Tonya Harding Biography and Wiki
Tonya Harding is a Former American Figure Skater, Retired Boxer, and Reality Television Personality. Born in Portland, Oregon, Harding was raised primarily by her mother, who enrolled her in ice skating lessons beginning at four years old. Harding spent much of her early life training, eventually dropping out of high school to devote her time to the sport. After climbing the ranks in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships between 1986 and 1989, Harding won the 1989 Skate America competition. She had been the 1991 and 1994 U.S. champion before being stripped of her 1994 title, and 1991 World silver medalist. In 1991, she earned distinction as being the first American woman to successfully land a triple Axel in competition, and the second woman to do so in history (behind Midori Ito). Harding is a two-time Olympian and a two-time Skate America Champion.
Tonya Harding Age and Birthday
Tonya is 50 years old as of 2019, she was born on November 12, 1970, in Portland, Oregon, U.S. She celebrates her birthday on November 12 every year and her birth sign is Scorpio.
Tonya Harding Height and Weight
Tonya stands at a height of 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m) and Weighs 62 kg.
Tonya Harding Education
Harding dropped out of Milwaukie High School during her sophomore year to focus on skating and earned a General Educational Development (GED) Certificate in 1988.
Tonya Harding Family- Parents and Siblings
She was born to her parents LaVona Golden and Albert Harding She was raised in East Portland and began skating at age three, training with coach Diane Rawlinson. During her youth, Harding also hunted, drag raced and learned automotive mechanics from her father.
He held various odd jobs including managing apartments, driving a truck, and working at a bait-and-tackle store yet was often underemployed due to poor health. LaVona struggled to support the family while working as a waitress and hand-sewed her daughter’s skating costumes as they could not afford to purchase them. Harding’s parents divorced after 19 years of marriage in 1987 when she was 16 years old.
Harding claimed she was frequently abused by her mom. She stated that by the time she was seven years old, physical and psychological abuse had become a regular part of her life. LaVona admitted to one instance of hitting Harding at an ice rink. 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. Luckow said that although Harding’s mother could be “egregious” towards her daughter, LaVona funded and appreciated Harding’s skating lessons, and had “a huge amount of humanity.”
In Harding’s 2008 authorized biography, The Tonya Tapes (written by Lynda D. Prouse from recorded interviews with Harding), she said she was the victim of acquaintance rape in 1991 and that her half-brother, Chris Davison, molested her on several occasions when she was a child. In 1986, Harding called the police after Davison had been sexually harassing and terrorizing her.
He was arrested and spent a short time in prison. Harding said her parents were in denial about Davison’s behavior and told her not to press criminal charges against him. Davison was killed in an unsolved vehicular hit-and-run accident in 1988. On May 3, 1994, during an interview with Rolonda Watts, Harding said that Davison was the only person in her life unworthy of forgiveness and “the only person I’ve ever hated.”
Tonya Harding Mom
Harding’s mom is still alive, and she has spoken out since the renewed attention on the family, and she denies that she was abusive to Tonya. Furthermore, she says dramatic scenes in the movie, such as one in which Janney whips a knife at Tonya (played by Margot Robbie), plunging it into her arm, didn’t happen in real life. She spoke extensively to ABC News for the Truth and Lies Tonya Harding program that aired January 11, 2018, describing how she worked multiple jobs to further her daughter’s skating career.
Harding and her mother have an estranged relationship. Harding’s mother has claimed that her daughter hates her. According to Inside Edition, Golden said recently, “I didn’t have any problems until she got up into her teens. She hates me. Period. I could never do anything right for her. Nothing.” (Janney did come very close to capturing how the real Golden looks, as well as her eccentricities.)
I didn’t abuse any of my children,” Golden said to ABC News. “Spanked? Yes, [I] spanked. Absolutely, positively you [have] got to show them right from wrong.”
In the interview with ABC, Golden said that “Harding was the youngest of four children. Harding’s father is Golden’s third husband. She said the family had a modest life together.” She added to the network, “Tonya herself called us trailer trash. We were never trailer trash. We had a beautiful new trailer. We didn’t live in filth or dirt or anything that I would call unusual.”
Allison Janney admitted that there were elements of the Harding mother character on film that were fictionalized, saying, of the screenwriter, Steven Rogers, “Unfortunately, Steven couldn’t find the real LaVona Harding. He tried everywhere, but everywhere led to a dead end. The woman you see on the screen, the character that I got to play, was part [Harding’s] version of her mother; part Jeff Gillooly’s version of Tonya’s mother, his mother-in-law for a while; and part artistic license from Steven Rogers, because he didn’t have the real woman; and then me coming in there and doing what I [do], putting my spin on it.”
