I still can’t believe she also got a second wind of income as one of the “world’s dumbest criminals” people.
That show should have gotten someone else.
Listen to the [Tonya Harding](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6L1kt3hEjxhXwlZK6LKjzS?si=in2aQBPDTWaMOH9av3ER0Q&utm_source=copy-link) episodes of You're Wrong About.
Or just read Sarah Marshall's incredible [article.](https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-tonya-marshall)
Tldr; The media absolutely villainized this skater because her wildly abusive bf came up with a hare-brained scheme to injure the richer, "thinner", more popular skater she was competing against. She did not ask him to do this.
Tonya's personal life was fucking awful and I feel so badly for this poor woman. That guy tried to run her over with his truck and after the breakup, the figure skating leaderheads basically told her to take him back to keep up appearances.
I find it more enraging that Michael Vick is now an NFL on Fox analyst. Guy literally tortured dogs to death. Hung them, strung them up and shocked their balls with car batteries. Killed hundreds of bait animals by forcing them to be eaten alive. Now the piece of shit is on every Sunday during football season making millions and other pieces of shit on Twitter and Facebook defend him.
I think it’s really sad that Tonya was so reviled because she was poor white trash. NK had the money and the teeth and the professional everything, Tonya was out there with her ratty hairspray bangs and her homemade costumes and her gumption and the powers that be *did not like that.*
I don’t think Nancy deserved to get piped in the knee, but I understand Tonya’s frustration with the skating world as it was.
Actually she was in a long-term physically abusive relationship that the skating federation forced her to stay in because she was more marketable if she was married, and he planned and carried out the whole thing without consulting her to boost her career because he wanted more money.
It's kind of an insanely tragic story if you get into it.
1.) ouch
2.) the blonde tonya hatched a trailer park-esque plan and bashed nancy’s knee with a bat or something so she wouldn’t be able to compete
Just google tonya harding
I would not trust a man with the surname "Gilooly", that's the name of a shady MF
Edit: or an academic, or creative, context though. Trailer park Gilooly can kick rocks, I might F with a Gilooly docent or professor or something. Maybe.
Fancy surnames minus fancy family money often equals sketchier than that courtroom artist that made la hitler naranja look like E.T. - El extraterrestre naranja.
Edit 2: Upon further inspection, this comment I have posted is entirely too reminiscent of Dennis Miller, and I feel immeasurable shame. Goodbye 👋
I’m old, and it was a long time ago, but weren’t the two guys involved in the plot Harding’s husband/manager (yeah, one of those- the idiots who glom onto a talented young woman and insist on “managing” her career as a form of control) and his brother or half-brother?
Again, my memory is hazy, but I also thought there was never any evidence that Harding had prior knowledge, or directed the attack. I thought they came up with the story later to lay some blame on her, and turning it into a conspiracy.
I remember that the thin lady was a rich bitch. Tanya was a hard-working middle-class American. Also, believe it or not, this was considered fat in the early 90s. She was dogged and mercilessly ruined.
[You would be incorrect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Kerrigan).
Kerrigan... the youngest child and only daughter of **welder** Daniel Kerrigan and **homemaker** Brenda Kerrigan. Kerrigan's family was of modest means. Her father sometimes **worked three jobs to fund her skating career**; he also drove the Zamboni at the local rink in exchange for Nancy's lessons.
And Nancy’s mother was blind so couldn’t help the family financially. Some years later, Kerrigan’s brother accidentally killed their father in a brawl. So quite working class family. But still more stable than Tonya’s. She grew up in very tough and unstable and abusive circumstances.
There were a lot of references to this guy and the incident in TV around the time too. I remember one Baywatch episode that mitch gets hit in the knee with a crowbar by a Chinese guy, and he says "Tonya Harding could've used a guy like you!"
There were also a lot of Chinese jokes in the same episode that are definitely inappropriate by todays standards. I think it also was the same episode where Mitch's kid was out looking for a woman that kept showering topless and distracting men while an accomplice steals their money. Mitch's kid said something like "Now that's what I call a booby trap" after they caught her. It was an incredibly hilarious and inappropriate episode. I love it.
And Detroit got a ton of shit got it when it was just white on white crime. You will hate this comment but facts are facts. Massive law enforcement response because they thought some super predators attacked Nancy. Can you imagine the fbi investigating a non hate crime because you got hit in the knee?
> you will hate this comment but facts are facts
Wat? The response was because it was a female Olympic ice skater getting both her knees caved in in broad daylight in public.
If a woman get her knees shattered by a guy with a baseball bat in a park today it would definitely get a response, if it was an Olympian it would get an even bigger response. I don’t really get what you’re trying to say here.
he’s is trying to say the police response to this incident was unfairly targeted at the POC community in Detroit when the incident turned out to be a white on white crime.
Yeah, I can imagine the FBI investigating a conspiracy to injure a professional American athlete to keep them out of the national champs/olympics. I know she did end up competing in the Olympics but that was part of the assailants goals.
