Tonya Harding spent much of her early life training, eventually dropping out of high school to devote her time to the sport.
70 Facts About Tonya Harding
2.
Tonya Harding became the 1991 and 1994 US champion before being stripped of her 1994 title, and 1991 World silver medalist.
3.
Tonya Harding is a two-time Olympian and a two-time Skate America Champion.
4.
On March 16,1994, Tonya Harding accepted a plea bargain in which she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution.
5.
From 2003 to 2004, Tonya Harding competed as a professional boxer.
6.
Tonya Harding's life has been the subject of many books, films, documentaries, and academic studies.
7.
Tonya Harding was raised in East Portland and began skating at age three, training with coach Diane Rawlinson.
8.
Tonya Harding hunted, drag raced and learned auto mechanics from her father.
9.
Tonya Harding's parents divorced after 19 years of marriage in 1987, when she was 16 years old.
10.
Tonya Harding dropped out of David Douglas High School during her sophomore year to focus on skating, and earned a General Educational Development Certificate in 1988.
11.
Tonya Harding stated that by the time she was seven years old, physical and psychological abuse had become a regular part of her life.
12.
In January 2018, Harding's childhood friend and filmmaker, Sandra Luckow, spoke in defense of Harding's mother because she felt that the 2017 film I, Tonya stretched some truths about LaVona's character.
13.
Tonya Harding was arrested and spent a short time in prison.
14.
Tonya Harding said her parents were in denial about Davison's behavior and told her not to press criminal charges against him.
15.
Tonya Harding trained as a figure skater throughout her youth with coach Diane Rawlinson.
16.
Tonya Harding placed sixth at the 1986 US Figure Skating Championships, fifth in 1987 and 1988, and third in 1989.
17.
Tonya Harding then won the October 1989 Skate America competition, and was considered a strong contender at the February 1990 US Figure Skating Championships.
18.
Tonya Harding landed seven triple jumps in the long program including the triple Axel.
19.
Tonya Harding won the 1991 US Ladies' Singles title with the event's first 6.0 technical merit score since Janet Lynn's 1973 performance at the US Championships.
20.
Tonya Harding won the long program when seven of the nine judges gave her first place, and won the competition.
21.
Tonya Harding scored eight 5.9s and one 6.0 for technical merit and six 5.9s, one 5.8 and two 5.7s for composition and style.
22.
At the September 1991 Skate America competition, Tonya Harding recorded three more firsts:.
23.
Tonya Harding placed third in the January 1992 US Figure Skating Championships despite twisting her ankle during practice, and finished fourth in the February 1992 Winter Olympics.
24.
On March 1,1992, Tonya Harding gave Teachman a summary dismissal and returned to Diane Rawlinson to be coached by her.
25.
On March 29, Tonya Harding placed sixth in the 1992 World Championships, although she had a better placement at the November 1992 Skate Canada International event finishing fourth.
26.
In January 1994, Tonya Harding won the US Championships, but was later stripped of her title: the USFSA disciplinary panel voted to vacate the title in June 1994, following an investigation of the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.
27.
In February 1994, Tonya Harding was permitted to remain a member of the US Olympic ice skating team, despite brief legal controversy.
28.
On January 8, Tonya Harding won the US title; she and Kerrigan were then both selected for the 1994 Olympic team.
29.
Tonya Harding was asked whether someone she knew could have planned the attack.
30.
Tonya Harding left her home that evening to practice with her coaches, where she spoke with reporters and performed a triple Axel.
31.
On January 18,1994, Tonya Harding was with her lawyers when she submitted to questioning by the DA and FBI.
32.
Tonya Harding said she was sorry Kerrigan was attacked, that she respected Kerrigan, and claimed not to know in advance of the plot to disable her.
33.
Tonya Harding's admitted failure to report about an assault on a fellow competitor, supported by her FBI transcripts, led to Harding being formally charged with "[making] false statements about her knowledge".
34.
On March 16,1994, Tonya Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution as a Class C felony offense at a Multnomah County court hearing.
35.
Judge Donald Londer conducted routine questioning to make certain Tonya Harding understood her agreement, that she was entering her plea "knowingly and voluntarily".
36.
Tonya Harding's penalties included three years of probation, a $100,000 fine, and 500 hours community service.
