Her leg was only bruised, not broken, but the injury forced her to withdraw from the national championship. When she stepped off the ice after a practice session at Cobo Arena and walked behind a nearby curtain into a corridor, Stant struck her on the thigh a few inches above the knee with an ASP telescopic baton. After failing to find Kerrigan at her training rink in Massachusetts, Stant followed her to Detroit. Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and her bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt, hired Stant to break Kerrigan's right leg so that she would be unable to compete at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. On January 6, 1994, Harding's main team competitor Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by assailant Shane Stant after a practice session at the 1994 U.S. However, the competition results were not changed and the title was left vacant rather than moving all the other competitors up one position. Figure Skating Association voted to strip Harding of her 1994 title. ^† In June 1994, Claire Ferguson and the U.S. Amid controversy before and during the Games, she finished in eighth place, far behind Oksana Baiul (gold) and Nancy Kerrigan (silver). ice skating team at the 1994 Winter Olympics In Lillehammer, Norway. Championships and failed to qualify for the World Championship team. In the 1993 season, she skated poorly in the U.S. She finished fourth in the 1992 Winter Olympics, and in the 1992 World Championships, she placed sixth in a weak field. Championships after twisting her ankle in practice. The first ever to complete a triple axel combination with the double toe loop.ĭespite these record-breaking performances, she was never able to successfully perform the triple axel in a competition after 1991, and her competitive results began to decline as a result.The first woman to successfully execute two triple axels in a single competition.The first woman to complete a triple axel in the short program.At the 1991 World Championships, she again completed the triple axel (becoming the first American woman to perform it at an international event) but finished second to Kristi Yamaguchi.Īt the Fall 1991 Skate America, Harding recorded three more firsts: Championships, winning the title with the event's first 6.0 ever given to a single female skater for technical merit. Harding's breakthrough year was in 1991, where she landed her first triple axel at the U.S. While she was a powerful free skater, she typically had lower placements in the compulsory figures. Figure Skating Championships after having won Skate America 1989, but she had a poor free skate as a result of suffering from the flu and asthma, and dropped from second place after the original program to finish seventh overall. She was considered a strong contender at the 1990 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, fifth in 19, and third in 1989. Harding began working her way up the competitive skating ladder in the mid-1980s, placing sixth at the 1986 U.S. Her mother has admitted to one instance of hitting Tonya at an ice rink. Tonya Harding has stated that by the time she was 7 years old, she was mentally and physically abused by her mother. Harding stopped attending David Douglas High School in Portland during her sophomore year. Tonya Harding was born on Novemin Portland, Oregon.
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