TTTTT H H EEEEE
T H H E
T HHHHH EEEEE
T H H E
T H H EEEEE
PPPP OOOO RRRR TTTTT L A N N DDDD I A N N TM
P P O O R R T L A A NN N D D I A A NN N
PPPP O O RRRR T L AAAAA N N N D D I AAAAA N N N
P O O R R T L A A N NN D D I A A N NN
P OOOO R R T LLLLL A A N N DDDD I A A N N
*****************************************************************
The Portlandian, the Internet's premier source of Tonya News
January 6, 2014 Edition - SPECIAL 20th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE
LIMITED EDITION COLLECTOR'S ISSUE
(C) 2014 Portland Ice Skating Society
http://www.pdxiss.org
*****************************************************************
In 1975, film director Norman Jewison created a
dark & terrifying vision of the future:
a future where the world is controlled by corporations,
where sport is a tool of big business,
and people are obsessed with skating & ultraviolence.
This was the world of
ROLLERBALL
In 1994, Jewison's vision came true:
the world is controlled by corporations,
sport is a tool of big business,
and people are obsessed with skating & ultraviolence.
This was the world of
TONYA & NANCY
IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO TODAY...
that figure skating - and the news media - changed forever.
For Tonyaphiles it is a date seared into history. It needs no
elaboration. For other, maybe younger, readers who weren't around
at the time or were too young to remember exactly what was going
on, here's a brief rundown:
In the early afternoon of the 6th of January, 1994, reigning US
ladies figure skating champion Nancy Kerrigan had just finished
practising for the upcoming Nationals competition that would
determine if she would make the team that was to be sent to the
Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in February. Within
seconds of her leaving the ice that day at the Cobo Arena in
Detroit, an event would occur that would change her life forever
and puncture the public's perception of figure skating as a
wholesome, genteel, ladylike activity.
From out of the shadows a man moved towards Nancy as she casually
chatted to a reporter. But this wasn't some fan seeking an
autograph - with a quick, unexpected movement he struck Nancy on
the leg with an instrument that was later discovered to be a
retractable baton of a type commonly used by law enforcement
officers, sending Nancy sprawling onto the floor in front of
stunned observers. He then quickly ran off, bolting through a
Plexiglass panel when he discovered his escape route blocked by a
locked door, as the bewildered Nancy lay sobbing in front of the
TV cameras, clutching her knee.
But within days what was already a major news story had taken a
serious detour down Weird Street. Little could anybody know that
in the following weeks the affair would explode into one of the
biggest and most bizarre sports scandals of all time as details
of a bumbling, comic-book level plot by four men, one of whom was
connected to Kerrigan's main rival, Tonya Harding, would unfold,
and ultimately shatter the career of one of the greatest skaters
the world has ever seen and that still has repercussions decades
later.
In this issue, we'll do a full rehash of the affair for those
unfamiliar with it. We'll look at the case against Tonya, and
show that it's just as pathetic now twenty years down the track
as it was at the time. We'll look at its long term impact on
figure skating and news reporting. And we'll suggest that the
media are continuing to miss the real point: that it's the dull
grey men in dull grey suits who administer sport who are often
the real bad guys rather than people like Tonya. Finally, we'll
try to answer the question of why this scandal continues to
fascinate today.
BORN ON THE 12th OF NOVEMBER - A REAL AMERICAN STORY
Born in Portland in 1970, Tonya grew up in a working-class
family, which did not make her a typical figure skater (it's an
expensive sport). Her mother was an alcoholic who married several
times and her father had health problems that prevented him from
holding down a steady job. She started skating at the age of
three and was such a natural at it that despite her young age she
was taken on as a pupil by local skating coach Diane Rawlinson,
herself a former Ice Capades skater. Rawlinson's husband was a
lawyer (who would later help to defend Tonya when her troubles
began), and had connections with wealthy people who were so
impressed with Tonya's ability that they helped to fund her
training. At one stage George Steinbrenner was one of her
sponsors.
