She Wowed Them
Tonya Harding had already wowed the figure skating world with her amazing triple axel. What happened next drew wows for a very different and much more sordid reason. When her fiercest competitor sustained a surprising and violent injury, all eyes turned to Harding. Once the FBI had come to their conclusions, Harding‘s career on ice was over, and what followed was a series of sad and desperate attempts to stay in the spotlight.
1. She Had A Rough Childhood
It was on November 12, 1970, that Tonya Maxene Harding came into this world. She was born in Portland, Oregon, where her mother was a waitress and her father bounced around from job to job due to his poor health. The family was trying to make ends meet mostly from Mom’s meager salary.
But Harding’s life was rich in another way.
2. She Was Not A Typical Girl
While many children find satisfaction simply playing with toys, Harding spent her days hunting, drag racing and getting mechanics lessons from her dad. She did have one pastime more traditionally associated with girls: she loved to figure skate. From a young age, she was very good.
But no one could have predicted how big she would eventually get.
3. She Counted On Her Mother
Harding started figure skating when she was three years old. Money was tight, and her mother had to hand-sew Harding’s figure skating outfits. While it sounds like Harding’s mom, LaVona Golden, was the perfect support to her daughter, there was a dark side to this mother-daughter relationship.
4. Her Mother Was No Angel
Harding later said that by the time she was seven years old, she had become accustomed to terrible behavior from her mother. Harding suggested that her mother mistreated her both physically and emotionally. If that wasn’t enough, Harding also had another perpetrator to deal with in the family.
5. She Was A Victim
Harding had a half-brother named Chris Davison. Harding said that Davison molested her on more than one occasion. Later in her life, Harding said that her parents would not own up to the fact that Davison was acting inappropriately toward her. They even convinced her not to press charges against him.
While there is no proof of Davison doing anything inappropriate, we do know what fate dished out for him.
6. He Got His Punishment
Eventually, Harding had to go to the authorities about Davison. His alleged harassment and terrorizing simply would not stop. Harding later said that Davison was the only person she’d ever hated. Davison met his end after a car struck him. This hit-and-run accident remains unsolved.
With all the craziness going on in her life, Harding tried to maintain her focus on one thing and one thing only.
7. She Moved Toward The Top
Somehow, Harding retained a focus on figure skating. Working with coach Diane Rawlinson, Harding managed to take the sixth spot at the US Figure Skating Championships in 1986. Every year following that saw Harding a spot closer to the top. When she replaced her coach, Harding was ready to take it to the next level.
But first, she had a romance to contend with.
8. She Married Young
Around this same time, the 15-year-old Harding started dating Jeff Gillooly, who was two years older. The two moved in together in 1988 and then walked down the aisle in 1990. Harding says that Gillooly was a good provider and even helped pay for her skating. Sadly, this young love would soon turn to something much more menacing.
9. She Had A Disappointment
Harding’s new coach, Dody Teachman, helped her win the October 1989 Skate America competition. It was now looking like Harding was a strong contender for the US Figure Skating Championships the following year. Sadly, she suffered from both asthma and the flu and came out in a disappointing seventh place.
Harding was at a low, but something amazing was about to happen.
10. Her Career Took Off
In 1991, Harding wowed audiences with something an American woman had never done before: she completed a triple Axel in competition. After this amazing feat, Harding’s career took off. She took top honors at the US Ladies’ Singles that year and took the second spot at the World Champions in March of that same year.
As Harding accepted her award for second place, a skater named Nancy Kerrigan was there accepting third. These two would have a very rocky future together.
11. She Went Downhill
After her amazing triple Axel in 1991, Harding was at the top of the figure skating world. But it was downhill from there. She never had another successful triple Axel, and her positions at competitions were slowly getting lower and lower. She had to do something to stop this downward spiral.
What happened next made figure skating history.
12. She Knew Her Competition Well
In 1994, Harding was heading into the United States Figure Skating Championships, and most people thought that Nancy Kerrigan was her biggest rival. On January 6, 1994, Kerrigan was practicing in front of some TV cameras and left the ice. When the cameras turned off, Kerrigan found herself in a shocking situation.
13. He Leapt Out At Her
Kerrigan had just walked away from the cameras when a man leaped out and violently struck her right thigh with some kind of bat. The man escaped and left Kerrigan on the floor crying, “Why, why, why?”. Of course, this was terrible news for Kerrigan’s chances at the championship.
But it was great news for Harding.
