# Tonya Harding, 20 years later **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 6, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063 "2014-01-06T20:57:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/21 "2014-01-16T00:09:17Z")
I wonder how things would have turned out for Harding if she had taken up some other sport that didn’t emphasize appearance so much. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/22 "2014-01-16T01:19:14Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > [This is another article.](http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1887592-harding-kerrigan-20-years-later-remembering-the-stunning-life-changing-attack) To me, the upshot is that Harding still denies that she had anything to do with planning the attack. It’s an amusing read though about these bumbling criminals, and the fat guy who ran an international operation out of his parents’ home (:p), and thought it would be a cool way to drum up ‘bodyguard’ business. Didn’t this genius, while in the planning stage, refer to himself as a ‘hit man’, because he would hit Nancy in the leg?? What a stud. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/23 "2014-01-16T05:24:13Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Probably the high water mark in Tonya’s career and her life, [right here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIGoWGjetog) Wow - those jumps! So high, so tight, so straight upright! ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/24 "2014-01-16T05:45:40Z")
I generally like the ESPN 30 for 30 series but will not watch this one. I won’t do anything to support Tonya. Nancy was graceful and flowing and skilled, but yes whiny and a princess but that’s not what the competitions are about, right? Tonya was athletic and strong but not as polished and graceful, but yes dumb and a thug. Again, not what the competitions are about. But with this country and figure skating, we’re enamored by it and hold these young girls up on a pedestal. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/25 "2014-01-16T17:15:28Z")
I’d like to know what Tonya is doing to put food on the table. I doubt she was ever wealthy, and what she’s been involved in post-skating (boxing, _TruTV Presents: World’s Dumbest_, which she isn’t a part of anymore) don’t look like high-paying jobs. Is she slugging it out in an office? Working midnights at Walmart? Where does she even live? ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/26 "2014-01-16T17:27:45Z")
Harding’s married with a child. Maybe her husband brings in the money? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/27 "2014-01-16T17:42:50Z")
Like Courtney Love, Tanya rose from that subsection of American society “Pacific Northwest Trailer Trash,” which The Emerald City of Seattle wishes we’d please ignore as completely as they do. They gave their Southern counterpart a brief respite before reality TV brought them back to the fore. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/28 "2014-01-16T19:04:05Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Please warn us before linking to an auto-playing video. :rolleyes: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/) ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/29 "2014-01-16T20:14:57Z")
Interesting commentary on a documentary ESPN is running tonight about this incident: > [@](#): > > [http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2014/01/16/3171121/30-30-tonya-harding/](http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2014/01/16/3171121/30-30-tonya-harding/) > > Where she was often graceful and canny in press interviews after the attack on Kerrigan, Harding in an interview for the documentary says of Kerrigan’s disappointment in only winning silver says “She was the crybaby who didn’t win the gold. You know, I’m sorry. I’ve never said this before, but shut up.” It’s a jarring moment. And it’s even more damning when The Price Of Gold contrasts Harding’s insistence that a handwriting analysis during the investigation into the attack vindicated her with district attorney Norman Frink, chief deputy district attorney of Multnomah County, saying “It was identified as her handwriting. It was strong evidence of her involvement.” The contradiction throws every one of Harding’s assertions about her innocence into question. I am inclined to agree with this paragraph. While I am have at least some sympathy for Harding because of her rather awful background, I would have far more respect if she would just admit involvement and apologize. She’s obviously guilty. Denying this fact and then having the chutzpah to tell Kerrigan how to feel is vile behavior. Harding fucked herself over. She had amazing natural talent and she blew up. She has only herself to blame. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/30 "2014-01-16T20:36:37Z")
Like most heterosexual males, I have never watched figure skating of my own free will- only when wives or girlfriends wanted to watch it. Meaning I’ve never rooted for or against any figure skater. I’ve never had a strong opinion about ANY of them. I suppose I tepidly root for any American over any foreigner, but I’ve never loved OR hated Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt, Oksana Baiul, Tara Lipinski, or anyone else. In 1994, I neither loved nor hated Tonya Harding OR Nancy Kerrigan. I knew little or nothing about their backgrounds. What amazed me, though, was how quickly the public’s initial sympathy for Nancy Kerrigan turned into disdain. That disdain is pretty apparent in this very thread. A lot of people decided shortly after the assault that Kerrign was a rich brat and a whiny “Ice Princess.” I’ve never understood where that came from. The only time she “whined” was right after someone smashed her knee! I think that justifies a certain amount of crying. And afterward? The worst thing I’ve ever heard her accused of is rolling her eyes and saying “This is really corny” during a Disney parade. (Well, was she WRONG? It WAS really corny!) And after that, she’s largely stayed out of the public eye. Now, like most sports fans, I admit I’ve loved and hated all sorts of athletes based on superficial attributes. Were the guys I’ve loved (Ron Guidry, Don Mattingly, Harmon Killebrew) REALLY good people? Were the guys I’ve loathed (Carlton Fisk, Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson) really bad guys? Who knows? I admit, I’m as irrational as anyone. But what exactly made so many people hate Nancy Kerrigan? ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/31 "2014-01-16T20:54:13Z")
I believe Nancy Kerrigan also had an affair with her then married agent. Later, they did end up marrying. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/32 "2014-01-16T21:07:33Z")
