Figure Skating History: Tonya Harding – Nancy Kerrigan Controversy: The Whack Heard ’Round the World
Figure Skating is a sport that is generally not associated with scandals and controversies. However, that all changed in 1994, when skater Tonya Harding’s ex-husband (in her knowledge) sent a thug to attack rival Nancy Kerrigan who ended up damaging her knee. It was a very bizarre situation that made headlines around the world and rocked the world of ice-skating and the Olympics for that year. The story had a happy end for Kerrigan, though, who went on to great fame in skating, but it did not turn out so well for Harding, who was eventually banned for life from skating.
It seems that sometimes the level of competition that affects athletes can become too much and get the better of their judgement and morals. In 1994, the two biggest names in ice-skating were Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. These two were the ones to beat and they were the best of the lot. Kerrigan was the better ice skater at the time and it seemed to really get to Harding. Harding desperately wanted to be number 1 and so on January 6th, 1994, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Well, not really her own hands, but she reportedly devised a plan with her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly to take Kerrigan out of the running for that year’s Olympic trials. It seemed Harding had had enough of Kerrigan stealing the limelight and winning all the time and as the evil side of competitiveness started to creep into the skater, things got seriously out of hand.
On the 6th of January, an assailant attacked Nancy Kerrigan and clubbed her in the knee with a collapsible police baton. This meant that she could not compete and Harding went on to win the US trials. A few days after the attack, Harding’s ex-husband was arrested along with three of his friends over the attack on Kerrigan. Harding denied any knowledge of the incident and stated that she was unaware of any plot to assault Kerrigan. Due to this admission, she was allowed to compete and after Harding’s knee was healed, she, too, was able to compete. That year’s competition was the most watched ice skating final in the history of the Olympics. Kerrigan came second to win silver and became the darling of the American people while Harding came in eighth. Kerrigan became an instant hero because she battled back from a horrendous assault and managed to come second in the finals. This triumphing over adversity was something that must have enraged Harding even more.
While Harding’s ex-husband was jailed over the attack, as were his co-conspirators (bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt and assailant Shane Stant), Harding was free to compete. It was only four years later, when the case reached trial for Harding, that she admitted to knowing about the attack and that she helped plan it. Her guilty admission got her out of jail but she was fined $160,000 over her part in the attack and she had to perform 500 hours of community service. She was also later stripped of her 1994 US title and was banned for life from the sport that had made her so infamous. She then spiralled down a very bad path and posed nude for Penthouse magazine. She also released a Wedding Night pornographic video of herself in an attempt to earn some money and regain some fame. She was then arrested for attacking her former boyfriend Darren Silver with a hubcap in February 2000. For this transgression, she served three days in jail and got some more community service. She has somewhat managed to get her life back on track by taking anger management classes, quitting drinking and she has become a figure skating teacher. This just shows us to what extent the greed to win can destroy a person.
We have not really seen a scandal as huge as the one that took place in 1994 in figure skating; this fairly controversy-free sport was marred by the events that took place that year. Hopefully, nothing of that sort will ever transpire again and we will (hopefully) never again get to see such a devious plan to get rid of the competition take place. It seems Tonya Harding never really recovered from that incident and her plan ultimately backfired, because instead of winning the gold that year by disabling Kerrigan, Kerrigan fought back and proved herself a true champion. This heartache was probably too much for Harding to bear and her life will never get back to what it was before the incident.
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