14. She Had An Easy Win
With Kerrigan out of the running, Harding had an easy win at the United States Figure Skating Championships, and this would guarantee her a spot on the US team for the Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. But some people thought that this random attack on Kerrrgian was just a little too convenient for Harding.
They started searching for answers.
15. The FBI Got Involved
Suddenly, the FBI had grown suspicious about the attack on Kerrigan. They aimed their focus on Harding's bodyguard, Shawn Eckardt. It didn’t take long for the FBI to make Eckhardt cave, and he confessed on January 12, just six days after the attack. He implicated three more people.
The truth was about to come out.
16. There Were Three Men
Harding’s bodyguard confesses to being part of the attack on Kerrigan. He also says that three other men had a connection to the attack as well. They were uncle and nephew, Derrick Smith and Shane Stant. More damaging to Harding, Eckhardt named Gillooly as a member of the team.
This was getting dangerously close to Harding herself.
17. She Tried To Stay Out Of It
Back in August of 1993, Harding and Gillooly had obtained a divorce, so Harding could claim that she had no knowledge of what her ex-husband was up to. Except for one thing: Gilloolly was still managing her career, and they were still living together. It was going to be hard for Harding to keep her name separate from the three accused men.
The FBI was circling in, and all Harding could do was nervously wait.
18. She Joined The List
With the names from Eckhardt, the FBI was on a mission. They put out a warrant on Gillooly, and he surrendered voluntarily and confessed his involvement on January 27. He implicated the same men as Eckardt had, but added another name to the list. He implicated Harding herself. This stunned the world, and all eyes turned to her.
She had some explaining to do.
19. They Couldn't Prove It
In the end, Kerrigan only suffered a few bruises, so she was still eligible to compete in the upcoming Olympic Games. The attack on Kerrigan had backfired. Harding denied any involvement in the attack, and there was no evidence against her. No one could think of a reason to keep her out of the Olympics.
With both Harding and Kerrigan heading to Norway, the world braced itself for the games of a lifetime.
20. She Didn’t Fly Alone
As the Lillehammer games drew near, the story of Harding and Kerrigan reached a fever pitch. Newswoman Connie Chung saw how big the story was getting and wanted some solo time with Harding. Chung was clever and got Harding’s permission to fly with her to Oslo, Norway. America was following the story every step of the way.
The skating world was getting ready for the ultimate showdown.
21. There Was An Icy Reunion
On February 17, 1994, both Harding and Kerrigan were in Lillehammer, Norway. It got incredibly awkward when the two skaters actually had to share the ice for a practice session. Kerrigan chose her outfit well. She wore the same thing she’d worn when the attack happened. Kerrigan was looking for sympathy from the judges, and Harding just desperately wanted a win.
The stakes for both skaters could not have been higher.
22. There Was Drama
On February 25, Harding and Kerrigan finally faced off. There was a small drama when Harding’s lace broke, but the judges gave her a reskate. In the end, Kerrigan walked away with a silver medal, and Harding was in a disappointing eighth place. The press called it “karma”.
Kerrigan’s silver medal was a humiliation for Harding. Worse still, Harding was still in trouble with the law.
23. She Got Her Punishment
The FBI was putting together evidence to convict Harding, and she saw the writing on the wall. She decided to admit that she hindered prosecution. This got her a probation of three years and a whopping $160,000 fine. Maybe worse still, she received a lifetime ban from figure skating with USFSA. The rest of the guys involved all got time in prison.
But this was not totally over yet.
24. She Faced A Grand Jury
In March 1994, a Grand Jury heard extensive evidence and concluded that Harding used funds from the USFSA to pay for the assault on Kerrigan. The jury stated that they believed she was “involved from the very beginning”. It looked like Harding was heading for prison.
25. She Got Off Easy
Harding didn't end up in prison for one reason: she had already pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of “conspiracy to hinder prosecution”. So, the probation and fine were her only punishments. Of course, the ban from skating was probably the worst thing for Harding. Skating was her life.
She was going to have to find something else to do.
26. The Were Private Photos
The dust was still settling on the skating scandal when Harding found herself in the spotlight once again. American newsmagazine program, A Current Affair got its hands on a video showing Harding with her top off. They showed the video, and the British tabloid The Sun published some still frames from it as well.
It took the New York Post to uncover who had leaked the video, and it was a shocker.
