Former US figure skating champion Tonya Harding is infamous for her sex video with ex-husband Jeff Gillooly. The so-called “Wedding Video” was made sometime in the early 90s and was published by Penthouse in September 1994. See a video and a biography of Tonya Harding here.Harding has also been involved in a bigger controversy related to the conspiracy to kill one of her competitors Nancy Kerrigan during the 1994 US Championships. Her ex-husband and bodyguard hired Shane Stant to strike Kerrigan on her knee to force her out of the competition. Harding had won that event but was later found guilty.
This year is the 15th anniversary of Tonya Harding’s scandal with Nancy Kerrigan. In the latest TV documentary, HBO Real Sports, Harding said she has paid her dues. Harding said she wanted to move on and asked why society still punishes her.
Fifteen years after Tonya Harding became a household name in the breaking of figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan's knee, the retired, disgraced and disgruntled skater has returned to television to ask just how long someone must pay for her past.
Obviously this is in reference to the time Tonya Harding and her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, hired Shane Stant to smoke Nancy Kerrigan in the knee. Who would have thought figure skating could be so tough.
At the same time, Harding said last night on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, she owes President Barack Obama a certain debt for his campaign-trail remark that he wasn't about to "do a Tonya Harding'' on his primary opponents. She maintains it helped her find work, paid appearances - "because people forget who Tonya Harding is.''Obama, then a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, remembered well in December of 2007 when he told a crowd in Vinton, Iowa, that he was not about to pull a Harding in pursuit of that first caucus victory in Iowa.
"Folks said there's no way Obama has a chance unless he goes and kneecaps the person ahead of us, does a Tonya Harding," Obama joked then, alluding to the athlete who had conspired to stop her rival during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. "We decided that's not the kind of campaign we wanted to run.''
Yet, Harding voices a great deal of bitterness about all she has been through since then.
"How much responsibility do you think I need to take?'' she asked in the Real Sports appearance. "I paid my debt to society... How much punishment do you think I need to go through?... I've done my time in jail... Everything that I've made mistakes on, I have paid for.''
As a biography, Tonya Harding was born on November 12, 1970 in Portland, Oregon so her age is 38. She attended David Douglas High School but stopped before completing her studies. She had a troubled childhood and got married at the age of 19 only. Her marriage ended after 3 years amongst a lot of heat.
Harding started skating at a very early age and won Skate America in 1989. She did consistently well in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships during the late 80s and landed her first triple axel in the 1991 event which won her the title with a perfect score. She also finished second at the World Championships in the same year. Her career began falling apart after two years due to injuries and other issues and later ended after the Kerrigan attack controversy.
Tonya started her professional boxing career after appearing on the Fox TV network Celebrity Boxing show in 2002. It proved to be very short and she stopped boxing in late 2004.
Tonya has been quite popular in the media because of the Kerrigan scandal and was referenced a number of times. The shows include FOX’s In Living Color, The Understudy (A Seinfeld episode) and The Jim Rome Show. She has also been mentioned in various songs by Loudon Wainwright III and Insane Clown Posse.
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