Her proletarian background and lack of refinement meant there was
always a prejudice against her from the skating establishment. A
Newsweek article once described her as the "pool-playing, drag-
racing, trash-talking bad girl of a sport that thrives on
illusion and politesse." However she had one asset that
the skating establishment couldn't ignore: she was a fantastic
jumper. At the 1991 US Figure Skating Nationals, which she
ultimately won, she became one of only two women at that time
(the other being Japan's Midori Ito) to perform the difficult
"Triple Axel" jump. Tonya later went to the 1992 Olympics in
Albertville, France, but arrived late and jet-lagged and failed
to medal, falling during her performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8va2i2vENw
In late 1990 Tonya had married Jeffrey Scott Gillooly. Gillooly
quickly turned out to be a lazy, violent, abusive thug who seemed
to spend most of his time sponging off Tonya's talent. Eventually
they divorced, but by late 1993 they had reunited after a
threatening phone call from someone at the U.S. Figure Skating
Association implied that Tonya would not get the marks she
deserved at the upcoming Nationals if she did not project the
right "happy family" image. Skating is a corrupt sport where the
judge's marks often depend as much on politics as individual
talent - recall the 2002 Salt Lake City scandal where it was
revealed that the outcome was rigged.
I'LL HAVE A BEER, SHAKEN BUT NOT STIRRED...
In December 1993, Gillooly became concerned that Tonya was
getting unfairly discriminated against after she got low marks at
a competition in Japan and that the same thing would occur at the
Nationals in Detroit in January (which were also used to
determine the Olympic Team for the Lillehammer Olympics in
February). Gillooly saw an Olympic gold medal, with all the
endorsements that come with it, as the big payoff for Tonya's
skating and figured he would be able to cut himself in on the
action as Tonya's "manager" (he had persuaded Tonya to part ways
with her previous manager, well-known skating agent Michael
Rosenberg, several weeks earlier). He believed that the USFSA was
going to fix the outcome of the Nationals so that Tonya's main
rival, the tall, elegant Nancy Kerrigan would win. In fact, even
had this occurred it would have made no difference to Tonya being
placed on the Olympic team as the US was entitled to send two
women to the Olympics that year and Tonya & Nancy were the only
serious contenders. And people forget that the Olympic Gold medal
was eventually won by Oksana Baiul of the Ukraine, not Nancy
Kerrigan.
Gillooly discused his concerns with his friend Shawn Eckardt, a
self-styled secret agent/private eye who ran something called the
"World Bodyguard Service". Eckardt had a CV that would have made
James Bond green with envy, with its claims of expertise and
experience in counterterrorism, espionage and protection of
famous celebrities. Unfortunately the only thing it really had in
common with James Bond was that it was a work of pure fiction -
Eckardt had never even finished high school and the "World
Bodyguard Service" headquarters was run out of a spare room at
his parents house in the run-down Portland suburb of Lents.
Indeed, at 300 pounds the only secret agent the portly Eckardt
really resembled was Fat Bastard, the overweight Scotsman from
the Austin Powers films.
Together they came up with the plan to disable Kerrigan to take
her out of the competition. Eckardt contacted two friends of his
who had recently shifted from Portland to Arizona, Shane Stant &
his uncle Derrick Smith, to do the job, and a meeting between the
four occurred at Eckardt's house in Portland shortly after
Christmas. After initially toying with such ideas as trying to
run Kerrigan's car off the road or cutting her Achilles tendon,
the four conspirators settled on a plan to whack her on the knee.
Eckardt also had the idea that the attacker should drop a note
reading "all skating whores must die" at the scene in order to
make it look as if a maniac was stalking female skaters to throw
investigators off the track and also to cause a panic amongst top
level skaters that would then hire the services of his
bodyguarding business. Eckardt sweetened the pot with the promise
of a $36,000 a week bodyguarding contract for a five man team to
protect Tonya in the runup to the Lillehammer games. This was, of
course, pure bollocks, but by now Stant & Smith were convinced
enough to come on board.
