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The Portlandian, the Internet's premier source of Tonya News
October 20, 1999 Edition - TRIUMPH FOR TONYA!
(C) 1999 Portland Ice Skating Society
http://www.geocities.com/portice
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TONYA KICKS ASS IN HUNTINGTON; RECEIVES MASSIVE STANDING OVATION
The "experts" said that no-one would ever skate with her. They
were wrong.
They then said that she was a washed-up, out of shape has-been
who couldn't do the jumps anymore. She proved them wrong again.
Well, to all those so-called "experts", we've got only one thing
to say: TONYA IS BACK - AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, TOO DAMN BAD!!!
After finishing fourth in the technical program, Tonya has soared
to take second place in her debut pro competition in Huntington,
West Virginia. Dressed in a sexy yet tasteful black and white
outfit, Tonya skated a near-perfect routine, with five jumps and
three spin sequences. After the third triple jump, she was
smiling. "I didn't know I had it in me", she said later.
Tonya came second in the artistic program, tying with Rory
Burghart, but finished second over all because the artistic
program was the tie-breaker (the same situation also occurred
with the top two pairs teams). Surya Bonaly won the competition,
with Burghart third, Tonia Kwiatkowski fourth and Liz Manley
fifth.
At the end of her performance Tonya received a standing ovation
from the crowd. There were also hugs from all four of the other
female skaters. "I am ecstatic", said Tonya afterwards. "The
reaction of the audience was a 10. It was totally awesome".
"I'd forgotten how it felt to step on the ice". "I will never
forget this day. I will never forget this competition".
The contest will be broadcast on ESPN in the U.S. on three
consecutive Mondays, beginning on the 25th of October, and in
many overseas countries. It will unquestionably be the TV event
of the year for Tonyaphiles.
BUTTON PRAISES TONYA'S SKATING
Tonya's skating has been praised by top skating expert and
promoter Dick Button in a recent New York Times article - and
this was before her spectacular artistic program. "Tonya takes
one step on the ice, and you remember she's a brilliant athlete,
just the way she moves. She goes into her first spin and you
remember she was an important athletic talent". Although Button
believes that Tonya should have started off with a simpler jump
than a triple loop, he says "except for that, I thought she
handled herself quite well."
There can be now be no doubt that Tonya is still a top athlete,
and far from the old news some people would have us believe.
ANTI-TONYA CONSPIRACY SHATTERED
As a result of this, the conspiracy by the skating establishment
to keep Tonya off the ice is now in tatters. "I'm hoping that
following this competition that the phones will start ringing",
said Michael Rosenberg, Tonya's mentor and the chief architect
behind the Tonya comeback campaign.
"It hit me that no one is ever going to give Tonya a second
chance. But I knew that I could do it," said Rosenberg. "I
believe what I did was right... It's where she belongs. She's
one of the greatest figure skaters America ever has produced."
Rosenberg also mentioned to reporters a list of major news and
entertainment organizations that he said were interested in
Tonya.
Tonya confirmed Rosenberg's contribution: "He has gone the extra
150 miles. He has put his reputation and everything on the line
for me, and I'm not going to let him down".
AND YET MORE ARTICLES ON TONYA'S COMEBACK
As Tonya's stunning comeback explodes across the skating world,
the articles continue to pour in, so much so it's getting
difficult to keep track of all of them. Fortunately, Yahoo! now
has an entire section devoted to Tonya's comeback, and it can be
found at:
http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/Sports/Tonya_Harding/
Also, don't forget OregonLive, which has plenty of photos of
Tonya's performance just in on it's Tonya special page:
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/tonya.html
One article does deserve special mention, however. Quite simply
one of the best articles ever written about Tonya by the
mainstream media is this one from the Washington Post, which
unlike so many others isn't just a tired rehash of the past:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/daily/oct99/19/
harding19.htm
Interesting also are statements by Chris Bowman (not a man
without his own share of past troubles), who confirmed the
existence of a blacklist: "there was an unspoken rule that she
was to be blackballed," he says. "The USFSA always says that's
not true, but it's the perception, the idea. That's the thing
about figure skating - there doesn't have to be a blacklist for
there to be a blacklist, if you know what I mean."
Tonya's return was also the cover story for Tuesday in "USA
Today":
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ccovtue.htm
And check out the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/sports/other/101999ska-
harding.html
ABC CHAT TRANSCRIPT
Following her appearance yesterday morning on ABC's "Good Morning
America", Tonya stayed for another live Internet chat session.
The transcript, (which describes her as a "two-time US national
figure skating champion" - at last the media are getting
something right) is accessible from the URL below:
http://chat.abcnews.go.com/chat/chat.dll?room=harding991019
Two interesting things emerge from this, namely that Tonya is now
more optimistic about the future, saying "we have several things
in the works. I'm excited and pumped and looking forward to
them." And when asked if she might put the Triple Axel into her
future routines, replied "possibly. I can still do it. I did one
a month ago" - a change from the "I don't need it anymore" of the
Oregonlive session of two weeks earlier.
WEBSITE UPDATES
L. D. Smith has two new Tonya sites. The second of these features
some photos of Tonya and her students at a skating contest back
in the summer, taken by the now discredited "Roy Edwards" and not
widely published until now.
http://www.homestead.com/tonyah/index.html
http://adamsandler.acmecity.com/lunchlady/207/index.html
Puppetboy has also added some more comments and a short review of
"Grease on Ice" to his site.
And if you're wondering what David House has been up to lately,
he's been working on his brand new truck. "Now it may not be as
exciting as a Lexus" says David, "but as soon as I finish
customizing I think it would qualify as a Tonya Truck."
With the added bonus, of course, that unlike a Lexus there's no
danger of being mistaken for a pimp.
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VISIT THESE GREAT TONYA WEB SITES:
PortIce - http://www.geocities.com/portice
Dave House - http://www.davidhouse.com/tonya/index.html
Charlie Main - http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/tonya.html
Puppetboy - http://www.puppetland.com/mirrortony2.html
Valerie Smith - http://www.olywa.net/radu/valerie/LilHam.html
Swan Lake - http://members.tripod.com/~TonyaHarding/index.html
Blades of Gold - http://members.tripod.com/tmhfan/index.html
Jim Polk - http://www.angelfire.com/tn/tohar/index.html
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