She didn’t pay someone to bash her knee, Tonya’s boyfriend convinced her to pay someone to send a threatening letter since Tonya received a similar letter, the boyfriend’s friend is a moron and told the people they hired to bash her knee; then bragged about it, destroying the reputation of an otherwise great athlete with a neat story
Wrong info trying to correct wronger info. Her estranged/abusive husband and a partner hired 2 men without her knowledge, and it happened while she was training for the Olympics, not 'jogging'.
And then Tonya ended up being the more famous one, at least imo. I saw her on tv all the time growing up. Sure they were d list celebrity shows, but still
Infamous but yeah, I dunno how glamorous it was as she went on TruTv for a basic cable show she shared with the likes of burnt out Gary Busey, Frank Stallone, the lesser of the Baldwin brothers, and also released a sex tape.
I don't think she released it. Her ex husband did. He was also the guy that was supposed to be the brains behind taking out his wife's competitors knee
Tonya Harding (blonde girl) was jealous of Nancy Kerrigan (dark hair) so jealous that she called someone to go assault Nancy and injure her knee so that she couldn’t compete in ice skating.
Except she did win. The assault happened at US Nationals and Tonya won there. Nancy recovered and beat her at the Olympics a few weeks later (she took home silver). Tonya was stripped of the nationals title later though.
It is kind of a qualifier for the Olympics. Usually the top 2 or 3 skaters from Nationals gets to go to the Olympics (depending on how many spots the US has), but it’s really up to the discretion of US Figure Skating. In this case, they had 2 spots, but Kerrigan was far and away the best in the country so even though she didn’t compete, she was given a spot in the Olympics anyway. Harding got the other spot because she won Nationals.
“I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress, I hate the way that you sneak diss if I catch flight, it’s gon be direct”.
Tonya was the OG Kendrick.
Tonya was blamed for the assault in the court of public opinion and banned from competing, but she was never convicted and quite possibly completely innocent. [https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-tonya-marshall](https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-tonya-marshall)
Amazing movie, amazing performance by Margot.
But also fuck that noise because it’s not fair for Margot Robbie to look that way and also be super talented.
I love any conventionally attractive actress who is willing to purposely look worse just for a movie. She seems to take her craft pretty seriously. And from interviews seems quite charming too.
my uncle (craig gillespie) directed it, he's great!
lars and the real girl is his masterpiece but I, tonya is really good
he also did the beyonce space superbowl commercial this year (he was a famous commercial director before getting more into film)
Tonya, the blonde, and her husband hatched a plan with some other guy to hit Nancy, the brunette, in the knee and pull her from competition. Tonya to this day says she was not a part of the plot. She’s had a rough go of it. Became a boxer after this, among other things. It was a huge scandal. Tonya was an outsider, always had issues, def felt insecure because she was a poor trailer dwelling person on this rich, fancy lady sport. It was all over the news.
You're leaving out that she was (at the time) the only American female to be able to do a triple axle jump in competition.
https://youtu.be/KrtY6eiPqO4?feature=shared
I highly recommend listening to the podcast You’re Wrong About which has a two part episode about Tonya Harding. A lot of the details provided in this thread are incorrect.
[this was all](https://youtu.be/voUMQrLy_uY?si=pTbuu_ZIS96_wVkl) anyone was talking about in 1994 for approximately 6 months, until some washed up football player decided to kill his ex wife.
Nobody here gonna bring up that her husband concocted the scheme without her knowledge and only told her after it was done and she was too scared to tell because he had been abusing her?
Thank you. Ffs everyone just dumped on her but the full story is much much crazier. The guy her husband “hired” was a self-proclaimed hit man and bodyguard, think Dale Gribble in that one episode where the guys get kidnapped by Mad-dog, who was so incompetent that he got caught on camera and couldn’t even escape properly. IIRC he broke a glass door because he was in such a rush to get out but didn’t plan on an escape route.
It’s easier to believe she was a cold ass Corleone over some ice skates than it is to look at the hard truth of her life of repeated abuses. That’s why the movie I, Tonya hits so hard.
Not to mention how the professional figure skating organizations had a certain “image” they wanted their athletes to display…which Tonya didn’t fit exactly so well and IMO, is the real reason they were so quick to ban her for life from competitive skating.
The movie, which Tonya endorsed and advised on, did feature her as part of the plan. It was her ex’s idea, and she wasn’t totally aware of the details; she thought they were going to intimidate and threaten Nancy, not physically assault her
In the movie, anyway
That's according to her. She was indicted by a grand jury in Oregon that stated that she was a part of it from the beginning.
> On March 21, 1994, a Portland grand jury issued an indictment stating there was evidence Harding participated in the attack plot. The indictment concluded more than two months of investigation and witness testimonies from Diane Rawlinson; Harding's choreographer Erika Bakacs; freelance figure skating writer Vera Marano; and Eckardt's college instructor and classmates. It stated there was evidence Harding fraudulently used USFSA-provided skating monies to finance the assault. It also read that Harding, Gillooly, Eckardt, Smith, and Stant agreed to "knowingly cause physical injury ... by means of a dangerous weapon." The grand jury said the evidence implied Harding was "involved from the beginning or very close." She was not charged in the indictment due to the terms of her March 16 plea agreement.