37.
Tonya Harding agreed to reimburse Multnomah County $10,000 in legal expenses, undergo a psychiatric examination, and volunteered to give $50,000 to the Special Olympics Oregon charity.
38.
Tonya Harding had made approximately $600,000 from an Inside Edition deal.
39.
The USFSA's executive committee met to discuss Tonya Harding seeking reinstatement and whether they might strip her of the 1994 National Championship title.
40.
On March 21,1994, a Portland grand jury issued an indictment stating there was evidence Tonya Harding participated in the attack plot.
41.
Tonya Harding did not attend or participate in the two-day hearing.
42.
Tonya Harding was stripped of her 1994 US Championship title and banned for life from participating in USFSA events as either a skater or coach.
43.
The USFSA has no authority over professional skating events, yet Tonya Harding was persona non grata on the pro circuit.
44.
Gillooly said Tonya Harding avoiding prison did not anger him, and that he felt his own punishment was just.
45.
Kerrigan said that she hoped Tonya Harding could learn from past mistakes and "find happiness".
46.
Tonya Harding said she was grateful to personally express remorse to Kerrigan again.
47.
Tonya Harding expressed regret that Harding is often "remembered for what I talked her into doing," meaning allegedly plotting to injure Kerrigan.
48.
On February 15,1994, an explicit 1991 videotape clip of Tonya Harding topless was shown on A Current Affair; three still frames from this clip were published in The Sun.
49.
In 1994, Tonya Harding was cast in Breakaway, an action film, the plot centered on Tonya Harding being unwittingly involved in an organized crime syndicate's attempt to violently recover $300,000 of stolen money, alongside Teri Fruichantie and Joseph "Joe" Estevez.
50.
Tonya Harding has appeared on television, on the game show The Weakest Link: "15 Minutes of Fame Edition" in 2002 along with Kato Kaelin, and in March 2008 became a commentator for TruTV's truTV Presents: World's Dumbest.
51.
Since leaving skating and boxing, Tonya Harding has worked as a welder, a painter at a metal fabrication company, and a hardware sales clerk at Sears.
52.
In 2002, Tonya Harding boxed against Paula Jones on the Fox Network Celebrity Boxing event, winning the fight.
53.
Tonya Harding did another celebrity boxing match, on The Man Show, and won against co-host Doug Stanhope.
54.
Stanhope later claimed on his podcast that the fight was fixed because Tonya Harding refused to "fight a man".
55.
Tonya Harding's setting of that land speed record was featured on an episode of TruTV Presents: World's Dumbest.
56.
Tonya Harding, learning under Chef Anne Burrell, ultimately won the competition.
57.
Tonya Harding is the only child of Albert Gordon Tonya Harding and LaVona Golden, who had been married three times before and had four other children.
58.
Tonya Harding had a tumultuous relationship with her mother, alleging both physical and emotional abuse.
59.
Tonya Harding cites one occasion where her mother threw a knife at her, leaving a permanent scar on her arm.
60.
Tonya Harding began a relationship with 17-year-old Jeff Gillooly in September 1986 when she was 15.
61.
Tonya Harding paid for my skating for a couple of years.
62.
Tonya Harding married Michael Smith in 1995; they divorced in 1996.
63.
On October 29,1996, Tonya Harding received media attention after using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to help revive an 81-year-old woman who collapsed at a bar in Portland while playing video poker.
64.
On February 22,2000, Tonya Harding attacked her then-boyfriend Darren Silver, repeatedly punching him in the face and throwing a hubcap at his head.
65.
Tonya Harding married 42-year-old Joseph Price on June 23,2010, when she was 39 years old.
66.
Tonya Harding gave birth to a son named Gordon on February 19,2011.
67.
Tonya Harding stated on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on February 26,2018, that she is still active in skating and practices three times a week.
68.
Tonya Harding performed several jumps and spins on the show.
69.
Tonya Harding noted how she was subjected to a "litany of vaguely pejorative or mocking expressions" associated with "low class" cultural attributes, sometimes due to Harding's personal interests and hobbies.
70.
Stoloff theorized that Tonya Harding represented an American social class that required interpretation as he referenced the anthropological tone of Susan Orlean's 1994 essay "Figures in a Mall," written for The New Yorker.