The mission got off to a bad start when Stant, who was going to
be the "hit man", accidentally took his girlfriend's credit card
with him instead of his own and had to sit around for several
days until it was mailed to him. When he finally made it to the
Tony Kent Arena in Cape Cod, Mass. where Kerrigan trained, he
discovered that she had already left for Detroit. By this time
Stant was out of money and had to take a bus ride to get there.
Meanwhile, Gillooly (and, he claims, Tonya), were getting worried
they'd been ripped off. "Do I have 'stupid' written across my
forehead?" he replied when Eckardt asked him for more expense
money. Not another dime would be provided unless there were signs
of some action happening in Boston. Eckardt tried to excuse the
delay with a wild story about how his two "agents" had stolen
Kerrigan's car in order to get her address from the registration
papers and had waited for her in her house on New Year's Eve, but
she hadn't come home. Gillooly then told Eckardt that he would
give Stant and Smith a $10,000 check that the USFSA had provided
for Tonya's training expenses as a bonus if they got the job
done. Motivated by this, Smith took the last $750 of Gillooly's
original expense money and flew to Detroit on the 5th to join
Stant. Gillooly is most concerned when he hears that the attack
is now to take place in Detroit, and tries to again get Eckardt
to call it off, but the hitmen are now determined to complete the
job so they can get paid. By now Tonya is also in Detroit having
flown there the previous day (the 4th) to prepare for Nationals.
PANIC IN DETROIT
On the 5th of January, Stant and Smith, who had by that time also
arrived in Detroit, cased out the Cobo Arena where the skating
Nationals were to be held. Security was slack. On the 6th of
January, Stant approached Kerrigan after her practice and whacked
her on the knee with a collapsible metal baton (not a tire iron
as is often mistakenly reported) that he had purchased earlier
from a security shop in Phoenix. Gene Samuels, a video cameraman
working for an outfit called Intersport (who were making a
documentary on the event) and who was following Kerrigan as she
left the ice caught the aftermath of the attack on tape, thereby
becoming the Abraham Zapruder of figure skating. We've all seen
the footage of poor Nancy lying clutching her knee screaming
"why?, why?" (not "why me" - another common misreporting). Stant
bolted for a nearby door, and finding it now locked, butted
through a panel with his head to escape to a waiting car driven
by Smith. No threatening note was ever found.
The mission appeared to had been accomplished: Kerrigan was
incapacitated, the hitmen had got away cleanly. Witnesses'
descriptions were poor - they couldn't even agree if the attacker
was white or black (Stant was half Hawaiian and half Native
American). Investigators initially focused their attention on the
Canadian province of Ontario, just across the border, from where
Nancy had received hate mail in the past. At one point they even
briefly considered the idea that Nancy had orchestrated the
entire thing herself. Tonya had gone on to win the National
skating title (though there's a good chance she would have
anyway), and been picked for the Olympic team. It probably would
have all worked, but for one thing: Shawn Eckardt.
Unbeknownst to the other conspirators, Eckardt had secretly
recorded their late December planning meeting, perhaps to
blackmail Gillooly if he failed to pay for the job. Eckardt was
so keen on letting everybody know what a "gangster" he was that
he insisted on playing this recording to all and sundry and
within a few days news of his involvement reached the FBI & the
"Oregonian", Portland's major newspaper. Under pressure from the
Feds, Eckardt quickly spilled his enormous guts on Stant, Smith &
Gillooly, the latter initially denying any involvement by himself
or Tonya.
Tonya also initially denied any involvement, but later admitted
that she had learnt shortly after she had returned home to
Portland of her ex-husband's connection to the crime. Tonya was
later charged with and pled guilty to a charge of "hindering
prosecution" over her untrue statements to investigators, was
fined $100,000 plus costs, agreed to make a large donation to the
Special Olympics charity and sentenced to 500 hours of community
service & three years probation. In an extremely unusual move the
plea deal also required that she resign from the USFSA,
effectively ending her amateur (or "eligible", as it's called in
skating) career. Despite the fact she was now no longer a member,
the USFSA held a closed door hearing in Colorado Springs in June
1994 after which they banned her for life (Tonya was not
present). Their report has never been publicly released.