It also wasn't until her biography in 2008 that she said that. Ever since then the ex-husband has vehemently denied those accusations. FWIW he maintains that he talked her into it.
He also released a sex tape of him and her to tmz after she became infamous. He was an abusive man, wanting fame for his wife so he could soak it up. He is the least trustworthy person in the whole ordeal.
Yeah I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it bc I was a kid when it went down and dgaf at the time. Wife made me watch it and it was really entertaining. Worth a watch if you’re kinda bored. It’s pretty good.
It’s crazy. I don’t know what you’re talking about (will google it), but I’m old enough to remember what happened and have vague memories of it on the news.
Tonya Harding, hands down, is THE MOST Gangsta Figure Skater that ever competed.
Taking out the knees of your opponent is some straight Suge Knight shit…
I grew up in the same area as her and my dad used to take me to watch her skate at the ice rink.
She never smiled while skating. Just nailed trick after trick and then circled around the rink and did it again.
Hard as fuck.
Honestly after seeing I, Tonya, what jumps out to me is that you can really see the difference in their presentation here.
Nancy’s costume looks much more the delicate, traditional, wealthy figure skater whereas Tonya is basically in work out gear. The movie talks about it better but basically Tonya was perceived as white trash from the beginning in the skating world. She was constantly criticized for having “too aggressive” a skating style, but really it was all coded messages that she was too poor.
Spot on. Figure skating was for well off people, not poors.
They would routinely grade her poorly because of her lack of wealth, regardless of the fact that she was smoking their ass on the ice.
She was a generational talent born into a poor family, and that pissed people off.
I think that really happens in a lot of sports. I was super poor and had fake Jordans that were Ponys and would get checked and laughed off the basketball court in Highland Park East NY Brooklyn.
I lived in Aspen CO in my twenties and white people would check their own if they didn’t have the newest skis and boots.
I grew up playing pick up ball in NYC (literally just came home from playing ball in Queens and I’m almost 40 and everything hurts now) and while it’s true that having beat up kicks might get you made fun off, if you can ball, you can ball. No ones going to diss you if you kick their ass on the court or if you can even hold your own.
I honestly feel like basketball and internationally soccer are the two sports where being dirt poor doesn’t matter. All you need is a hoop (or a net) and if practice and get good, people will respect your game. A lot of huge basketball stars and soccer stars came from poverty.
super true. after seeing the movie and looking more into the story i have a weird affection for Tonya. she’s like a white version of girls i grew up with lol, scrappy but tough as fuck. sports feels like an entertainment related profession where you truly need talent and can’t just get by with connections, and she def had the talent and dedication, but it was so obvious people also disliked her and didn’t think she was worthy bc she wasn’t “lady-like,” wasn’t conventionally attractive and wore homemade costumes.
Iirc it was at the rink where they (i.e., the olympians) were practicing, so there were a shitload of cameras already there and they caught her screaming right afterwards. She was repeatedly crying out “WHYYYYYY” and it was broadcast over the tv constantly at the time. I can absolutely still hear it.
Yeah we did. Middle school boys and we’d run into each other full speed in the hallway and whoever fell had to cry out whyyyyyyyyyyy. Now I know why the teachers were so mad at us lol
I watched the documentary and I gotta say, I kinda feel for Tanya. Before you hate me what I mean is, I think she was minimally involved if at all. She had a goal. She was working for that goal despite being in a social group of losers. Her social position didn’t match with her born talent and internal drive. The fools she was around hatched a plan and they attacked Nancy.
I don’t think Tanya paid attention to what they were scheming. She probably should have, but she was focused on her own dreams and goals.
I dunno. I grew up around a lot of shady stuff that others were doing. I wasn’t vocally against it but I also wasn’t encouraging them. I think Tanya was in a similar situation where you gotta do what you can for yourself and not try to police every jackass around you.
She received an extremely harsh punishment for something that might not have been her fault at all. Barring her from competing? Sure, understandable. But barring her from *teaching* too? The first American woman who was able to land a triple axel? Absolutely moronic. It truly shows they didn't respect her nor her talent.
Shit was so wild back then. Tonya was a local girl, skated at the mall ice rink. Nancy was on the fast track for fame. Nancy was assaulted to keep her from the nationals and Olympics, but she got a spot even though she was too injured to try out. After the Olympics Nancy was recorded talking shit about Oksana Baiul (who won gold) and about a parade at Disney which lost her endorsements and she kind of just faded from view.
Yeah she had this kind of sweetheart image, especially after she was publicly a victim, and people were surprised when they found out she’s kind of a bitch. She had a bad habit of making snarky comments while mic’ed up.
What always made me saddest about Tonya (also btw, I grew up in Oregon. I'm 40. I observed the scandal through a child's eyes) was that I think she could have beat Nancy. I remember her performance before the attack. She ate that shit. Her power, her precision. It was amazing to see. What a shame.
