I wasn't alive when this happened, but apparently it was one of the biggest sporting controversies of all time. Well I find that quite hard to believe, since before this movie came out, I'd never heard anyone talk about figure skating, I barely even knew what it was. Was figure skating ever actually a big thing, or do people just like controversy?
shareFigure skating is only really popular in the US during the Olympics.
But who could resist a bunch of Hillbillies cheating their way onto the Olympic team? You can't make this crap up!!
Probably a lot of people like the controversy that surrounded the Harding-Kerrigan scandal nearly 25 years ago.
shareYes of course. Figure skating is beautiful.
shareOh yes! Lots of people still like figure skating, but it was more popular then than it was now.
And FYI the Kerrigan-Hardin flap was THE scandal of the year, and everyone in the world who had a TV tuned in for the ladies' long program to see WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. Would Kerrigan be able to skate? Would Harding win and profit from a criminal action? Would Kerrigan pull off a fairy-tale triumph? I don't think the whole world has ever been quite so agog for a single Olympic event, because mere sports doesn't bring that level of interest.
Figure skating is only news when the Winter Olympics come around. I´m Australian, I was around 10 at the time it happened and it was a HUGE news story since it was so close to the 94 Olympics and we are a tiny winter olympic nation so I can only imagine how big the story was in the US. I remember everyone wanting Kerrigan to win gold because of what happened to her. I haven´t seen the movie but yes it was probably as big as they made it out to be. To answer your question, I think people just like controversy.
shareFigure skating, like girls' gymnastics, swimming, and diving, becomes very popular every four years during the Olympic games. The rest of the time, not so much, except among aficionados.
sharePeople care more about crime than about figure skating, and the Harding/Kerrigan story was about crime, and about the US Olympic Committee lacking a backbone.
shareOne must not forget, however, that Tonya Harding's complicity in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan (i. e. Tonya Harding's co-conspiring to obstruct the investigation and prosecution of Gillooly and his henchmen) is what really derailed her promising figure-skating career, and it should have.
shareFrom a US perspective: In the late 80s and early 90s, figure skating was very popular because Americans medaled a lot. Not only that, for athletes they had strong/charismatic personalities. I have no idea if this is true now...every time I've seen figure skating in recent years it seems pretty dry.
One thing that I think the movie could have touched on was more of the aftermath of the scandal. Tonya for better or worse brought a ton of additional attention to the sport. Figure skaters had a higher profile and there were a bunch of TV specials throughout the '90s. However, Tonya missed out on all that $$$$.
It's too bad that Tonya Harding missed out on all that money, but her own arrogance, hubris and stupidity proved to be her downfall.
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