Tonya Harding Husband| Spouse
Harding got into a relationship with her spouse | husband 17-year-old Jeff Gillooly, in September 1986 and later they moved into a starter home together in 1988 when he worked in distribution at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
She married on March 18, 1990, when she was 19 and he was 22. The couple divorced on August 28, 1993, after a tumultuous marriage. It was reported during the autumn of 1993, that Gillooly was working part-time managing Harding’s career and taking real estate classes. Since early October 1993, Harding and Gillooly had been continuing to see each other and were sharing a rented chalet in Beavercreek, Oregon until the evening of January 18, 1994.
In 1995, she got married to her second husband, Michael Smith but that marriage too did not last as they divorced in 1996. After divorcing Smith, she married and took the surname of 42-year-old Joseph Price, whom she met at a local restaurant called Timbers, on June 23, 2010, when she was 39 years old. Harding has since leaving skating and boxing, worked as a welder, a painter at a metal fabrication company, and a hardware sales clerk at Sears. She stated as of 2017, that she worked as a painter and deck builder. She resides in Washington state.
Tonya Harding Son
Harding and her husband have one son. Their son Gordon was born in 2011. She had married her first husband, Gillooly when she was 19 years old and they divorced three years later.
Tonya Harding Net Worth
Tonya has an estimated net worth of $150,000. This includes her assets, money, and income. Her primary source of income is her career as a Figure Skater. Through her various sources of income, she has been able to accumulate good fortune but prefers to lead a modest lifestyle.
Tonya Harding Measurements and Facts
Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Tonya Harding
I, Tonya is a 2017 American biographical sports black comedy film directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Steven Rogers. It follows the life of figure skater Tonya Harding and her connection to the 1994 attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan.
The film states that it is based on “contradictory” and “true” interviews with Harding and her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, suggesting they are unreliable narrators. It features darkly comedic interviews with the characters in mockumentary-style, set in the modern-day, and breaks the fourth wall. Margot Robbie (who also co-produced) stars as Harding, Sebastian Stan as Gillooly, and Allison Janney as Harding’s mother LaVona Golden. Julianne Nicholson, Caitlin Carver, Paul Walter Hauser, and Bobby Cannavale also star.
Loosely based on actual events, the movie depicts Harding as a victim, reframing the narrative around her implication in the crime as well as other criticism of her actions. I, Tonya premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 8, 2017, and grossed $53.9 million worldwide on an $11 million budget. It received positive reviews, with praise for Robbie and Janney’s performances.
I, Tonya Cast
- Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding
- Mckenna Grace as young Tonya Harding
- Maizie Smith as Tonya Harding (age 4)
- Sebastian Stan as Jeff Gillooly, Harding’s lover and friend, later husband
- Allison Janney as LaVona Golden, Harding’s abusive mother
- Julianne Nicholson as Diane Rawlinson, Harding’s skating coach, and Bob’s wife
- Caitlin Carver as Nancy Kerrigan, Harding’s skating rival and Olympic teammate, and the victim of the 1994 attack
Tonya Harding Skating
After quitting school Tonya continued her training with Diane Rawlinson and began participating in several figure skating competitions all over the U.S. She took part in the ‘U.S. Figure Skating Championships’ in 1986, and managed to finish sixth. After that competed for the championship for three consecutive years.
Tonya Harding 1994 Olympics
Her performances in ‘Winter Olympics’ and various other championships were rather poor, which resulted in her name being removed from the ‘World Championship’ team. In 1994, she returned to her winning ways when she managed to win the ‘U.S. Figure Skating Championships,’ which was held in Detroit.
Though she earned her a place in the 1994 Olympic team, through her victory, people could sense that there was something fishy about her victory. Her main competitor Nancy Kerrigan was mysteriously attacked, just before the ‘National Championship,’ which helped her in winning the competition.
Harding became involved in controversy in January 1994 when her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, orchestrated an attack on fellow US Olympian Nancy Kerrigan. She ultimately pleaded guilty after the 1994 Winter Olympics, to hindering the prosecution on March 16 and was banned for life on June 30, 1994, from the U.S. Figure Skating Association.
Tonya Harding Coach
Her figure skating coach was Dody Teachman, who remained her coach between 1989 to 1992.