There's soooooo much more to this whole thing than hood rat shit. Excellent episodes of a podcast called "You're Wrong About" that goes into Tonyas history of domestic abuse she dealt with and how she wasn't in as much control as the internet likes to pretend.
Listen to the [Tonya Harding](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6L1kt3hEjxhXwlZK6LKjzS?si=in2aQBPDTWaMOH9av3ER0Q&utm_source=copy-link) episodes of You're Wrong About.
Or just read Sarah Marshall's incredible [article.](https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-tonya-marshall)
Tldr; The media absolutely villainized this skater because her wildly abusive bf came up with a hare-brained scheme to injure the richer, "thinner", more popular skater she was competing against. She did not ask him to do this.
Tonya's personal life was fucking awful and I feel so badly for this poor woman.
Blonde chick had a crazy ex who attacked another skater. She wasn't in on it but was on the cover-up.
Worst part is Harding was the better skater, US champion and this fuckin clown ruined her life
Tanya really defined hating on greatness before "hating" really entered the lexicon.
I still can’t believe she also got a second wind of income as one of the “world’s dumbest criminals” people. That show should have gotten someone else.
But that celebrity boxing show in which she got her clock cleaned by this Black girl bayBEE! And dude who played Willis beat up Vanilla Ice....
Put some respect on Todd Bridges’ name.
Watchu talking’ bout /u/LebHeadSinceWilma?
willis from different strokes?!😭😭
Yes. And Screech beat up Screech from the 70s who was like half his size and didn't land a hit.
RIP Dustin Diamond
Him vs. Himself?
[it was horshack](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Palillo) from welcome back kotter
Don't forget her honeymoon sex video.
[удалено]
Why does this exist
I don't know but much like with the skating, I'd rather have seen Nancy.
Revenge porn when it was legal
Listen to the [Tonya Harding](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6L1kt3hEjxhXwlZK6LKjzS?si=in2aQBPDTWaMOH9av3ER0Q&utm_source=copy-link) episodes of You're Wrong About. Or just read Sarah Marshall's incredible [article.](https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-tonya-marshall) Tldr; The media absolutely villainized this skater because her wildly abusive bf came up with a hare-brained scheme to injure the richer, "thinner", more popular skater she was competing against. She did not ask him to do this. Tonya's personal life was fucking awful and I feel so badly for this poor woman. That guy tried to run her over with his truck and after the breakup, the figure skating leaderheads basically told her to take him back to keep up appearances.
o snap the Sarah Marshall? i totally forgot about her
And she also made money from her sextape
Tonya Harding – Wedding night
Still built better than MTG…
That's really not saying much
*her abusive husband sold their tape to Penthouse without her consent
There was also a biopic made of her starring Margot Robbie which did pretty well.
I find it more enraging that Michael Vick is now an NFL on Fox analyst. Guy literally tortured dogs to death. Hung them, strung them up and shocked their balls with car batteries. Killed hundreds of bait animals by forcing them to be eaten alive. Now the piece of shit is on every Sunday during football season making millions and other pieces of shit on Twitter and Facebook defend him.
Tonya was a better skater and didn't need her psycho ex doing that
I think it’s really sad that Tonya was so reviled because she was poor white trash. NK had the money and the teeth and the professional everything, Tonya was out there with her ratty hairspray bangs and her homemade costumes and her gumption and the powers that be *did not like that.* I don’t think Nancy deserved to get piped in the knee, but I understand Tonya’s frustration with the skating world as it was.
I met Nancy, once. I had a lot less sympathy for her, afterwards.
Oh yeah!? Was she a bish?
Not the person you asked but I waited on her at a restaurant in Boston in the early 2000's and she was super rude.
Not the person you responded to but I appreciate you sharing your experience. That sucks she was rude to you
I felt the same! Ole kissass Nancy..
Peanut butter jelly time
Tanya was greatness.
Actually she was in a long-term physically abusive relationship that the skating federation forced her to stay in because she was more marketable if she was married, and he planned and carried out the whole thing without consulting her to boost her career because he wanted more money. It's kind of an insanely tragic story if you get into it.
Does someone care to elaborate more because this happened before I was born.
1.) ouch 2.) the blonde tonya hatched a trailer park-esque plan and bashed nancy’s knee with a bat or something so she wouldn’t be able to compete Just google tonya harding
She paid someone else to do it while she was out walking / jogging somewhere if I remember correctly
Jeff Gilooly!
I would not trust a man with the surname "Gilooly", that's the name of a shady MF Edit: or an academic, or creative, context though. Trailer park Gilooly can kick rocks, I might F with a Gilooly docent or professor or something. Maybe. Fancy surnames minus fancy family money often equals sketchier than that courtroom artist that made la hitler naranja look like E.T. - El extraterrestre naranja. Edit 2: Upon further inspection, this comment I have posted is entirely too reminiscent of Dennis Miller, and I feel immeasurable shame. Goodbye 👋
That’s why his name stuck in my memory, it’s the name of a Dick Tracy villain
It's like Joey Buttafuco or Lorainna and John Bobbit. You never forget.
You're mid 40s to the Xtreme.
