Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan are two names I'm never going to forget. They are two skaters implicated in an ugly scandal that ruined Tonya Harding's reputation.
Tonya Harding started skating at the age of four and later dropped out of high school to continue skating.
After climbing the ranks in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships between 1986 and 1989, Harding won the 1989 Skate America competition. She was the 1991 and 1994 U.S. champion before being stripped of her 1994 title, and 1991 World silver medalist. In 1991, she earned distinction as being the first American woman to successfully land a triple Axel in competition, and the second woman to do so in history (behind Midori Ito). She is also a two-time Olympian and a two-time Skate America Champion. source
As you can see above, she was looking at a promising career, I believe she was a talented skater but things took an unexpected, ugly turn when her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly and her bodyguard hired a hit man to break Kerrigan's leg. They were hoping this way Nancy Kerrigan could not participate in the 1994 Winter Olympics and Tonya could have a better chance. I don't know why they chose to do a criminal act like that. Maybe Tonya wasn't ready or she was insecure, either way this is not the right way to do things.
As far as I'm concerned, this was the ugliest case in ice skating. I remember the whole case and saw both skaters performing live. I know athletes, trainers, sponsors and managers would do anything for their athlete to win a medal but this was the worst by far.
Thank God the hit man did a crappy job and could not break Nancy's leg, but she ended up with some bruising. This was done after a training session, so she could still compete and won second place.
Now let's see what Tonya did on the ice. This is a 7 minute video of her first attempt. She arrived late due to some issues with her shoe lace, even got a warning according to which if she didn't start in two minutes, she could be disqualified. This was unheard as the speaker said who seemed to be a skater himself, yet it happened to Tanya four times . If you're a skater and you're competing, it's your duty to have the equipment ready in perfect shape ad this should be your number one priority.
After failing the first jump, she started crying and complained to the judges blaming her shoe lace. Childish tantrum if you ask me, I've never seen anyone else do that over the years. Never mind, she got a second chance but due to her trick another skater was called early to perform, and maybe that skater wasn't prepared. It wasn't fair at all.
This is the video with both her performances, if you watch the second you can see she didn't have an outstanding performance, as she made some mistakes.
She never went to jail for what happened but she pleaded guilty for hindering the investigation. Looks like this was a way to avoid doing time.
Harding got three years of probation, had to pay a ton of fines and costs, perform community service and take part in a psychiatric examination and undergo any necessary treatment, to name a few things.
Tonya Harding is no longer allowed to skate for the U.S. for the rest of her life. Specifically, she had to resign from the U.S. Figure Skating Association. In addition to that bad news, she was also stripped of her 1994 national figure skating title.
More than one person went to prison for the attack. Tonya's former hubby, Jeff Gillooly, and an additional three people, one being her bodyguard, all did some time for the crime. source
Nancy Kerrigan on the other hand did her job, competed fairly and got second place despite of her injury. She is a true hero in my eyes. I hate when people use their sad story to gain something or to make people feel sorry for them. Playing fair is always paying off.