Tonya Harding Boxing – Tonya Harding Boxer – Tonya Harding Boxing Record
She made her professional boxing debut in 2003 and after losing her debut match, she wasn’t seen in any other professional boxing event for a year. In 2004 she returned to boxing and was pitted against Amy Johnson whom she lost to beaten by Amy. Owing to her health condition, Tonya’s boxing career came to an end rather quickly. However, she had three wins and three losses, by the time her boxing career ended.
Tonya Harding Nancy Kerrigan Story
On January 6, 1994, Nancy Kerrigan was attacked after practice at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan, in what would become one of the biggest sports scandals in history. The hitman was Shane Stant, who used a 21-inch collapsible baton to strike Kerrigan’s right leg. He, along with his uncle Derrick Smith, was contracted by Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of skating rival Tonya Harding, and Harding’s bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt.
So how was Harding involved? Kerrigan was her longtime rival the one person in the way of her making the Olympic team. Harding’s desperation to win at all costs prompted Gillooly to set up the attack. (Though she didn’t admit it at the time, Harding later confessed in 2018 that she “knew something was up.”)
Thus, fierce competition and the lust for fame and fortune were the motivations behind taking Kerrigan down, bringing together a stranger-than-fiction motley crew of amateur hooligans. The crime had all the machinations fit for a tabloid soap opera, which was most recently depicted in the 2017 dark comedy I, Tonya.
An assailant, hired by Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, struck Kerrigan on the right knee with a baton after practice at a Detroit ice rink on Jan. 6, 1994. The attack left the gold medal favorite wailing and repeatedly howling “Why?” on the floor as doctors tended to her injuries, according to footage of the immediate aftermath.
Kerrigan went on to become a two-time Olympic medalist and recently competed on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, while Harding whose troubled past is the subject of the upcoming biopic I, Tonya that stars Margot Robbie has mostly stayed out of the spotlight.
The former skater also said her biggest regret was “being married for the first time to an idiot” and said she wished she could have had a “more stable life” growing up. She has said her mother was abusive. Harding, who now lives in Washington State with her new husband and young son, cooperated with the creation of I, Tonya.
She even appeared to be grateful for the movie, which brought her to tears, screenwriter Steven Rogers told Deadline. “She said she laughed and she cried, and there were things she didn’t like, but she’s emailed me twice just to thank me, so I think she’s happy,” Rogers said.
Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan Costume
Tonya Harding 30 for 30 Tonya Harding Nancy Kerrigan
The world couldn’t keep its eyes off two athletes at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer. Nancy Kerrigan, the elegant brunette from the Northeast, and Tonya Harding, the feisty blonde engulfed in scandal. Just weeks before the Olympics on Jan. 6, 1994, at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Kerrigan was stunningly clubbed on the right knee by an unknown assailant and left wailing, “Why, why, why?” As the bizarre “why” mystery unraveled, it was revealed that Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, had plotted the attack with his misfit friends to literally eliminate Kerrigan from the competition. Now two decades later, “The Price of Gold” takes a fresh look through Harding’s turbulent career and life at the spectacle that elevated the popularity of professional figure skating and has Harding still facing questions over what she knew and when she knew it.
Tonya Harding Tonya Harding Photos
Tonya Harding Jeff Gillooly
Tonya Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly earned his involvement in the infamous 1994 attack against figure skater Nancy Kerrigan and his relationship with Harding. As biopic I, Tonya hits theaters this month, the Harding-Kerrigan scandal is back in the headlines, as is Harding herself. (She attended the movie’s premiere with her on-screen counterpart Margot Robbie.)
Harding’s ex and his distinctive last name have mostly stayed out of the news in recent years, partly because his last name now isn’t nearly as distinctive. Gillooly changed his last name to Stone when he got out of prison in 1995 after serving six months of a two-year sentence for his role in the Kerrigan attack. Stone’s been called the mastermind behind the incident that went down ahead of the ’94 Lillehammer, Norway Olympics.
But his friend (and Harding’s bodyguard) Shawn Eckardt was also behind the planning, and Shane Stant is the one who actually wielded the knee-busting baton with Derrick Smith as the getaway driver. Stone received the harshest punishment for the attack; he was charged with bankrolling, and though he has claimed Harding knew about the plan beforehand, she denies any involvement to this day.
As for their relationship, Stone married Harding in 1990. The marriage was rocky from the start, with Harding filing a restraining order against her husband in ’91. Stone and Harding divorced in 1993, got back together for a bit, then split again after the Kerrigan attack. Before Stone headed behind bars, he and Harding added a new layer of scandal to their fame by releasing a sex tape. Harding later wrote in a memoir that Stone had raped her at one point to keep her quiet about Kerrigan, a charge Stone has denied.
