So there are idiots which defend a criminal?
Tonya Harding was responsible for attacking a competing ice skater, which simply was better then her. That is a crime. And it was proven.
So what idiotic and antisocial freak is going to defend that?
For me it's not about defending that because it's indefensible. But what I will say is that I think she has paid her debt at this point. Any kind of probation aside, she was barred from the sport that she is truly gifted in and became a social pariah and late night punchline for years.
I doubt she's being honest about her involvement in the attack but regardless I think she's suffered enough for what the crime amounted to. Now had Nancy Kerrigan suffered permanent damage I would feel differently. But realistically she recovered fully and quickly enough to compete in the Olympics (personally I feel she was robbed of the gold) and she was presented with opportunities that otherwise wouldn't have been there had the attack not happened. Strangely enough the events of 1994 were both a black mark and a blessing to the world of figure skating because the sport garnered interest from folks that otherwise probably wouldn't have been watching.
Dear God...a grammatically correct, properly-spelled response on the Internet that also just happens to be thoughtful? This is unprecedented!
shareHahaha thanks Waffle....I needed that today!
shareDear God...a grammatically correct, properly-spelled response on the Internet that also just happens to be thoughtful? This is unprecedented!
I know, it's so rare it's actually stunning when you stumble across one. share
Well, Markdown474, the fact that Tonya Harding co-conspired to obstruct the investigation and prosecution of Jeff Gillooly and his henchmen, plus the fact that, not too long after that, she made a totally UNprovoked physical attack on a now-ex boyfriend or husband, Darren Silver, with a hubcap, seriously injured him and brought a police warrant down on her own head, were both crimes that sealed her fate. Nobody's to blame but Tonya Harding herself, regardless of what anybody says or thinks.
shareI never said she wasn't to blame. What I said was as far as I'm concerned her debt to society is paid.
shareWhen somebody takes up a career as an athlete in the sports world, s/he must realize that they can expect to be scrutinized much more closely by the general public as well as by the Olympics Committee, or whoever. Just because other athletes have acted just as badly as Tonya Harding did doesn't mean that she deserved to get off of the hook.
As for Nancy Kerrigan's injury and recovery, I'm glad that Nancy Kerrigan did recover, but there was the potential for her having a permanent injury as a result of that assault on her. Tonya wrecked her own skating career...nobody did it for her.
I feel like you're writing a rebuttal to my post but you're rebutting points I never actually made. Again I'm not saying anyone other than Tonya Harding is to blame for her situation, nor did I say she deserved to get off the hook (not even sure how what I typed could be construed that way). I'm simply saying that as far as I'm concerned, here and now almost 25 years later, she has paid her debt.
And yes there was the potential for permanent injury to Kerrigan's leg but fortunately that didn't occur. Much in the same way someone being sentenced for attempted murder wouldn't get the same sentence as someone who successfully murdered or someone who was being sentenced for a DUI wouldn't get the same sentence as someone who drove drunk and injured and/or killed someone, why would someone who committed an assault on someone's leg that left no permanent injury get the same sentence as someone who permanently maimed someone?
Back in 1999, five years after the assault on Nancy Kerrigan, ESPN (what the letters stand for escape me at the moment, and is not affiliated with the IOC) let Tonya Harding skate as a pro for them. When Tonya Harding, without provocation, beat up her ex-boyfriend, Darren Silver, with a hubcap and the cops came along to the scene due to Tonya Harding having seriously injured him. She brought a police warrant down on her own head. At that point, even ESPN decided that Tonya was too dangerous, and too much of a risk to public safety, which permanently sealed her fate; her figure-skating career was derailed--for good, and it served her right.
shareCan you provide a link that provides info on the IOC and USFSA being ready to let Tony Harding back in? I can't find any info on that anywhere but I'd like to read about it. Tonya was banned for life by the USFSA in 1994 (imo rightfully so) but I'm not seeing anywhere that they were thinking of lifting this around 1999.
When somebody makes a totally un_provoked physical assault on another person, ends up seriously injuring that person, which results in a police warranty being brought down on the assailant's own head, the news of this kind of thing spreads like wildfire. Even ESPN didn't want Tonya Harding. Any thoughts of her being able to skate as a pro went totally out the window. Tonya Harding's reputation spread rather quickly, and her career is a-goner.
Years later, now that Tonya's in her late 40's, her former coach, Dody Teachman, wrote a program out for her so that she could practice ice-skating, but she'll never, ever be allowed to coach or teach, much less do anything else besides just skate on her own, with the program that her former skating coach wrote out for her.
But I've seen nothing suggesting the IOC or USFSA were considering reinstating Tonya Harding; what exactly are you basing it on when you said in your earlier post "the IOC seemed about ready to let Tonya Harding back in, and to re-instate her." Do you have anything that actually supports this comment?
I haven't seen anything suggesting Harding was even attempting to get reinstated.
Like I mentioned earlier, you seem to be rebutting points that I didn't try to make and instead just reply with more of the same so I'll ask one straightforward question; are you trolling me bro?
For starters, I'm a woman. Also, I'm not trolling you at all. I read that in some link to a prominent newspaper in Portland, Oregon.
shareMy apologies for referring to you as bro. I'm assuming you can't provide a link? Like I said I've seen nothing to suggest that the IOC or USFSA were considering lifting Tanya's ban or that she was even seeking them to do so, so it's a moot point imo. My assumption is that her lifetime ban will always be in effect but other than that I have no problem with her getting on with her life.
shareTonya Harding's now married, with a young son. She's going on with her life, despite her total destruction of her own skating career. I've been trying to do some research on the matter myself. You're more than likely right about the possibility that the life-time ban of Tonya Harding from IOC, USFSA, and even ESPN events, not to mention either coaching or teaching, will always be in affect. To be truthful, however, Tonya Harding brought it on herself.
share"I've been trying to do some research on the matter myself."
