'Tonya Maxine Harding' (born
November 12,
1970) is an American former
figure skater. Despite a tough childhood in an unstable family, as well as being plagued by
asthma (aggravated by smoking), she became an elite figure skater. She won the
U.S. Figure Skating Championships twice and placed second in the 1991
World Championships. She was the second woman, and the first American woman, to complete a
triple axel jump in competition.
She became notorious for her part in the conspiracy to harm competitor
Nancy Kerrigan at a practice session during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Early life
Harding was born in
Portland,
Oregon, the daughter of LaVona and Al Harding. She had a half-brother named Chris Davison (deceased). Harding began skating at an early age. She landed her first
triple lutz at age 12. Her mother made many of her skating costumes.
[1]
She dropped out of high school during her sophomore year, and later earned a
GED. She married
Jeff Gillooly in 1990, when she was 19.
[2]
Skating career
Harding began to work her way up the competitive skating ladder in the mid-1980s. She placed 6th at the 1986 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, 5th in 1987 and 1988, and 3rd in 1989. At the 1990 event, suffering from the flu, she could only place 7th. Harding was a powerful jumper and spinner, but had a reputation of being an inconsistent competitor and unpolished in terms of style. She was also held back by mediocre
compulsory figures before they were eliminated from competition in 1990.
1991 was Harding's breakthrough year. She landed her first triple axel in competition at the U.S. Championships, winning the title with the first 6.0 ever given to a female singles skater for technical merit at that event. She competed well at the World Championships, but finished second to
Kristi Yamaguchi. She again completed the
triple axel during her long program at the World Championships, becoming the first and only American to do so. In her career, Harding landed four triple axels in competition, and all of them in 1991 where she completed every one she tried: one at the U.S. Championships, one at the World Championships, and two at the fall
Skate America competition. At the latter competition she recorded three more firsts:
#the first woman ever to do a triple axel in the short program,
#the first woman to do two triple axels in a single competition, and
#the first ever to do a triple axel combination (with double toe loop).
After this year, she would never complete the triple axel again, and her career began falling precipitously.
In 1992, Harding placed 3rd at the U.S. Championships after twisting her ankle in practice, and 4th at the
1992 Winter Olympics. At the 1992 World Championships, she placed only 6th in a weak field. The following season, Harding was noticeably overweight and out of condition, and she skated so poorly at the 1993 U.S. Championships that she failed to qualify for the World Championship team.
Series of crises
The latter part of Harding's competitive career was marked by a series of accidents, incidents, and excuses, causing television commentators to observe that no competition was complete without Tonya having a crisis. Some of these "crises" included:
★ ''Skating'' magazine reported that at Skate America in 1991, Harding was stranded in heavy traffic just before her event was scheduled to begin, and had to hitch a ride with people who drove her backwards through traffic to the arena.
★ In the short program at the 1993 U.S. Championships, Harding had to ask permission from the referee to restart her program after the back of her dress came unhooked as she began to skate.
★ At 1993 Skate America, Harding stopped midway through her free skate and complained to the referee that her skate blade had become loose. She was allowed to resume her program after her blades were checked by a skate technician.
★ In late 1993, Harding was scheduled to compete in a regional qualifying competition for the U.S. Championships. However, before the event, its organizers received an anonymous telephoned bomb threat against Harding, which led the
United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) to excuse her from having to qualify.
Morry Stillwell, former USFSA president, later asserted in a Usenet posting
[3] that the
FBI had evidence that Harding herself participated in making the threat.
★ The medal ceremony at the 1994 U.S. Championships had to be delayed because Harding could not be found backstage after the competition.
★ At the
1994 Winter Olympics, Harding almost failed to appear on the ice when her name was called for the free skating because she was scrambling to replace a broken lace. The replacement lace turned out to be too short, and after missing the opening jump in her program she again had to ask the referee for permission to restart.
Many observers in the skating world, including
Scott Hamilton,
[4] felt that Harding was deliberately trying to sabotage her career by making excuses for failure. In addition to the incidents listed above, following her 1991 success, she went through a series of coaching changes (at one point she was even attempting to coach herself), and she arrived so late for the competition at the 1992 Olympic Games that her performance was affected by jet lag. In spite of the publicity she received about being handicapped by
asthma, she also
smoked.