Tonya Harding Triple Axel
Former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding made history as the first American woman to land a triple axel jump in competition. In an interview with ABC News’ Amy Robach, Harding recalled the momentous routine at the 1991 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that secured her place in the record books.
Once she knew she landed the triple, “It was like, ‘BAM.’ I was like, ‘Yes,’” Harding said, throwing her hands up in the air in victory. Harding, who was just 20 years old at the time, won the women’s singles title that day with a near-perfect performance.
“I just did it. Nobody else did it,” she continued. “Nobody helped me land that triple axel right there at that moment.” Harding opened up about this historic moment, as well as her difficult childhood, allegations of abuse from her mother and her first husband, her rise in competitive figure skating, and the depiction of her life in the new critically-acclaimed movie, “I, Tonya,” in ABC News’ two-hour special, “Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story.”
Actress Margot Robbie, who portrays Harding in “I, Tonya,” said the historic triple axel moment was a source of inspiration for her role. “I’ve watched that footage a thousand times, and [every time] it makes me grin,” Robbie said.
At the time, Harding seemed to possess an unparalleled athleticism that enabled her to land the challenging jump. She told Robach that the triple axel intimidates most skaters because it requires the athlete to gain enough momentum on the initial jump to rotate three times in the air, then come “down on one leg in a check position that can stop a rotation that comes down with 420 pounds of pressure on one foot.”
Sandra Luckow, a skating documentary filmmaker who produced a film about Harding when she was 15 years old called “Sharp Edges,” said Harding’s triumphant triple axel proved that she was worthy of representing the U.S. at the 1992 Winter Olympics.
“Everyone was willing, at that moment, to say this is somebody that we want as our champion,” Luckow said. But after the triple axel moment, Harding says her life changed forever. “Everything about life after that point became confusing,” she said. “You don’t know who to trust, who to believe.”
With her skating stardom, Harding and her troubled relationships with her mother LaVona “Sandy” Golden and ex-husband Jeff Gillooly were thrust into the spotlight. “I mean, I’ve known that I’m a ‘stupid b—-, ugly, fat, never amount to anything’ for my whole life,” Harding said, characterizing how she says she was told to feel about herself.
“I know this,” she continued. “Why do people not think that I would want to fight that, be better than that? I know you would. You would want to fight it. You would want to be better than everybody says you are because you know you are in your heart. I had to learn that… the hard way.”
Harding’s skating career faltered after finishing 4th at the 1992 Winter Olympics. “My skating was great, but my life was in shambles,” she said. “There was so much going through my head that it was difficult.”
Tonya Harding Nancy Kerrigan Friends
figure skating darling Nancy Kerrigan was hit in the kneecap with a police baton during a final practice just before the 1994 U.S. Women’s Championships in Detroit. Quickly, Tonya Harding, Kerrigan’s biggest rival, became the number one suspect though she continues to deny all involvement.
The now-infamous event has been covered extensively, from the ESPN documentary The Price of Gold (director: Nannette Burstein) to the fictionalized film I, Tonya (executive producer: Rosanne Korenberg) to the new ABC documentary Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story, which premieres Thursday, Jan. 11 at 9:00 ET. The details of what really happened that day, and who was really involved are still muddy, but it’s safe to say that there is no love lost between Harding and Kerrigan.
Harding and Kerrigan never seemed to qualify as friends who confided in each other. But from most accounts, they’d been professional acquaintances who exchanged pleasantries at competitions. After the attack, Kerrigan said she’d initially doubted Harding’s involvement in the plot because, as she put it, “We were competitors, but … we were friendly.”
Even though Harding believes that she and Kerrigan were once friends, the media loved to paint them as rivals, and opposites. Kerrigan was America’s sweetheart, with her graceful poise on the ice, designer outfits, and classical music soundtrack everything an ice-princess should be.
In contrast, Harding was depicted as the skater from the wrong side of the tracks, with her homemade costumes, her tendency to skate to rock music, and her penchant for hunting and smoking. As Harding summarized in the documentary The Price of Gold, “She’s a princess. I’m a piece of crap.”
Though both women were at the top of their sport, the classism that drove the media, fans, and sports commentators to favor Kerrigan over Harding pitted the US Olympic teammates against one another. Marie Claire reports that even though both women were incredibly talented skaters, Kerrigan got sponsorships from Campbell’s, Revlon, and Reebok, while Harding lacked endorsement deals.