Although in theory Tonya was still free to pursue a pro career,
there is strong anecdotal evidence that she is blacklisted by
other skaters and that many of them have "no Tonya" clauses in
their contracts. There is also a fear amongst pro skaters that
they will be barred from "open" (ProAm) competitions if they
skate with Tonya, and the USFSA will not allow its amateur
skaters to appear in any ProAm competition in which she takes
part. As a result, it wasn't until late 1999, almost six years
later, that she was allowed to particpate in a pro competition
run by ESPN. She also cannot appear as a "coach of record" for
USFSA skaters, so that career avenue is now also closed off for
her.
Tonya has said she made those untrue statements only because she
feared for her safety - she'd had restraining orders taken out
against Gillooly before that weren't worth the paper they were
written on and doubted promises by authorities of protection
would be any more effective this time around. In her 2008 book
"The Tonya Tapes" she claims that shortly after her return to
Portland she was abducted and taken to a remote spot in the woods
where she was gang-raped by Gillooly and his friends and
threatened with a gun if she talked. To this day she denies any
prior knowledge of the crime and no-one has ever produced
anything to prove otherwise. Most of the evidence against her
comes from Eckardt - a notorious liar whose own lawyer described
him as having a "credibility problem" - and Gillooly, who only
started implicating Tonya after she told the truth about him.
IT'S (LILLE)HAMMER TIME!
By early February pressure was mounting on the US Olympic
Committee & the USFSA to boot Tonya off the team, based largely
on the accusations of Eckardt & Gillooly. Faced with no other
choice in order to retain her chance at realizing her dream of an
Olympic gold, Tonya mounted a lawsuit against the U.S. Olympic
Committee, which ultimately caved in and allowed her to compete.
The scene in Norway was a shambles, however. By this stage, the
story had erupted into one of the biggest media sensations of the
decade, eclipsed only by the O.J. Simpson affair of a few months
later. And it was also apparent that Nancy would be competing at
the Games as well, her assailant's blow having failed to produce
sufficient injury to force her off the team. This meant a
Tonya/Nancy showdown was on the cards. As if things couldn't get
any more bizarre, a British tabloid published scenes of Tonya
stripping off a wedding dress that had been lifted from a home
video shot by Gillooly some years before. Several months later
even more explicit footage was released on video by Penthouse
magazine.
Under the enormous pressure of both the media frenzy and the
already tense preparation for the Games, Tonya's skating
collapsed. Just before Tonya was to commence her Long Program,
skating to music from the film "Jurassic Park", a shoelace had
broken on one of her skating boots and a replacement of suitable
length could not be found. Early on in the performance the lace
came undone, forcing Tonya to abandon her first attempt and plead
for a re-skate. Her concentration gone, Tonya finished eighth,
pulling her up from the tenth place she had finished in the Short
Program. Ironically, the pressure had the opposite effect on
Nancy, who went on to skate one of her best performances, taking
the silver behind Oksana Baiul of the Ukraine. The Tonya/Nancy
showdown was to be one of the most widely-watched events in the
history of television, despite being screened delayed in the U.S.
TRIPLE AXELS & DOUBLE CROSSES: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EVIDENCE
Gillooly claims that he told Tonya of the entire proposed plot
after the late December meeting and that she "green lighted" the
operation. He also claims that she phoned the Tony Kent arena
asking for Kerrigan's practice details. Phone company records do
confirm calls made from Tonya's house to Tony Kent, but of course
there is no way of knowing who made the calls - it could have
been Gillooly. Staff at Tony Kent say that enquiries about Nancy
were common and would not remember a particular call or if the
caller was a man or woman.