The Kerrigan attack
Harding became notorious for allegedly conspiring to harm competitor
Nancy Kerrigan in an attack, which occurred on
January 6,
1994 at a practice session during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Harding's ex-husband
Jeff Gillooly hired
Shane Stant to strike Kerrigan on the knee. Harding won that event, while Kerrigan's injury forced her withdrawal. After Harding admitted to helping to cover up the attack, the USFSA and
United States Olympic Committee initiated proceedings to remove her from the 1994 Olympic team, but Harding retained her place after threatening legal action. She finished eighth while Kerrigan, recovered from her injuries, finished second.
On
February 1,
1994, Harding's ex-husband accepted a
plea bargain in exchange for his testimony against Harding. Harding avoided further prosecution and a possible jail sentence by
pleading guilty on
March 16 to hindering the investigation of the attack. She received three years probation, 500 hours of community service and a $160,000 fine. She maintained her innocence in the planning of the attack, contradicting the confessions of the alleged conspirators, and got a tattoo of an angel on her back, allegedly as a symbol of her innocence.
On
June 30, after conducting its own investigation of the attack, the USFSA stripped Harding of her 1994 title and banned her for life from participating in sanctioned events and becoming a sanctioned coach. The USFSA concluded that Harding knew about the attack before it happened and displayed "a clear disregard for fairness, good sportsmanship and ethical behavior." As part of her plea deal, she had already resigned from the USFSA and given up her spot on the team slated to take part in that year's world championships.
[5] Although the USFSA has no control over professional skating events, Harding was also ''
persona non grata'' on the pro circuit because few skaters and promoters would work with her. Consequently, Harding did not herself benefit from the pro skating boom that ensued in the aftermath of the scandal.
The attack on Kerrigan and the news of Harding's alleged involvement led to a
media frenzy of saturation news coverage. Harding appeared on the cover of both ''
Time'' and ''
Newsweek'' magazines in January, 1994. Reporters and TV news crews attended Harding's practices in Portland and camped out in front of Kerrigan's home.
CBS assigned
Connie Chung to follow Harding's every move in Lillehammer. Counting 400 members of the press jammed into the practice rink in Norway,
Scott Hamilton complained that "the world press was turning the Olympics into just another sensational tabloid event."
The notoriety of the "Kerrigan Attack" was so ubiquitous that a novel ''Celebrities In Disgrace'' was written by Elizabeth Searle. The novel was adapted by Searle and composer Abigail Al-Doory to "," a chamber opera produced in May of 2006 by
Tufts University and performed at the
American Repertory Theatre's Zero Arrow Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts under the direction of Meron Langsner. A documentary on the making of the opera and the media frenzy it caused is currently in post-production at
Charles River Media Group]. The film, titled "A Good Whack," is directed by Don Schechter. As of 2005, the novel on which the opera was based is also being adapted into a short film.
Later celebrity
Tonya Harding entered the world of the
nude Internet celebrity with the appearance of a pornographic "Wedding Video" that shows her having sex with her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly. Gillooly (who, not long after the scandal, began to fade from prominence and changed his name to "Jeff Stone") sold the tape to a tabloid show after having been implicated as a conspirator in the Kerrigan attack. Stills from the tape were published by ''
Penthouse'' in September 1994, and the tape itself
[6] was released at about the same time. Harding tried to distance herself from it by asserting publicly that she was "drunk as a skunk" while the tape was being made.
Harding appeared on a USA Pro Wrestling show in 1994 as the manager for wrestler
Art Barr.
In late 1996, Harding used
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to help revive an 81-year-old woman, Alice Olson, who collapsed at a bar in
Portland, Oregon while playing
video poker.
Harding Helps to Save Woman's Life
Harding has had a number of run-ins with the law since her involvement with the Kerrigan attack. Some of the incidents which have been reported in the press
[7] including these:
★ On
May 25,
1995, it was reported that Harding claimed she was being stalked by professional golfers driving a white Lincoln Town Car, resulting in a car chase involving Harding, her ex-husband Gillooly, and the police.
[8]
★ On
February 12,
1997, Harding claimed that she was abducted at knife-point outside her home by a bushy-haired man who forced her to drive to a rural area, where she rammed her truck into a tree and escaped by running into the woods. Police found no evidence of an abduction. This incident happened on the opening weekend of the 1997 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
[9]
★ On
October 16,
1997, Harding reported that her truck had been stolen from a shopping mall parking lot.