27. She Was In A Racy Video
The shocking truth was that it was Gillooly who had released the tapes with the shirtless Harding. But there was more to the video than just a woman with her top off. Penthouse magazine soon made the declaration that they had stills from the video that showed Harding and Gillooly fully enjoying each other in the bedroom.
This was going to get worse before it got better.
28. She Had A Chance To Cash In
Penthouse was now preparing to sell the entire 35-minute tape of Harding and Gillooly’s intimate moments. Harding had a choice: ignore the whole thing or try and make a buck. She chose the latter, and she and her ex-husband negotiated payment from Penthouse.
Harding’s private life was beginning to resemble a circus, so she decided to embrace the ridiculous.
29. She Had To Laugh
When your life resembles a circus, the next reasonable step might be to try the over-the-top world of wrestling. Back in Portland, Harding became the temporary manager of Los Gringos Locos of the AAA professional wrestling show. At a very macho press conference, it was easy to see that Harding could barely stop herself from laughing.
Harding’s involvement in wrestling hadn’t been all that rewarding. Next up was a stab at a singing career.
30. She Tried Music
The next year, Harding was in a band called the Golden Blades. She did a concert in her hometown of Portland, where the band opened up for Kool and the Gang in a fund-raising event for muscular dystrophy. It may have been for charity, but the audience was less than charitable.
31. The Audience Wasn’t Kind
Harding and the Golden Blades only performed a 15-minute set, but the booing started pretty soon after she opened her mouth. The audience then started throwing plastic bottles at the stage. A good-natured Harding grabbed a bottle and waved it around in the air, trying to look triumphant. All in all, it was a disaster.
Harding looked for a shoulder to cry on and found her next husband.
32. She Found Husband Number Two
Harding decided to try marriage again in 1995 with machinist Michael Smith. This marriage only lasted three and a half months and resulted in Harding getting a restraining order against the man. When asked why she needed the order, Harding said that Smith had “threatened to make me have pain”. Smith’s mom seemed convinced that Harding was lying.
Harding walked away from that marriage and straight into another career.
33. She Made A Dramatic Attempt
In 1996, Harding appeared in the film Breakaway, about a woman who gets double-crossed by her boyfriend. One armchair reviewer concluded that “Tonya Harding should have stuck to ice skating”. This was a made-for-VHS film that also starred Martin Sheen’s brother. It seemed to a lot of people that Harding was desperately trying to extend her 15 minutes of fame.
Her next stunt would be more infamous than famous.
34. She Threw A Hubcap
By 2002, Harding had started dating Darren Silver, and it led to trouble. This time it was Harding who was inflicting the pain. The accusation was that she had punched Silver and thrown a hubcap at his head. Silver was bleeding and called in for help. This altercation would end up with Harding facing a judge.
35. She Served A Sentence
Silver said that he had forgiven Harding, and he hoped the court would too. Well, that didn’t exactly happen. Her punishment was three days in prison and community service for 10 days. She also had to pay a fine and court costs. But during the trial, the reason for her outburst against Silver came out.
It was yet another dark side of Harding.
36. She Had Issues
To help reduce her sentence, Harding’s lawyer focused the blame for Harding’s violent behavior on three things: booze, a prescription painkiller, and anti-depressants. But the lawyer made it clear that Harding had no addiction issues. The judge wasn't buying it and put her on sober probation. She couldn't touch booze for two years and had to attend anger management classes.
This wasn’t the kind of publicity Harding was after, so she turned to a popular TV show for a reboot of her reputation.
37. She Tried To Extend Her 15 Minutes
The popular game show, The Weakest Link decided to have a special episode. This was the “Newsmakers Edition” but unofficially called the “15 Minutes of Fame Edition”. Harding was trying to hang on to any kind of fame she could. She was on the show with Kato Kaelin, whose claim to fame was being Nicole Brown Simpson’s friend.
Harding was scraping the bottom of the barrel, and she didn’t mind going even lower.
38. She Entered The Ring
Harding’s next stab at success was in the boxing ring. She started her career in the ring in another “has-been celebrity” focused enterprise. This was Fox TV’s Celebrity Boxing, which paired “once famous” performers in the boxing ring. Harding’s opponent was Paula Jones, who was known for charging Bill Clinton for inappropriate behavior.
Jones was in for the fight of her life.
39. She Dominated The Fight
Once in the ring, Harding—who was going by the name TNT—took charge of the bout. In fact, Jones turned and ran away from Harding, and even hid behind the referee. Jones finally quit, and Harding won on a technical knockout. Later, TV Guide put this short-lived show at number six in its “50 Worst Shows of All Time”.