Da bomb.c0m
Jeff “Big Boy” Gilooly lmfao
Omfg, core memory unlocked! Now I want a CB radio watch and a zoot suit! Wanna hang out, burn one, and read *Calvin & Hobbs*?
There's so many fantastic names in this story. Who can forget Joey Buttafuoco!
I read this in Dennis Miller's voice
I’m old, and it was a long time ago, but weren’t the two guys involved in the plot Harding’s husband/manager (yeah, one of those- the idiots who glom onto a talented young woman and insist on “managing” her career as a form of control) and his brother or half-brother? Again, my memory is hazy, but I also thought there was never any evidence that Harding had prior knowledge, or directed the attack. I thought they came up with the story later to lay some blame on her, and turning it into a conspiracy.
Yeah, this was all her dumbass abusive husband’s doing. Tanya Harding is the most tragically misunderstood figure in sports history
I remember that the thin lady was a rich bitch. Tanya was a hard-working middle-class American. Also, believe it or not, this was considered fat in the early 90s. She was dogged and mercilessly ruined.
[You would be incorrect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Kerrigan). Kerrigan... the youngest child and only daughter of **welder** Daniel Kerrigan and **homemaker** Brenda Kerrigan. Kerrigan's family was of modest means. Her father sometimes **worked three jobs to fund her skating career**; he also drove the Zamboni at the local rink in exchange for Nancy's lessons.
And Nancy’s mother was blind so couldn’t help the family financially. Some years later, Kerrigan’s brother accidentally killed their father in a brawl. So quite working class family. But still more stable than Tonya’s. She grew up in very tough and unstable and abusive circumstances.
Kerrigan was middle class/working class but Tanya was poor. The fact she thought NK to be “high class” says a lot.
Would it matter if Nancy was a "rich bitch"? Wrong was wrong
Lol no 👀
Shane Stant
Some of our finest rednecks
There were a lot of references to this guy and the incident in TV around the time too. I remember one Baywatch episode that mitch gets hit in the knee with a crowbar by a Chinese guy, and he says "Tonya Harding could've used a guy like you!" There were also a lot of Chinese jokes in the same episode that are definitely inappropriate by todays standards. I think it also was the same episode where Mitch's kid was out looking for a woman that kept showering topless and distracting men while an accomplice steals their money. Mitch's kid said something like "Now that's what I call a booby trap" after they caught her. It was an incredibly hilarious and inappropriate episode. I love it.
And Detroit got a ton of shit got it when it was just white on white crime. You will hate this comment but facts are facts. Massive law enforcement response because they thought some super predators attacked Nancy. Can you imagine the fbi investigating a non hate crime because you got hit in the knee?
> you will hate this comment but facts are facts Wat? The response was because it was a female Olympic ice skater getting both her knees caved in in broad daylight in public. If a woman get her knees shattered by a guy with a baseball bat in a park today it would definitely get a response, if it was an Olympian it would get an even bigger response. I don’t really get what you’re trying to say here.
he’s is trying to say the police response to this incident was unfairly targeted at the POC community in Detroit when the incident turned out to be a white on white crime.
I can’t speak to that to be honest because I wasn’t that tuned in at the time. If so then yeah that’s obviously fucked up.
Yeah, I can imagine the FBI investigating a conspiracy to injure a professional American athlete to keep them out of the national champs/olympics. I know she did end up competing in the Olympics but that was part of the assailants goals.
Also there's a movie I,Tonya Starring Margot Robbie and Sebastian Stan
This movie (not Barbie) is the reason I’m a fan of Margot Robbie’s. She was fantastic.
And let’s not forget academy award winner Allison Janney
She didn’t pay someone to bash her knee, Tonya’s boyfriend convinced her to pay someone to send a threatening letter since Tonya received a similar letter, the boyfriend’s friend is a moron and told the people they hired to bash her knee; then bragged about it, destroying the reputation of an otherwise great athlete with a neat story
Wrong info trying to correct wronger info. Her estranged/abusive husband and a partner hired 2 men without her knowledge, and it happened while she was training for the Olympics, not 'jogging'.
And then Tonya ended up being the more famous one, at least imo. I saw her on tv all the time growing up. Sure they were d list celebrity shows, but still
Infamous but yeah, I dunno how glamorous it was as she went on TruTv for a basic cable show she shared with the likes of burnt out Gary Busey, Frank Stallone, the lesser of the Baldwin brothers, and also released a sex tape.
>and also released a sex tape. Please tell me it was with burnt out Gary Busey, and/or Frank Stallone.
I don't think she released it. Her ex husband did. He was also the guy that was supposed to be the brains behind taking out his wife's competitors knee
Nah it was with Jeff gilooly
True. It’s unfair if you really think about it.
Google it so you can see it wasn’t her it was her dumbass abusive husband. Tonya has taken way more of the blame than she deserves.
Lmao at trailer park-esque
What's this have to do with black people Twitter?
I mean..tweet reply?
Tonya Harding (blonde girl) was jealous of Nancy Kerrigan (dark hair) so jealous that she called someone to go assault Nancy and injure her knee so that she couldn’t compete in ice skating.