[10]
★ On
January 6,
2000, six years to the day after the attack on Kerrigan, Harding was in the news again after she lost control of her truck on an icy road and landed in a ditch. She and a male companion then allegedly made threats against a press photographer.
[11]
★ On
February 24,
2000, Harding was ordered by a
Clark County judge to stay away from
alcohol and her former boyfriend, Darren Silver, after being booked on fourth-degree
Domestic Violence assault charges for punching Silver and throwing a
hubcap at him at their
Camas, Washington residence.
[12] Harding was also sentenced to 3 days in jail and 10 days of community service on a work crew.
[13] Shortly before this, Harding had been attempting to make a comeback as a professional skater, but the hubcap incident effectively put an end to her skating career.
[14]
★ In 2002, Harding was evicted from her rental home.
★ On
April 20,
2002, Harding was involved in another accident with her truck. She was cited for drunk driving and a violation of her probation agreement from her 2000 conviction.
[15]
★ On
October 23,
2005, Harding, apparently again under the influence of alcohol, was involved in a fight at her home in
Vancouver, Washington with Christopher Nolan, a man she described as her boyfriend. Initially, she made a 911 call claiming to have been assaulted in her home by two masked men. For his part, Nolan claimed that Harding attacked him after having too much to drink. In the end, Nolan was charged with assault and ordered to stay away from Harding and to avoid alcohol.
[16]
★ On
March 11 2007, the Clark County sheriff's office responded to two calls related to Harding.
[17] The first call was from Harding herself, at 5am. She told the officer who responded that she had observed five armed intruders trying to steal her vehicle, and hide rifles on her property. The responding officer's report described her as "agitated", her story as "very implausible", and recorded her frustration that others couldn't see the people she saw. He could not find any evidence to back up Harding's claims. The second call, four hours later, at 9am, was from a friend who had agreed to let Harding visit. Harding's host told Police that although Harding wasn't violent, she was "tweaking out, seeing animals," and she was worried about her children's safety. She requested Police return Harding to her home. The police reported that the officer who returned her home inspected her trailer home, to reassure her, and advised her to seek medical help. Linda Lewis, Harding’s longtime friend and agent, attributed her behavior to a bad interaction of legitimate prescription drugs.
Boxing career
In 2002, Tonya Harding boxed on the
Fox TV network Celebrity Boxing event against
Paula Jones, winning the fight. On
February 22,
2003, she made her official
women's professional boxing debut, losing a four round decision in the
undercard of the
Mike Tyson-
Clifford Etienne bout, amid rumors that she was broke and needed to box to get some money.
Harding won her third pro bout against Alejandra Lopez at the Creek Nations Gaming Center.
On
March 23,
2004, it was reported that Harding cancelled a planned boxing match against Tracy Carlton in
Oakland, California because of an alleged death threat against her.
On
June 24 2004, after reportedly not having boxed for over a year, Harding was beaten in a match in
Edmonton, Alberta by boxer
Amy Johnson. Fans reportedly booed Harding as she entered the ring, and cheered wildly for Johnson as she won in the third round. Harding later protested the outcome.
Harding's boxing career was brief, cut short by her asthma.
[18] Her overall record was 3-3-0.