But Harding was taking boxing seriously and was ready for a real match.
40. She Went Pro
The next year, Harding got back in the ring, but this time it wasn’t for a tongue-in-cheek TV show. This was professional boxing, and she made her debut on February 22, 2003, against Samantha Browning before a bout between Mike Tyson and Clifford Etienne. Harding didn't win, but she wasn’t about to give up yet.
There was a good reason why Harding wasn't about to quit.
41. She Fought A Man
The word out there was that Harding had started boxing for a very practical reason: she simply needed the money. So, when she received an offer for another celebrity boxing match, she jumped on board. The bout was against The Man Show co-host Doug Stanhope. Harding won this one, but Stanhope later confessed that he’d let her win.
Harding was likely thinking that boxing would be her next windfall, but there was trouble ahead.
42. She Feared For Her Life
There was a plan for Harding to box Tracy Carlton in Oakland, California. Before the fight could happen, Harding had to cancel. She confessed that she had received a threat against her life. Sounds scary. Maybe that’s why Harding’s next fight would be way up in Canada, where she could earn big bucks with a pay-per-view event.
All she had to do first was win one match. This would not be easy.
43. They Had To Stop It
If Harding wanted to make big bucks fighting Canadian boxer Jelana Mrdjenovich, all she had to do was beat a woman named Amy Johnson. Maybe Harding thought it would be a piece of cake. Well, it wasn’t, and they had to call the fight around the one-minute mark of the third round and declare Johnson the winner. Making matters even worse, the audience—who likely remembered the Kerrigan fiasco—booed her.
You might think that boxing was a stupid choice for Harding. Well, her next one was just plain dumb.
44. She Joined A Team
In 2008, truTV launched a video clip show simply called World’s Dumbest… which featured random people caught on camera doing the dumbest things. The show thought it would be ironic if the commentators were celebrities who had also performed stupid acts. Harding was in good company with tarnished celebrities like Danny Bonaduce, Todd Bridges, and Gary Busey.
It was time for Harding to take her celebrity on the road—literally.
45. She Hit The Track
Harding seemed to have no shortage of ideas for playing the fame game. In 2009, she broke a record for speed in a 1931 Ford Model A. She got the antique—which she named Lickity Split— to hit an astonishing 156.391 km/h (97.177 mph).
This was almost as fast as she went from being single to married.
46. She Met Him At A Bar
In 2010, Harding was having a few drinks with a friend at a karaoke bar when a man got up on the stage and sang “Great Balls of Fire”. There must have been something in the way he sang because she proposed to him just weeks after they’d met. One year later, the two had a son. Harding took some time to raise her child.
And then she was ready for fame again.
47. She Got Called A Name
In 2018, Harding appeared on the reality show Dancing with the Stars, where her partner was Australian dancer Sasha Farber. While the two got a respectable third place, it might have irked Harding when someone chose the song “Redneck Woman” for one of the routines. However, she took it in stride, admitting “I drive a big truck, I cut firewood, I hunt, I fish, I'm a country girl, so it'll be really fun to show the world another side to me”.
It had been over 20 years since the Kerrigan debacle, and yet no one seemed to be capable of forgetting what happened. There was a good reason for this.
48. She Became a Phenomenon
TV shows Seinfeld, In Living Color, and House all made references to Harding and her unstoppable desire to win at any cost. Too many songs to mention have also paid homage to the figure skater and there was even an original musical called Tonya & Nancy: the Rock Opera. The world couldn’t seem to let go of the bad girl figure skater who just wanted to win.
When the film I, Tonya came out, it took a different sort of look at Tonya Harding.
49. She Was Unreliable
When screenwriter Steven Rogers interviewed both Harding and her ex-husband Gillooly, he soon realized he was in the presence of at least one—or maybe two—unreliable narrators. It didn’t change his desire to make the film. He just knew that it had to be about the "things we tell ourselves in order to…live with ourselves”.
I, Tonya ended up being part fact and part fiction. We’re just not sure which part is which.
50. She’s Made Some Enemies
While I, Tanya was a huge success and received trophies from the Golden Globes, the Academy, and others, some were not happy that it portrayed Harding as sympathetic. One critic, after seeing the film, reminded us what she thought Harding really is: an "unrepentant felon" and "habitually 'truth challenged’”.
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