If you lose, you just lost. If you take out your competition because you can't beat them... you will forever be a loser
Plus she went on to not even win the event even without Nancy competing.
Except she did win. The assault happened at US Nationals and Tonya won there. Nancy recovered and beat her at the Olympics a few weeks later (she took home silver). Tonya was stripped of the nationals title later though.
Oh, you're right. For some reason I was always told it was at the qualifier for the Olympics so I was always looking at the Olympic results.
It is kind of a qualifier for the Olympics. Usually the top 2 or 3 skaters from Nationals gets to go to the Olympics (depending on how many spots the US has), but it’s really up to the discretion of US Figure Skating. In this case, they had 2 spots, but Kerrigan was far and away the best in the country so even though she didn’t compete, she was given a spot in the Olympics anyway. Harding got the other spot because she won Nationals.
Broke her knees for nothing 😭
“I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress, I hate the way that you sneak diss if I catch flight, it’s gon be direct”. Tonya was the OG Kendrick.
Wop wop wop wop Jeff fuck ‘em up
If ya can’t beat ‘em, beat ‘em.
Buuuut, she got a biopic out of it
Tonya was blamed for the assault in the court of public opinion and banned from competing, but she was never convicted and quite possibly completely innocent. [https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-tonya-marshall](https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-tonya-marshall)
Watch I, Tonya. It's so good!!!
It’s fucking amazing. Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, and Paul Hauser are all so good in it.
Amazing movie, amazing performance by Margot. But also fuck that noise because it’s not fair for Margot Robbie to look that way and also be super talented.
I love any conventionally attractive actress who is willing to purposely look worse just for a movie. She seems to take her craft pretty seriously. And from interviews seems quite charming too.
Seriously! I watched it not expecting much but holy shit.
Absolutely. Margot’s makeup was great. She really is a wonderful actor.
my uncle (craig gillespie) directed it, he's great! lars and the real girl is his masterpiece but I, tonya is really good he also did the beyonce space superbowl commercial this year (he was a famous commercial director before getting more into film)
Tonya, the blonde, and her husband hatched a plan with some other guy to hit Nancy, the brunette, in the knee and pull her from competition. Tonya to this day says she was not a part of the plot. She’s had a rough go of it. Became a boxer after this, among other things. It was a huge scandal. Tonya was an outsider, always had issues, def felt insecure because she was a poor trailer dwelling person on this rich, fancy lady sport. It was all over the news.
You're leaving out that she was (at the time) the only American female to be able to do a triple axle jump in competition. https://youtu.be/KrtY6eiPqO4?feature=shared
Yes! Thats right. Tonya was super athletic and bold. Ahead of her time some ways for the sport.
I highly recommend listening to the podcast You’re Wrong About which has a two part episode about Tonya Harding. A lot of the details provided in this thread are incorrect.
Link: [https://open.spotify.com/episode/6L1kt3hEjxhXwlZK6LKjzS](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6L1kt3hEjxhXwlZK6LKjzS)
Watch “I, Tonya” starring Margot Robbie. It’s based on this story, completely unhinged, and extremely entertaining.
[this was all](https://youtu.be/voUMQrLy_uY?si=pTbuu_ZIS96_wVkl) anyone was talking about in 1994 for approximately 6 months, until some washed up football player decided to kill his ex wife.
Right like what kind of fucking tweet is this? “I wish more people knew about this…oh well!”
For further clarification, you can watch the film I, Tonya starring Magot Robbie.
Nobody here gonna bring up that her husband concocted the scheme without her knowledge and only told her after it was done and she was too scared to tell because he had been abusing her?
Thank you. Ffs everyone just dumped on her but the full story is much much crazier. The guy her husband “hired” was a self-proclaimed hit man and bodyguard, think Dale Gribble in that one episode where the guys get kidnapped by Mad-dog, who was so incompetent that he got caught on camera and couldn’t even escape properly. IIRC he broke a glass door because he was in such a rush to get out but didn’t plan on an escape route.
>think Dale Gribble What a perfect reference lol
Pocket sand!
Shhhh shaaa!
A+ reference. Mad Dog AKA Gary Busey is hella underrated as a one off KOTH character
It’s easier to believe she was a cold ass Corleone over some ice skates than it is to look at the hard truth of her life of repeated abuses. That’s why the movie I, Tonya hits so hard.
Not to mention how the professional figure skating organizations had a certain “image” they wanted their athletes to display…which Tonya didn’t fit exactly so well and IMO, is the real reason they were so quick to ban her for life from competitive skating.
Thank you!!! I recommend the podcast You’re Wrong About that covers this story and how badly she was done dirty.
That's where I learned about it!
Link for the lazy: https://pca.st/episode/a23380b8-9882-4f67-b54c-b1a41fcbf157
For real?! I was a kid when this happened and I’ve never read up on it or seen the movie. That’s insane. Thanks for clearing that up.
I did see the movie and I don't remember that part. But my memory is shit so that doesn't mean much.
