Tonya Harding

Tonya Harding is a former figure skater who competed for TeamUSA at two Olympic Winter Games and was recognized as one of the most technically progressive skaters of her generation courtesy of her athleticism. Harding grew up in Oregon, began skating at a local rink, and her athletic ability made her a great jumper, one of the best in women’s skating history, as she advanced through the national development pathway, making her senior début on ice at the 1986 US Championships.

Harding continued to rise through the ranks in the seasons that followed, earning podium finishes at the World Championships, Skate America, and the NHK Trophy, and establishing herself as one of the leading US skaters of the early 1990s. Her breakout moment would come at the 1991 US Championships, when she became the first American woman to land a triple Axel in competition. Harding clinched the title as a result, joining Japan’s Midori Ito as the only women to successfully execute the element at the time.

Harding competed at both Albertville 1992 and Lillehammer 1994. In the former she finished just outside of a podium place in the women’s singles, while in the latter she finished eighth. In 1994 before the Lillehammer Winter Olympics Harding was implicated in a plot to injure her national team rival Nancy Kerrigan, and was eventually fined and sentenced to community service for her role. Her free skate in Lillehammer was Harding’s last competitive appearance on the ice.

After the 1994 Winter Olympics, Harding never skated professionally. To make money, she worked various jobs and became a professional boxer, with a career record of three wins and three losses in 2003-04 and later was an announcer for TruTV. In 2009 Harding set a new automobile land speed record for a vintage gas coupe with a speed of 156.391 km/hr (97.177 mph) at the Bonneville Salt Flats. In 2018 she appeared on Dancing with the Stars, finishing in third place alongside her partner, Sasha Farber.