Even judges seemed to prefer Kerrigan over Harding, for reasons that had little to do with ice skating. Rolling Stone reports that an Olympic judge allegedly once said of Kerrigan to sportswriter Christine Brennan, “She was raised as a lady. We all notice that.”
Then, on Jan. 6, a month before the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, hitman Shane Stant was paid $6,500 to hit Harding in the knee with a collapsable baton as she came off the ice at a practice before the U.S. Women’s Championships, per Rolling Stone. Stant fled the scene, but not before the aftermath of the attack was caught on film, now infamous for Kerrigan’s painful cries of “Why? Why? Why?”
Where does Tonya Harding live?
Because of security reasons, Tonya has not shared her precise location of residence. We will immediately update this information if we get the location and images of her house.
Is Tonya Harding dead or alive?
Tonya Harding is alive and in good health. There have been no reports of her being sick or having any health-related issues.
What happened with Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding?
In January 1994, Harding became embroiled in controversy when her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, orchestrated an attack on her fellow U.S. skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. As a result of her involvement in the assault on Kerrigan, the United States Figure Skating Association banned her for life on June 30, 1994.
Did Tonya Harding make money from I Tonya?
I, Tonya is a 2017 American biographical sports black comedy film directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Steven Rogers. It follows the life of figure skater Tonya Harding and her connection to the 1994 attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan.
What happened to Nancy Kerrigan?
In January 1994, an assailant used a police baton to strike Kerrigan on her landing knee; the attacker was hired by the ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding. The attack injured Kerrigan, but she quickly recovered.
How much is Tonya Harding’s net worth?
Tonya Harding Net Worth: Tonya Harding (now known as Tonya Price) is an American former Olympic figure skater who has a net worth of $30,000.
Who skated in I Tonya?
Heidi Munger, 22, a sophomore pre-med student at Boston University, was one of Margot Robbie’s skating stunt doubles in I, Tonya, the film about Harding’s life that came out a year ago.
Did Tonya know about the attack?
In Harding’s 2008 biography, The Tonya Tapes (transcribed by Lynda D. Prouse from recorded interviews), she stated that she wanted to call the FBI in 1994 to reveal what she knew, but decided not to when Gillooly allegedly threatened her with death following a gunpoint gang rape by him and two other men.
What was Tonya Harding’s punishment?
Tonya Harding gets three years’ probation, a $100,000 fine, and 500 hours of community service. But one punishment that probably hurt the most.
How true is the movie I Tonya?
At the end of the movie, Tonya becomes a boxer, and as many people probably remember, this is true and bizarre but only lasted for two years of Tonya’s life post-incident. She boxed against Paula Jones in a celebrity boxing match then fought professionally for a short time.
Does Tonya use real footage?
“[Screenwriter] Steven [Rogers] asked Tonya where her mother was and she didn’t know, and if she did, she wasn’t going to let on,” Janney said after the Toronto Film Festival screening. “We couldn’t find her anywhere, so we just used existing footage and what he found out through Tonya what her mother was like.
Is Tonya Harding really in the commercial?
The disgraced Olympic figure skater, who has revived her image in recent years after the 1994 controversy involving rival skater Nancy Kerrigan, is featured in a new commercial for Direct Auto Insurance in which she pokes some fun at herself by saying that “we’ve all made mistakes.”
Are Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya friends?
Harding and Kerrigan never seemed to qualify as friends who confided in each other. But from most accounts, they’d been professional acquaintances who exchanged pleasantries at competitions.
How does Tonya Harding feel about I Tonya?
I, Tonya is told from Harding’s viewpoint and gives an empathetic telling of her story, which is probably why the former skater has reacted positively to the film. She was very complimentary about what we pulled off, and she was really kind about my skating even though I’m nowhere near as good as I should be.
Does Nancy Kerrigan forgive Tonya?
Ice queens’ bitter feud: Nancy Kerrigan, 47, says she’ll never forgive rival Tonya Harding for kneecapping her at the 1994 Olympics. It was one of the most bitter feuds in sporting history, and former ice-skater Nancy Kerrigan says she still cannot forgive her rival Tonya Harding for kneecapping her.
What did Tonya Harding do after skating?
Harding tried to get involved with professional wrestling and appeared in a low-budget action film. A few years later, she had a short-lived career as a professional boxer and even fought Bill Clinton accuser Paula Jones for a Fox TV network Celebrity Boxing match in 2002.
Tonya Harding Social Media Contacts
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