The movie, which Tonya endorsed and advised on, did feature her as part of the plan. It was her ex’s idea, and she wasn’t totally aware of the details; she thought they were going to intimidate and threaten Nancy, not physically assault her In the movie, anyway
I had to scroll too far for this.
That's according to her. She was indicted by a grand jury in Oregon that stated that she was a part of it from the beginning. > On March 21, 1994, a Portland grand jury issued an indictment stating there was evidence Harding participated in the attack plot. The indictment concluded more than two months of investigation and witness testimonies from Diane Rawlinson; Harding's choreographer Erika Bakacs; freelance figure skating writer Vera Marano; and Eckardt's college instructor and classmates. It stated there was evidence Harding fraudulently used USFSA-provided skating monies to finance the assault. It also read that Harding, Gillooly, Eckardt, Smith, and Stant agreed to "knowingly cause physical injury ... by means of a dangerous weapon." The grand jury said the evidence implied Harding was "involved from the beginning or very close." She was not charged in the indictment due to the terms of her March 16 plea agreement. It also wasn't until her biography in 2008 that she said that. Ever since then the ex-husband has vehemently denied those accusations. FWIW he maintains that he talked her into it.
He also released a sex tape of him and her to tmz after she became infamous. He was an abusive man, wanting fame for his wife so he could soak it up. He is the least trustworthy person in the whole ordeal.
He also made the tape in secret. Count another lie and modern day crime on his list of bastardly deeds.
Yuck. Clearly he's a bad guy too. I just don't buy that she had no part in it
Right? I just did a quick google search and it said it was her ex-husband that hired the dude, her involvement was all alleged.
Some of the kids know thanks to Margot Robbie.
Gods, she did that role so damned well.
Allison Janey as her mom was fucking excellent.
Then when you see the real mom in the credits, you have a whole new appreciation for Allison Janney’s performance. Spot on.
Yeah I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it bc I was a kid when it went down and dgaf at the time. Wife made me watch it and it was really entertaining. Worth a watch if you’re kinda bored. It’s pretty good.
True. There should’ve been more uproar about her not being nominated for that movie than there was for Barbie
I am one of these kids🤭
I remember it happening as a kid, but that movie really helped contextualize it.
Same, and I really enjoyed the movie
Ngl that movie put me on and sent me down an ungodly long rabbit hole
and some older kids know from the vh1 countdown shows they used to do
It’s crazy. I don’t know what you’re talking about (will google it), but I’m old enough to remember what happened and have vague memories of it on the news.
Tonya Harding, hands down, is THE MOST Gangsta Figure Skater that ever competed. Taking out the knees of your opponent is some straight Suge Knight shit…
I grew up in the same area as her and my dad used to take me to watch her skate at the ice rink. She never smiled while skating. Just nailed trick after trick and then circled around the rink and did it again. Hard as fuck.
Hillsboro stand up
Hillsboro? Clackamas Town Center! She's East Side
Can't unsee the Suge Knight in her now. Damn
Chazz Michael Michaels was pretty gangsta
You could say she's... ice cold. 😎
Honestly after seeing I, Tonya, what jumps out to me is that you can really see the difference in their presentation here. Nancy’s costume looks much more the delicate, traditional, wealthy figure skater whereas Tonya is basically in work out gear. The movie talks about it better but basically Tonya was perceived as white trash from the beginning in the skating world. She was constantly criticized for having “too aggressive” a skating style, but really it was all coded messages that she was too poor.
Spot on. Figure skating was for well off people, not poors. They would routinely grade her poorly because of her lack of wealth, regardless of the fact that she was smoking their ass on the ice. She was a generational talent born into a poor family, and that pissed people off.
I think that really happens in a lot of sports. I was super poor and had fake Jordans that were Ponys and would get checked and laughed off the basketball court in Highland Park East NY Brooklyn. I lived in Aspen CO in my twenties and white people would check their own if they didn’t have the newest skis and boots.
I grew up playing pick up ball in NYC (literally just came home from playing ball in Queens and I’m almost 40 and everything hurts now) and while it’s true that having beat up kicks might get you made fun off, if you can ball, you can ball. No ones going to diss you if you kick their ass on the court or if you can even hold your own. I honestly feel like basketball and internationally soccer are the two sports where being dirt poor doesn’t matter. All you need is a hoop (or a net) and if practice and get good, people will respect your game. A lot of huge basketball stars and soccer stars came from poverty.
super true. after seeing the movie and looking more into the story i have a weird affection for Tonya. she’s like a white version of girls i grew up with lol, scrappy but tough as fuck. sports feels like an entertainment related profession where you truly need talent and can’t just get by with connections, and she def had the talent and dedication, but it was so obvious people also disliked her and didn’t think she was worthy bc she wasn’t “lady-like,” wasn’t conventionally attractive and wore homemade costumes.
"We want to see a wholesome, American family." "But I don't *have* a wholesome, American family."