Eckardt claims that at a practice session on New Year's Eve,
Tonya skated up to him, berated him for the delay and asked "why
don't you stop screwing around and get it done"? We have
information from the editor of Tonya's fan club newsletter who
says he was also present on the night and that at no time
did Tonya ever go anywhere near Eckardt. Eckardt's claims also
contradict his earlier testimony to the FBI in which he implied
Tonya was not involved. Given his penchant for making up wild
stories he can hardly be regarded as a reliable witness.
In other words, the only people implicating Tonya are people who
are of low credibility and who have changed their story several
times. They had vested interests in shifting as much of the blame
as possible onto Tonya in order to cut a better deal with the
D.A.
There are also claims that Tonya asked a clerk at the hotel where
the skaters were staying for Nancy's room number, supposedly to
get her to sign a poster of herself, Nancy & Kristi Yamaguchi for
her fan club. This poster has widely assumed to be non-existent,
but the former editor of Tonya's fan club magazine confirms that
it did exist. He says that he was in the skater's area at the
rink where Tonya trained, along with Tonya, Elaine Stamm
(president of Tonya's fan club) and others one evening:
Stamm produced a large-format photographic print, donated to
the THFC by the photographer at "The Oregonian" who had taken
most of the photos of Tonya up to that point, showing Tonya
flanked by Kerrigan and Yamaguchi. Tonya was admiring the
print when Stamm pointed out to her that it would be worth
much more money at a fund-raising auction if it was signed by
all three skaters. Tonya signed it right away, then stated
she knew how to get in touch with Yamaguchi and was sure she'd
sign it too. But she wasn't sure how to get ahold of
Kerrigan. So she said she'd call around to find out where
Kerrigan was practicing and try to get her autograph somehow.
Isn't that interesting? The Tonya-bashers think the photo
story is just that: a story Tonya cooked up to cover her
butt. Yet I heard the whole thing go down; and it was all
strictly on the up-and-up.
The only physical piece of evidence that supposedly implicates
Tonya is what is known as the "Tunee can" note - a piece of paper
found in late January 1994 in a garbage bag in a dumpster outside
a bar in Northwest Portland on the opposite side of town from
where Tonya lived. This appears to be someone's attempt at noting
down details of the address and phone number of the Tony Kent
Arena from a distorted answering machine tape. However it is
unclear who wrote this note - handwriting experts are divided
over whether this is Tonya's handwriting or not. Even if it was,
it is entirely consistent with the poster story. Also, it is
implied that Tonya drove all the way across town and dumped this
note in order to destroy evidence - somehow evading the 50
billion reporters that were camped outside her house at that time
in the process - rather than simply burning it and flushing the
ashes down the toilet. Which raises the question: was this an
attempt by Tonya to destroy evidence - or by someone to plant it
and discredit Tonya?
Former skating judge Jon Jackson, in his 2006 book "On Edge" says:
There was never any solid evidence that proved that Tonya
had anything to do with her worthless ex-husband's attack
on Nancy Kerrigan. Tonya said she didn't know anything
about it. No other court of arbitration was involved to
prove otherwise. Yet the bungling simpletons of U.S. Figure
Skating blamed and convicted her anyway, making her the
first person ever banned from the sport for life. They
didn't care that there was no proof. All they cared about
was that they finally had a way to get rid of the shabby
little girl that didn't represent their ideal of figure-
skating.
If Tonya could have stayed focused, she probably would have
medaled at the 1994 Olympics. She was technically better.
She had the skills to beat - or at least be on the podium
with - Nancy Kerrigan. She didn't have the elegance of
Nancy, or the propaganda of Oksana, but she was a better
athlete, and she had the triple axel.
If the evidence for Tonya being involved in the conspiracy is
shaky, then there is a much stronger case that Tonya was denied
her right to due process and a fair hearing by both the sports
authorities and the general public. Consider the following:
- Many journalists immediately suspected involvement by Tonya in
the clubbing within minutes of it happening. Christine Brennan
and Verne Lundquist have both confirmed this was the case on
the Fox "Breaking the Ice" special. Philip Hersh stated on the
same special that a senior USFSA official suggested something
to that effect to him at a function on the night of the attack.
