Figure skating’s most high-profile scandal. The Tonya Harding Story

Tonya Harding was a name that every figure skater of the 20th century knew. Now, after the premiere of Tonya vs. Everyone in 2017 and three Oscar nominations, the image of the rebellious figure skater has gone far beyond the sport.

The first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions Harding in conversation is the same high-profile scandal between her and her rival Nancy Kerrigan on the cusp of the 1994 Olympics. Being in cahoots with her husband Jeff Gillooly and bodyguard Shawn Eckardt, she allowed Shane Stant to attack her main competitor. All in the name of making the Olympic team and being first.

We found out what really happened in not very distant 1994, why Tonya Harding’s sporting fate was initially predetermined and who was really to blame for what happened. We tell you the story.

Tonya’s childhood

The girl was born in a poor family of LaVona and Al Harding. Her birth father had health problems that did not always allow him to work. But Al went hunting and took Tonya with him, as well as instilled in her a love of drag racing and taught her the basics of mechanics. Harding’s mother was a very impulsive woman, who also drank a lot and rarely let a cigarette out of her hands. LaVona humiliated her daughter and, according to Tony, even used physical violence, although she herself never admitted it and did not apologize for her actions.

She became very aggressive, drinking all day long. She beat me, dragged me out of the skating rink and hit me with a comb… right in front of everyone,” Tonya later recalled.

In the movie “Tonya against all” the climax of violence was shown in the episode where LaVona in a fit of aggression launched a knife into her daughter’s shoulder. In terms of emotional intensity, the scene stands out from the rest of the movie. I want to believe that this is a fiction of the screenwriters, because not everything in mockumentary reflects real events.

Tony’s childhood can not be called simple and happy. The girl dreamed of growing up soon, so that her life was more stable, and her parents would direct her to the right path. However, in 2009 Toni’s father died, and she and her mother have been completely estranged since 2002.

I’m sure they tried to do their best for me,” the figure skater once said.

First steps and successes on the ice

Tonya Harding got up on skates when she was only three years old. She loved practicing, and her mother worked as a waitress and turned in empty bottles and cans to support her daughter’s hobbies financially. But later things turned in the opposite direction. The girl made great strides and developed her talent. Already at the age of 12 she was able to jump the triple Lutz – one of the most difficult jumping elements by the standards of women’s figure skating. Since then, LaVona and stepfather Tony have been cashing in on the promising athlete’s success.

From the age of 16, Harding began competing at the adult American championships, but it wasn’t until 1989 that she reached the podium, placing third on the podium and taking gold at the Skate America Grand Prix. By 1990, Tonya was considered a major contender for the U.S. title. Happy predictions were shattered by a cold and developing asthma, because of which Harding could not perform her free skating program cleanly. Her second place after the short program turned into a final seventh place.

Crown triple axel

Toni’s trump card was the triple axel, a jump that is standard in the men’s set. She became the second woman in the world and the first American to perform such a difficult element cleanly. After the judges saw it for the first time at the 1991 U.S. Championships, Harding earned the highest technical score of 6.0, a score that had only been posted once before by a championship referee 13 years earlier.

To realize how much the triple axel was a breakthrough for figure skating at the time, we need to look at the present day. Even now, when little junior girls are stamping quarter jumps, only one current figure skater – Elizaveta Tuktamysheva – jumps the 3.5-turn axel in the adult arena. So far in the history of figure skating there are only six women who have been able to do it, and among them is Tonya Harding.

However, such a difficult element was under the control of the figure skater only in one year of her career – 1991 – it was recognized as the most successful. During this time Tonya performed the axel without falling and inaccuracies four times. Later she never managed to do it again in competitions.

The heat of passion and the conflict with Kerrigan

Things went from bad to worse. The U.S. figure skating star that had just shone began to fade. Having made it to the 1992 Olympics, Tonya Harding took the jade fourth place, after which her career was followed by a series of ridiculous failures. For example, at the 1993 U.S. Championships, her costume came undone and she had to ask the judges to stop her performance. Then, at Skate America, she had a similar incident: a loose skate ridge, which also caused the program to be interrupted.

Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding on the ice

Toward the end of the year, terrible things began to happen that started Tonya’s further conflict with Nancy Kerrigan. Before qualifying for the national championships, the organizers of the event received anonymous threats against Harding. After that, the U.S. Figure Skating Association decided to suspend the skater for safety reasons. On the one hand, this choice many would call the right one, but on the other hand… Any skipping of big championships in the ever-evolving figure skating can threaten that the next year you risk not matching the level of the champion.

Career turning point

By the time of the attack on Nancy Kerrigan, which happened on January 6, 1994, Tony was already having significant difficulties in his athletic career. In the run-up to the Winter Olympics, she feared (and not unreasonably) that she might not make the U.S. Olympic team. And for a figure skater, as for any other athlete, winning the Games becomes the ultimate dream. Only in figure skating, years are worth their weight in gold, and if Tonya had not made the national team at that time, then four years later, perhaps the competition would have pushed her off the international stage altogether because of her age.

Tonya’s nervousness and uncertainty prompted her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and bodyguard Shawn Eckardt to encourage Shane Stant to break rival Nancy’s leg to prevent her from qualifying for the national team. However, Stant was unable to fulfill the cruel orders of the “customers” and only damaged Kerrigan’s leg with a telescopic baton just above the knee. While Nancy was forced to withdraw from the national championship, Tonya topped the standings and successfully made the national team. What happened next was what could easily be called karma.

Nancy Kerrigan was Tonya’s main competitor.

After an instant scandal, investigative journalism and threatened expulsion from the national team, Tonya did make it onto the Olympic ice, thanks to Nike founder Phillip Knight. It wasn’t worth the gamble. Tonya skated worse than usual, and in addition, her skates failed again: the lace on one shoe broke right before she went on the ice to perform the free skating program. The result – 8th place. But Nancy Kerrigan had time to recover, make up for lost time and take the honorable second place, behind only Ukrainian Oksana Baiul.

Court ruling and suspension from skating

After the Olympics, justice did not wait long. The Figure Skating Association’s own investigation proved that Tonya knew about the attack plans and was in collusion. This is the main and decisive difference between reality and the made movie.

In the movie “Tonya Against All” the further fate of the figure skater, namely a three-year suspended sentence, 500 hours of correctional labor, $160 thousand fine and lifetime exclusion from figure skating in any role, seems unfair because in the script Tonya was really framed. She not only didn’t know about the upcoming assassination attempt, but also became a kind of victim: it turned out that the threatening note was sent to her by her own bodyguard.

In real life everything turned out differently. She not only knew about the plans of her husband and his partners, but also initially considered the option of killing Nancy. It was, of course, immediately rejected.

Who’s to blame?

A legitimate question, the answer to which seemed to float to the surface. Of course, Tonya, Jeff Gillooly, Shawn Eckardt and Shane Stant, who got what they deserved anyway. But if you dig deeper and imagine a completely different upbringing and open-mindedness in the figure skating world, maybe things would have worked out differently? Maybe then one of the most promising figure skaters would not have been involved in collusion, suspended from her favorite sport, and would not have tried to flash in boxing or even racing later on?

Maybe. One thing is certain: this girl has never had it easy. Since childhood, she has faced injustice. Beatings from her mother, lack of support, an unstable relationship with her husband. Censure from society and the figure skating world. Tonya was simply not what she needed to be – smoking, bruised, constantly nervous, with cheap dresses sewn by her own hand, no sponsors and a scandalous family. Would all of that ever be allowed to be the face of American figure skating? I don’t think so. And she, Tonya Harding, a girl with incredible talent and a powerful physique, had always wanted it badly.