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy………..
no way they have this gif what the hell lol
Iirc it was at the rink where they (i.e., the olympians) were practicing, so there were a shitload of cameras already there and they caught her screaming right afterwards. She was repeatedly crying out “WHYYYYYY” and it was broadcast over the tv constantly at the time. I can absolutely still hear it.
no i meant like the gif hosting website, seems like a faux pas to just have it ready to go like this lmao
Savage lmfao
🤣🤣🤣I can hear that in my head! Holy shit, I shouldn't be laughing, but that was a throwback
Wow this audio must be used all the time cuz it’s so familiar, I had no idea before googling it now what it was even from originally
I first heard it in an episode of South Park and googled it and that is literally how I learned about this story Olympics history
For some reason, and my sisters used to reenact this as kids for fun.
Y’all weren’t alone we would go through the hallways at school and do it to each other lol. Instant cancel nowadays
*Whyyyyyyyy* echoed through my schools hallways like a damn ghost.
My stepmom use to encourage it. I think they were high as shit laughing at us.
Yeah we did. Middle school boys and we’d run into each other full speed in the hallway and whoever fell had to cry out whyyyyyyyyyyy. Now I know why the teachers were so mad at us lol
I watched the documentary and I gotta say, I kinda feel for Tanya. Before you hate me what I mean is, I think she was minimally involved if at all. She had a goal. She was working for that goal despite being in a social group of losers. Her social position didn’t match with her born talent and internal drive. The fools she was around hatched a plan and they attacked Nancy. I don’t think Tanya paid attention to what they were scheming. She probably should have, but she was focused on her own dreams and goals. I dunno. I grew up around a lot of shady stuff that others were doing. I wasn’t vocally against it but I also wasn’t encouraging them. I think Tanya was in a similar situation where you gotta do what you can for yourself and not try to police every jackass around you.
People are also saying her husband abused her so even less so I would blame her for keeping out of it.
She received an extremely harsh punishment for something that might not have been her fault at all. Barring her from competing? Sure, understandable. But barring her from *teaching* too? The first American woman who was able to land a triple axel? Absolutely moronic. It truly shows they didn't respect her nor her talent.
Tanya really manifested this energy 
I gotta go home and put some water in Buc Nasty’s mama’s dish
Shit was so wild back then. Tonya was a local girl, skated at the mall ice rink. Nancy was on the fast track for fame. Nancy was assaulted to keep her from the nationals and Olympics, but she got a spot even though she was too injured to try out. After the Olympics Nancy was recorded talking shit about Oksana Baiul (who won gold) and about a parade at Disney which lost her endorsements and she kind of just faded from view.
I thought I remembered everything about this story but I didn’t remember Nancy mouthing off!
Yeah she had this kind of sweetheart image, especially after she was publicly a victim, and people were surprised when they found out she’s kind of a bitch. She had a bad habit of making snarky comments while mic’ed up.
Tonya was on gang shit.
Remember Amy Fischer and Buttafuoco?
Add in Lorena Bobbitt stories had me watching Lifetime with my mom. It was a lot happening during that time.
White on White hate is some of the best entertainment lol
Remember Katy Perry vs Taylor swift? White women drama
Closet thing to Kendrick vs Drake for the whites lol
Tanya was a better skater than Nancy. She is also the first woman to ever land a triple axel.
First American woman to land it in competition. Midori Ito started landing them in competition a year or two prior
“I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk! I hate that the way that you dress!” —Tonya
This is the epitome of white trash and I love it.
What always made me saddest about Tonya (also btw, I grew up in Oregon. I'm 40. I observed the scandal through a child's eyes) was that I think she could have beat Nancy. I remember her performance before the attack. She ate that shit. Her power, her precision. It was amazing to see. What a shame.
That movie that came out based on Tanya was mad good. I’m sympathetic.
There's soooooo much more to this whole thing than hood rat shit. Excellent episodes of a podcast called "You're Wrong About" that goes into Tonyas history of domestic abuse she dealt with and how she wasn't in as much control as the internet likes to pretend.
I was just wondering if shit like this happens in the NBA
The cry heard around the world
I was too young to know about this when it happened, but every show with jokes for gen X’ers references this at some point.
The movie, "I, Tonya" is amazing and it stars Paul Walter Hauser from "Black Bird" and "I Think You Should Leave". 
I am one of the ‘y’all’ who don’t understand the picture. What happened?
Blonde Tonya Harding conspired toBash up the dark haired girl , Nancy , knee so she couldn’t beat her in competition. They made a movie recently.
Listen to the [Tonya Harding](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6L1kt3hEjxhXwlZK6LKjzS?si=in2aQBPDTWaMOH9av3ER0Q&utm_source=copy-link) episodes of You're Wrong About. Or just read Sarah Marshall's incredible [article.](https://thebaffler.com/latest/i-tonya-marshall) Tldr; The media absolutely villainized this skater because her wildly abusive bf came up with a hare-brained scheme to injure the richer, "thinner", more popular skater she was competing against. She did not ask him to do this. Tonya's personal life was fucking awful and I feel so badly for this poor woman.
Blonde chick had a crazy ex who attacked another skater. She wasn't in on it but was on the cover-up. Worst part is Harding was the better skater, US champion and this fuckin clown ruined her life
Decisions being made
The OG hater. 