This was long before any evidence of Gillooly's or Eckardt's
involvement emerged or was made public.
- There were accusations that Tonya had faked the death threat
against herself at the Pacific Northwest Regional championships
several weeks earlier. In fact, Tonya's coach of 18 years,
Diane Rawlinson, says that Tonya was genuinely terrified after
receiving the threat.
- Ron Hoevet, Gillooly's attorney, called for Harding to be
banned and booted off the Olympic team in a lengthy speech that
seemed to be more of an attack on Tonya than a defense of his
client. He also called for "due process". This is a strange
idea of due process, where the result is already made up. His
statements resulted in 29 complaints to the Oregon State Bar.
- While preparing for Lillehammer, Tonya found herself not only
under investigation by the FBI, but also the subject of two
disciplinary proceedings by the sports authorities. The USFSA
gave her 30 days to respond to the charges. In addition to the
USFSA action, The USOC planned to hold its own Hearing in
Norway on the 15th of February to discuss removing Tonya from
the team. Tonya's coach, Diane Rawlinson said in an affidavit,
"To require Ms. Harding to appear at hearings several hours
from the site of her training within 10 days" of her first
scheduled performance "will make final preparations for the
competition impossible." And yet people wonder why Tonya forgot
simple things like a spare shoelace?
- Sports Illustrated of January 24, 1994 reported "On Saturday
USOC President Dr. LeRoy Walker, cited the overwhelming
response against Harding, and then went on 'we have to make a
decision without the consideration of whether or not her rights
have been abridged'". In an article in the "Washington Post"
Dr. Walker indicated the USOC would consider removing Tonya
from the team regardless of whether or not she was charged in
the alleged plot, saying it was concerned with "potential
disruptive elements within the U.S. delegation at the Games".
- When Tonya took the only course open to her to protect her
rights, in the form of legal action, she was castigated for
"poor sportsmanship". A judge sided with Tonya and ordered the
USOC to negotiate.
- Despite a total lack of any evidence, some commentators implied
that Tonya had murdered one of her half-brothers whom she
claimed had molested her and who was killed in a hit and run
accident in 1989. In fact the relative in question was well
known as having an alcohol problem, and Portland Police have
denied any connection.
- Tonya's privacy was repeatedly invaded by members of the press.
Several reporters tried to hack her e-mail account at the
Games. ABC rented an apartment in the same building Tonya was
staying in order to spy on her. Her most intimate moments with
her husband were splashed all over tabloids despite being
totally irrelevant to her guilt or innocence.
Although it is unlikely that we will ever know the full truth
about what went on that week in late December 1993, the evidence
for Tonya's involvement in the conspiracy is feeble and the
reasoning supporting it largely illogical. It was feeble &
illogical then, and in the intervening twenty years nothing new
has emerged to bolster the case for Tonya's involvement beyond
what she has admitted to.
SUDDEN IMPACT
The aftermath in the years immediately following the affair was
an explosion of skating tours and TV shows that only fizzled out
in the late 90s because the skating community simply couldn't
churn out new skaters and new programs fast enough to keep up
with the insatiable demand for more & more skating.
While Tonya's career was "iced", skating itself boomed on the
coattails of the whole incident. USFSA membership expanded
rapidly, and numerous made-for-TV ice spectaculars such as "Ice
Wars" filled the screen. The USFSA had 127,538 members in 1996,
an almost 42 percent increase from 1990-91. And the largest
increase was in the 1993-94 season, the year of Tonya/Nancy, when
the Association's membership rocketed from 109,721 the previous
year to 125,101. The Ice Skating Institute saw its numbers
quadruple from 1992 to 1997. Hundreds of new rinks were built,
many in warm-weather cities - hardly the traditional centers of
skating popularity.