[19]
Boxing record
|-
|align="center" colspan=8|'3 Wins' (3 decisions), '3 Losses' (2 knockouts, 1 decision), '0 Draws'
[1]
|-
! Date
! Opponent
! Result
! Type
! Round, Time
! Location
|-align=center
|
2004-06-25
|
Amy Johnson
|style="background: #ffcccc"|Loss
|TKO
|3 , 1:04
|
Edmonton,
Alberta,
Canada
|-align=center
|
2003-08-02
|
Melissa Yanas
|style="background: #ffcccc"|Loss
|TKO
|1 , 1:13
|
Dallas, Texas
|-align=center
|
2003-06-13
|
Emily Gosa
|style="background: #ccffcc"|Win
|Decision (unanimous)
|4
|
Lincoln City, Oregon
|-align=center
|
2003-03-28
|
Alejandra Lopez
|style="background: #ccffcc"|Win
|Decision (unanimous)
|4
|
Tulsa, Oklahoma
|-align=center
|
2003-03-15
|
Shannon Birmingham
|style="background: #ccffcc"|Win
|Decision (unanimous)
|4
|
Gulfport, Mississippi
|-align=center
|
2003-02-22
|
Samantha Browning
|style="background: #ffcccc"|Loss
|Decision (split)
|4
|
Memphis, Tennessee
Popular culture references
★ In an episode of the television program ''
Seinfeld'' called ''
The Understudy'',
Jerry Seinfeld is dating the understudy of stage performer
Bette Midler named Gennice, who is played by Adelaide Miller. Seinfeld's friend George accidentally injures Midler in a softball game and the understudy has to take over Midler's part in the musical ''Rochelle Rochelle''. Enraged fans then call Seinfeld "Gilooly", in addition to George and Gennice getting into mishaps and being shunned for the incident. When Gennice takes the stage, she has a problem with the laces on her boot and, in an act reminiscent of Harding's bootlace incident, tearfully asks that she be allowed to start over.((cn))
★ The incident with Kerrigan was also spoofed in an episode of ''
The Simpsons'' ("
Team Homer"). Homer enters a team bowling tournament with Apu, Moe, and eventually Mr. Burns. Due to the fact that Mr. Burns is a horrible player, just before the championship game Moe, in disguise as a "masked stranger", hits him in the leg with a crowbar with the intention to disqualify Burns from the team by injury. Mr. Burns was in fact already suffering from
arthritis in his knee, and the attack ended up curing him instead. She also appears in another episode in a spaceship which is heading to the sun ("
Treehouse of Horror X").
★ Harding's role in the assault on Kerrigan is one of three news stories used in the song "
Headline News" by
"Weird Al" Yankovic, a parody of the
Crash Test Dummies hit "
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm".
[20]
★ Harding is featured in "Tonya Twirls" a song by
Loudon Wainwright III, a US songwriter and Folk Musician.
[Tonya Twirls accessed July 21, 2007.] The song draws humour from Harding's lifestyle but ultimately resolves as a lament for lost innocence. The song was previewed live a few years before it was recorded and issued on "
Social Studies (album)" (1999). A live recording was later issued on "
So Damn Happy" (2003).
★ In the 1994 double-featured movie Attack of the 5'2" Women,
Julie Brown plays the role of Tonya Hardly (Tonya Harding) before going on to play the role of Lenora Babbitt (
Lorena_Bobbit).
[21]
★ At the end of Married With Children episode "Alympic Games", where Al causes the Atlanta Olympic Games to be indefinitely postponed, Budd says that when people think of "Olympic shame" they'll think of Al Bundy first, and Tonya Harding second.
Figure skating competitive highlights
★ Later stripped of title.
Sources:
[Olympic results - finishers, from www.usfigureskating.org, accessed August 30, 2006.][Worlds results, from www.isu.org, accessed August 30, 2006.][WORLD FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS 1990-1999 results, accessed August 31, 2006.]
Footnotes
1. Announcer's comments during Tonya Harding's 1991 Worlds short program, accessed July 16, 2006.
2. Tonya Harding biography at tonyaharding.com, accessed July 16, 2006.
3. Morry Stillwell Usenet posting, accessed July 16, 2006
4. Landing It: My life on and off the ice, , Scott, Hamilton, Kensington Books, 1999,
5. A timeline of events in the scandal, Washington Post, accessed July 16, 2006.
6. Tonya and Jeff's Wedding Night, IMDB, accessed July 16, 2006.
7. The Tonya Harding - Nancy Kerrigan saga: A Timeline
8. Harding's Latest Plot Twist Is a Car Chase
9. Harding escapes alleged abduction, accessed Aug 11, 2006
10. People, Places & Things in the News
11. News report quoted on tonyaharding.org, accessed Aug 11, 2006
12. This Just In
13. Cleanup duty is next for Harding Joe Rose
14. Harding's new image takes a beating
15. Harding sentenced to 10 days in jail, accessed Aug 11, 2006
16. Man Arrested After Tonya Harding Run-In, accessed Aug 11, 2006
17. Former skater Tonya Harding "tweaking out," phones police
18. Ready for 'Life With Tonya'? Kerry Eggers
19. Tonya Harding's professional boxing record, BoxRec.com, accessed January 13, 2007.
20. Lyrics to "Headline News" by Weird Al, accessed August 1, 2007.
21. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109167/
External links
★
tonyaharding.org Archive of Tonya Harding files
★
★
sptimes.com Harding, Kerrigan are linked forever by skating incident
★
courttv.com Interview with Harvey Schiller, former Exec. Dir. US Olympic Committee (talks about Harding)
★
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