HAHAHA yeah nope. If you'd done any research, you'd have realized you weren't being truthful about the possibility of her license being reinstated...when we went over it four months ago.
The only research you've done is for the benefit if backing up your own BS. To say you've "researched" is just laughable.
Go fuck yourself, asshole!! Over and the fuck out!
shareI did my own recent research, and I found that Tonya skated, five years later, on another program or organization (whose name escapes me at the moment, and was not in any way affiliated with the IOC or the USFSA), but she blew that chance, too, due to her unprovoked physical attack on her now-ex boyfriend, Darren Silver, with a hubcap, injured him, and brought a police warrant down on her own head. Tonya's fate, regarding her skating career, was sealed, for sure., and for good.
shareHey buddy, just FYI, I went over this point by point with this Mplo person back in November, I think. No, there's no indication that Tonya was going to get her license reinstated...Mplo knows this because we've already been over it. We also went over a number of points she'd made that, come to find out, essentially boiled down to her personal "beliefs".
But it hasn't stopped her from stating them as fact, over and over again during the last four months, where she's been on this topic continually, looking out for people she's not yet gone over her talking points with.
She's got zero loyalty towards the truth while apparently all the energy in the world to keep hammering away on her already-disproven BS, with her latest post here just a few hours prior to my writing this. I'm no fan of Tonya's, but weird is weird...and I imagine she's got some sort of personal tie to the story. Either that or she's just nucking futs.
By the way, notice how she wasn't really talking to you? Almost like she's on some kind of auto pilot or something? She has no time for anything but for you to hear HER. Einstein himself could rise from the grave, produce the most well formulated argument in existence and Mplo would barely glance at it before plunging right back into her talking points.
I've enjoyed forum-based discussions for years and have yet to ever come across anyone so bizarre. She's a goddamn machine, is what she is...its crazy.
Hahaha I was just re-reading the exchange I had in this thread and it definitely was a bit surreal! Looks like she just gave you a piece of her mind lol!
shareYou're not so normal or stable yourself, Jehosephat! THAT'S quite apparent, with your insisting that what YOU'RE saying is the truth. You have a different opinion of Tonya Harding than I do? Fine, that's YOUR prerogative. Just don't go making assumptions about people, including myself, that you've never met, much less talked to off-line and/or in person.
shareTonya was not “barred from the sport” quickly enough. The cowardly US Olympic committee, faced with the prospect of a lawsuit if they decided otherwise LET THIS BITCH SKATE IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES, besmirching the Olympics. That is a debt that can never be repaid. To me, the Olympic Games are sacrosanct. Kerrigan was not “robbed” of a gold metal. Baiul was unbeatable on that day. Her skating was joyous and inspired. Kerrigan’s skating was practiced, professional and rote. It lacked passion.
shareI thought Kerrigan was better personally.
shareThe reason that the US Olympic Committee allowed Tonya to skate, and to compete in Lillehammer, Norway is because Tonya Harding threatened them with a $25, 000, 000.00
lawsuit, which the US Olympic Committee didn't want to deal with.
Moreover, recently, Tonya Harding Price (her married name) has even threatened any reporter or journalist, as well as her long-time Agent, Michael Rosenberg, who asked her anything about her past, with a $25, 000.00 fine. Michael Rosenberg subsequently walked out on her, which served her right, imho.
Kerrigan will never get over that one thing that is a part of all victims of violence: That security of self. She was minding her own business when a stranger came up and belted her in the knee with a club. That we are once again celebrating a criminal is disgusting. Realistically Kerrigan never "recovered fully and quickly". You're wrong in that. She was a victim of a crime. You never overcome that. Certainly not with the slap on the wrists all involved got. That Harding is being celebrated with a film and is being allowed to walk red carpets with Margo Robbie and Sebastian Stan and Allison Janey is not suffering. The film should be called "I Nancy" then we could perhaps believe the balance in the world is right. And what I mean by that is the film is never called "Sharon Tate". It's always called "Manson". See what I mean? Tarantino says he's making a film on Manson in which Tate and the other victims will "play a part". And this is what is wrong with the world. The villains/killers are always celebrated more than the victims. Yes Kerrigan was given opportunities she probably woulnd't have been able to enjoy without the event, but then had the event not happened she might have gone on to win gold and gain those things through her hard work.
shareWell I've made my position clear so this has to be my last post in this thread. But I think you and I disagree on what constitutes a slap on the wrist. Being barred from the sport that provided her the best opportunity to make money and years of public shame are pretty severe. People seem to think jail time is the only suffering that criminals can suffer but for high profile incidents like this, that's just not the case.
As for Kerrigan having potentially won the gold, I think that it is unlikely that she would've performed any better than she did. She herself was happy that she skated two clean programs and seemed to feel that she should've won the gold as it was (which I personally agree with).
I do get completely where you're coming from and I felt very much the same way regarding The Wolf of Wall Street. Harding just seems like a rather pathetic figure today so I have less a problem with I, Tonya than I did with that film. As unfortunate as it is with biopics, the story of the villain is usually more interesting than that of the hero.