> [@echo7tango](#): > > I generally like the ESPN 30 for 30 series but will not watch this one. NPR had an interesting article about the 30 for 30 series. > **[Complicating The Tonya And Nancy Narratives, 20 Years Later](https://www.npr.org/2014/01/16/263073794/complicating-the-tonya-and-nancy-narratives-20-years-later?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook)** > > A new ESPN documentary suggests that both the original narrative about Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan and the counternarrative that sprang up later are entirely too simplistic. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/33 "2014-01-17T06:21:53Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I’ve never understood where that came from. The only time she “whined” was right after someone smashed her knee! I think that justifies a certain amount of crying. > > And afterward? The worst thing I’ve ever heard her accused of is rolling her eyes and saying “This is really corny” during a Disney parade. (Well, was she WRONG? It WAS really corny!) Yeah, but she skipped the closing Olympic ceremonies to be in that parade. And that was shortly after making nasty comments about Oksana Baiul crying after winning a gold medal. So she was seen as being ungracious towards a competitor that beat her, and then skipped being with her country and her team to make a personal appearance that she didn’t seem to really appreciate. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/34 "2014-01-17T06:30:37Z")
My recollection at the time was that I didn’t think Baiul should have won. She didn’t skate a clean program, and some of her moves were awkward. Sure, she threw in some extra jumps, but that was because she’d missed or two-footed landings on several earlier ones (and she landed badly on the extras, too). Kerrigan, on the other hand, skated clean, and her program was more cohesive with better flow. Baiul was a sentimental choice who wasn’t part of a nasty little fight. This is not to say that she wasn’t a damn good skater, and she certainly grew into a skater capable of beating Kerrigan, but that night, she wasn’t the best. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/35 "2014-01-17T07:56:32Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Tonya and Nancy are both approaching middle age now. Tonya is really showing her years. Shrug. She looks pretty much like a lot of other 43-year-old women who don’t make a living in television. Put her in a group of 100 women in their early to mid-40s, and she wouldn’t stand out in any special way. She looks somewhat overweight, but so are about half the people in the country. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/36 "2014-01-17T09:47:22Z")
I’m wondering if I’m the only one who remembers [Spunk: The Tonya Harding Story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQXazQ_pIC0)? (YouTube Link) It was the first “Comedy Central Original Movie!”, actually just a 5 minute short that, for its premiere, they sqeezed in between the end of one show and the beginning of another- but it was a Comedy Central produced original back when they had very little original programming. Tina Yothers played Harding. My favorite line, that I still quote to this day, spoken as inner monologue by the creepy husband’s creepy bodyguard friend: “Maybe if I were to attack Nancy Kerrigan, Jodie Foster would finally start answering my letters.” youtube link ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/37 "2014-01-17T14:45:01Z")
I remember my coworkers mocking me incessantly because I didn’t recognize harding from a single still picture more than ten years after the fact. They took this as evidence that I was too young. I heard about the fight. I just didn’t really care. Two catty bitches taking it out on each other. And I certainly didn’t care enough to take note of what they looked like. Interesting that the media is chasing her down again. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/38 "2014-01-17T15:17:43Z")
Harding is such an ass even years later. It’s so obvious she’s was in the plot up to her ears. I wanted to root for her but I just can’t. Yes, she was from a blue collar background and had a shitty mother. But she had a father who loved her and more figure skating talent than almost anyone of her generation. She was so talented and she threw it all away because she was too lazy to practice properly and too dumb to listen to her coaches. She has only herself to blame. She still can’t admit that shares a big chunk of the blame for what happened to her. She still can’t apologize to Kerrigan for her involvement. She’s still a sociopath on some level. The whole ESPN documentary was her whining constantly, her refusal to admit to any wrongdoing and her nasty criticism of Kerrigan. You can hardly blame Kerrigan for wanting nothing to do with her today. That’s the real tragedy here in a sense. You get the impression that Nancy has moved on to a happy and functional adulthood. You get the impression that Tonya is still seeking vindication for her actions; still in denial about her bad behavior and still stuck replaying that time over and over again. I wish the media would leave them both alone. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/39 "2014-01-17T17:46:09Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Harding is such an ass even years later. It’s so obvious she’s was in the plot up to her ears. I wanted to root for her but I just can’t. Yes, she was from a blue collar background and had a shitty mother. But she had a father who loved her and more figure skating talent than almost anyone of her generation. Tonya’s “white trash” background was part of the reason some people embraced her and some people disdained her. But the people who LIKED her invariably chose to paint Kerrigan as a rich spoiled princess, when in reality, she was a blue-colalr kid herself. Her dad was a welder, not a millionaire. As I said earlier, I have no great love or hatred for either woman- but it often feels as if people who like either one feel compelled to trash the other, whether or not she’s done anything to deserve it. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063/40 "2014-01-17T19:54:51Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Like Courtney Love, Tanya rose from that subsection of American society “Pacific Northwest Trailer Trash,” which The Emerald City of Seattle wishes we’d please ignore as completely as they do. They gave their Southern counterpart a brief respite before reality TV brought them back to the fore. Having been born and raised in the Portalachia/Vantucky area, and watching Tonya practicing a couple times at the local rinks back in the day, I heartily second this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tonya-harding-20-years-later/678063.md?page=1)