't think the movie absolving her completely was accurate.

She was a powerhouse.

How was the movie about her?

The movie made her seem like an angel. I wish they showed her making a bad decision from a lack of self esteem or not much of a moral compass and admitting that she did have knowledge it was going to happen. She could have still regretted the decision. It most likely her mother beating the shit out of her with a hairbrush that lowered her moral compass.

She seems to be happily married with children. Why is this such a sad story? Dying alone and broke in a trailer park like Erin Moran is a sad story.

R19 I think it was Sleeping Bag?

R22 with katarina’s 1988 short program costume at Euro’s, they enacted the “Katarina” rule (not officially called that) mandating the length of a skirt, or at least having a skirt, since initially her costume was very bare, there as footage of Jutta Mueller tacking on feathers to make a semblance of a skirt!!

R20 not only did Nancy’s brother murder their father, around that same time the brother of Elizabeth punsalan (she was married to jerod swallow who always pinged & not just due to his name) murdered their (punsalan) father.

Prior to about 1990, Nancy had horrible teeth. I remember seeing her skate at some minor event (I want to say goodwill games but maybe not, something similar though). The commentator compared her to Katarina Witt in terms of beauty. She finishes her skate, smiles, & reveals these jagged, uneven, busted piano key teeth. I remember my sister SHRIEKED, not expecting that at all. So glad she fixed her teeth shortly after.

[quote]I feel like the media didn't really highlight that working-class aspect of Kerrigan's family life back then.

Yeah, I don't remember TV media outlets highlighting the working class aspect that much. But, I do recall magazine and newspaper articles mentioning more about the dad working multiple jobs and driving the Zamboni to pay for Nancy's ice team and also stories about the mother's disability.

for the funniest take on the Tonya Hardly story see the Julie Brown version - Attack of the 5 ft 2 Women - with ms. Brown as Tonya and Stella Stevens as her mom

I liked Surya Bonaly better.

She was never the greatest, but ALWAYS the trashiest. Skating isn't cheap, so I was always surprised they could afford for her to do it.

She singlehandedly dissuaded an entire generation of parents from naming their daughters Tonya.

R134, never happened. Her old teeth weren't nearly that bad.

For a brief period, Tonya was the best.

Looks like piano teefed Nance found us at R140.

[quote]She was never the greatest, but ALWAYS the trashiest. Skating isn't cheap, so I was always surprised they could afford for her to do it.

In the 30 for 30 documentary, Tonya mentioned having to make her own costumes because her family couldn't afford to buy costumes. I'm guessing that maybe they somehow were barely able to cover rink time, training, and travel.

Wow, that clip at R9 is outstanding!