Her downfall started before that - I remember her making some inopportune comments, while on camera, while waiting for the awards ceremony at the Olympics that would award the gold to Oksana Baiul (who’s screwed up her own reputation subsequently as well). I remember her having little patience waiting, and some choice words for the lady who won the medal Kerrigan thought would just be handed to her. That’s when I really lost respect for her.
Hell, Carolina needs all the help it can get… 
What would be the ‘one thing’ Nixon that changed people’s minds about him?
For starters there were plenty of people who could never stand the man and plenty of people today have never changed their minds about him.
Kobe Bryant - Before rape/assault and after.
While we’re doing Nancy Kerrigan, what about Tonya Harding? I’m not sure about the changed reputation thing for either of them, since only about 5 people give damn about figure skating (or almost any other Olympic sport) at any time other than the Olympics. But I’m thinking Harding crashed a lot worse than Kerrigan.
While i’m not saying he didn’t do it, it is actually inaccurate to say that Bryant committed rape or assault. Neither of those charges ever went before a jury.
All we know for certain is that he committed adultery.
You are correct, though, that whatever happened, this incident did tarnish his reputation considerably.
Eisenhower? D-day was pretty much his make-or-break event.
Christopher Reeves before a horse ride.
Christopher Reeves after.
That did apply.
Where I was coming from though was as a result of Waterloo Napoleon literally went from Emperor of France, threat to all of Europe and scourge of the world, monster and feared beast * to (solely as a result of this event) a 19th Century Hess in Spandau * through his second abdication and permanent exile to St. Helena and brought an end to the Napoleonic Era in Europe.
Fair enough. I just have this vision of the victors:
Victor 1: OK, the napoleonic era is over. He’ll never escape from that island.
Victor 2: That’s what you said last time.
Chris Reeves’s reputation before the horse ride was hardly bad. He was known as one of the nicest guys to work with even before the horse ride.
Nixon and Watergate will always be inseparable.
Good pick. I don’t know to what extent she was involved in planning the attack, but had it never happened, she would have had a fantastic future (for a figure skater, and barring and later screw-ups) even if she hadn’t won at the Olympics. It was the perfect TV-ready life story: she was the cute, simple country girl who came out of poverty to be one of the world’s top skaters. Kerrigan, in comparison, never came off quite as warmly, which may be why she lost her popularity so quickly. With the attack, Kerrigan suddenly became the sympathetic one, while Harding’s image went from ‘innocent abroad’ to ‘hillbilly psycho’.
But not everyone liked him. 
Dominiqe Moceanu. Poor kid.
August, 1996. The American women’s gymnastics team is poised to win its first ever all-around gold medal in a fully-contested Olympiad in an eternity. They come out of the gate flying and look unstoppable. One event left, the vault, with the Americans solidly in front. The Russians are charging hard, but it looks to be too little, too late, and no one else is close.
The first three vaults are clean. Two vaulters left, Dominique Moceanu and Kerri Strug.
Moceanu is the star of the team without question. She’s done it all and dealt with the worst pressure imaginable. She’s the star. The queen. She’s battled with injuries, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering her tonight.
All she has to do is get one clean landing in two attempts, and she ices the gold.
Damn. I wouldn’t have wished that on Jeff freakin’ Tarrango, I tells ya.
Now I’ll go one further and nominate someone who did the turn twice. The man they call Lefty, Phil Mickelson.
Mickelson wasn’t exactly beloved in 2003. He had a reputation for taking too many stupid risks and underachieving in big tournaments. And he was having a frustrating year. But no matter how bad he felt, no one could’ve possibly predicted his completely out-of-the-blue tirade about how great Tiger was because he was winning with inferior equipment.
Look…I don’t know. I just don’t know. But he was pretty vocal about it, giving a pretty powerful impression about a chronic underachiever who was also out of his freakin’ mind. As 2004 rolled around, he continued failing to win anything of note. He was just about completely written off at this point.
So when he had 11 feet to the hole at the final hole of the Masters, and he needed a two-putt to force a playoff, well, one could be forgiven for thinking he wasn’t going to pull it off… 
P.S. - I disagree with Mike Tyson’s rape conviction. His reputation as a crook was well known even before he hit the big time. Remember the second loss to Evander Holyfield? The ear bite which spawned several billion brain-dead jokes? The event which killed every last shred of his credibility as a fighter? Well, there you go.
Great thread, by the way.
With all these sports ones, has no one mentioned Pete Rose?
Since it seems that most of the examples so far have been like Rose (good to bad), I tried coming up with the inverse. I think Stanley “Tookie” Williams qualifies. After being convicted of four murders and sentenced to death, Williams authored several children’s books with the aim of curbing gang violence. In 2001, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace prize.
As one of the five people following figure skating (I knew who Tonya and Nancy were before they were Tonya and Nancy) I must disagree.
My first thought when I heard about the attack was that Harding was behind it. Her rep was always a bit on the sleazy side what with the early marriage and crude behavior. She’d also been losing for years at nationals. If I’m not mistaken she finished fourth the year before the attack and was in danger of not making the Olympic team. Her only real ace in the hole was the triple axel and that was iffy at best.
I sorta felt sorry for Kerrigan. She clearly hated the spotlight. But her actions after winning the silver medal were rather graceless. Coming back to win the silver was an enormous triumph. If she’d played into that moment – woman captures medal after serious injury – with any joy, she’d still be popular now.
I haven’t actually seen it either, but I’ve sure heard about it. I’ll give you a hint just how bad it is - Alice Cooper did his part during a three day pass from rehab. 'Nough said.
Speaking of whom, he had a little image problem of his own after the Chicken Flinging Incident, although he wasn’t exactly famous before.
Hugh Grant, known for playing shy and veddy English characters in Four Weddings and a Funeral and earlier films, get caught with a hooker.
Robert Downey, Jr., known as a very talented Generation X actor and rising star, develops a drug habit.
Rob Lowe attends the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta in 1988 and videotapes his sexual encounters with two women in a hotel room. One of the women turns out to be underage. Any momentum his acting career had from numerous pretty-boy roles in the '80s is lost.
Rob Lowe reminds me of R. Kelly. Of course, his career doesn’t really seem to be suffering, but he’ll forever be known as “that guy who peed on those underage girls.”