Tonya Harding

Tonya Maxine Harding (born November 12, 1970) is a former figure skater from Portland, Oregon. Despite a tough childhood in an unstable lower-class family, as well as being plagued by asthma, she became an elite figure skater. She won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships twice and place second in the 1991 World Championships. She was the second woman, and the first American woman, to complete a triple axel jump in competition.

Skating career

Harding began to work her way up the competitive skating ladder in the mid-1980's. She placed 6th at the 1986 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, 5th in 1987 and 1988, and 3rd in 1989. At the 1990 event, suffering from the flu, she could only place 7th. Harding was a powerful jumper and spinner, but had a reputation of being an inconsistent competitor and unpolished in terms of style. She was also held back by mediocre compulsory figures before they were eliminated from competition in 1990.

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1991 was Harding's breakthrough year. She landed her first triple axel in competition at the U.S. Championships, winning the title with the first 6.0 ever given to a female singles skater for technical merit at that event. In her career, Harding landed only four triple axels in competition, and all of them in 1991: one at the U.S. Championships, one at the World Championships, and two at the fall Skate America competition.

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In 1992, Harding placed 3rd at the U.S. Championships after twisting her ankle in practice, and 4th at the 1992 Winter Olympics. At the 1992 World Championships, she placed only 6th in a weak field. The following season, Harding was noticibly overweight and out of condition, and she skated so poorly at the 1993 U.S. Championships that she failed to qualify for the World Championship team.

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The latter part of Harding's competitive career was marked by a series of accidents, incidents, and excuses, causing television commentators to observe that no competition was complete without Tonya having a crisis. Some of these "crises" included:

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• Skating magazine reported that at Skate America in 1991, Harding was stranded in heavy traffic just before her event was scheduled to begin, and had to hitch a ride with people who drove her backwards through traffic to the arena.
• In the short program at the 1993 U.S. Championships, Harding had to ask permission from the referee to restart her program after the back of her dress came unhooked as she began to skate.
• At 1993 Skate America, Harding stopped midway through her free skate and complained to the referee that her skate blade had become loose. She was allowed to resume her program after her blades were checked by a skate technician.
• In late 1993, Harding was scheduled to compete in a regional qualifying competition for the U.S. Championships. However, before the event, its organizers received an anonymous telephoned bomb threat against Harding, which led the USFSA to excuse her from having to qualify. Morry Stillwell, former USFSA president, later asserted in a Usenet posting http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.sport.skating.ice.figure/msg/e1157895f11b1037?dmode=source&hl=enthat that the FBI had evidence that Harding herself participated in making the threat.
• The medal ceremony at the 1994 U.S. Championships had to be delayed because Harding could not be found backstage after the competition.
• At the 1994 Olympic Games, Harding almost failed to appear on the ice when her name was called for the free skating because she was scrambling to replace a broken lace. The replacement lace turned out to be too short, and after missing the opening jump in her program she again had to ask the referee for permission to restart.

Many observers in the skating world, including Scott Hamilton, felt that Harding was deliberately trying to sabotage her career by making excuses for failure. In addition to the incidents listed above, following her 1991 success, she went through a series of coaching changes (at one point she was even attempting to coach herself), and she arrived so late for the competition at the 1992 Olympic Games competition that her performance was affected by jet lag. In spite of the publicity she received about being handicapped by asthma, she also smoked.

Related Topics:
Scott Hamilton - Asthma - Smoked

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