"It was a terrible, terrible thing to happen," skating coach
Frank Carroll told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution back in 2003.
"But it was sensational. It caused humongous headlines and great
interest."
In her 2011 book "Skating On Air" author Kelli Lawrence looked at
media coverage of figure skating over the years, and devotes an
entire chapter to the T/N incident. "One thing just about
everyone I interviewed agrees on - the Tonya Harding/Nancy
Kerrigan incident was a game-changer. Not just for the sport
itself, but the public interest in it and TV's reaction to that
interest."
A more long-term and insidious effect was that it also pretty
much established the tabloid journalism culture that we have
today with its obsession with celebrity & scandal. The fusion of
news and entertainment to become "infotainment" - a development
forecast in the film "Network" almost 20 years before - took a
major step forward with Skategate. Established journalists recall
a new paparazzi-type ruthlessness they had never seen before.
Thomas Boyd, now a photographer for "The Oregonian", but working
for "The Columbian" at the time, recalls covering Tonya's
departure from Portland to Norway at the airport:
"This was the absolute most intense media scrum I've ever been
involved with. The shooters, both still and television, from
New York and Los Angeles were quite a bit more aggressive than
we were accustomed to. We had to up our game just get a
glimpse of her. I remember fighting, pushing, elbowing and
climbing past other shooters to get close."
One of the most high-profile examples of this new media culture
was David Hans Schmidt, a bottom-feeder who orchestrated the
release of nude photos of Tonya, and later went on to build a
career peddling sex tapes of D-list celebrities. Schmidt was
later to become unstuck while attempting extort money from Tom
Cruise over photos of the actor's wedding.
Since the events of '94, Tonya has continued to be harassed and
given a raw deal by the media often beating up non-stories about
her. Her critics then use this as evidence that she is a
publicity seeker desperate for the spotlight. Positive aspects to
stories, like her work for charity, is always studiously ignored
because it doesn't fit their "bad girl Tonya" narrative. Here's
just a handful that you have probably missed:
April 1993 - raised money for Troutdale Elementary School,
Troutdale, OR.
April 1995 - recorded a charity record for victims of OK bomb
blast.
Sept 1995 - formed a pop group, "The Golden Blades" for a
one-off concert in Portland to raise money for Jerry's Kids.
Sept 2001 - appeared on "Weakest Link" for 9/11 victims.
Nov 2003 - participated in "Motor Madness" for an unnamed
charity, Charlotte NC.
March 2004 - $1000 raised in boxing match at Indy Ice,
Indianapolis IN.
Jan 2006 - raised money for The People's Clinic, Morehead KY.
Nov 2007 - provided a pair of autographed boxing gloves that
were auctioned off to raise money for boxing equipmemnt for
kids in Harrison, AR.
Jan 2009 - various charity activities in Douglas, GA. including
talking to at-risk young people. According to promoter Tim
Pafford it was one of the conditions she insisted upon for
the visit to Douglas.
THE REAL BAD GUYS
While continuing in trying to paint Tonya in a negative light,
the media has also missed the biggest villains in sport. These
are often not athletes, or even thugs like Gillooly and his
galoots, but corrupt or incompetent sports administrators who
take bribes, turn a blind eye to doping, or, in the case of
figure skating, run their sport into the ground and try to
sabotage reformers.
In 1992 investigative journalists Andrew Jennings & Vyv Simson
published a book, "The Lords of the Rings" (issued as "Dishonored
Games" in the U.S.), exposing corruption & commercialization in
the International Olympic Committee. It was a companion volume to
a BBC documentary of the same name. The world yawned & hit the
snooze button. They didn't want the facts about the dirty
underbelly of sport ruining their nice, clean Olympic Games.
They were forced to take notice six years later when the Salt
Lake City bidding scandal erupted, revealing that hookers and
bribes had been used to secure the Games. The IOC went through a
token cleanup job, chucking out a bunch of expendable black guys
from third world countries that nobody would miss. Long serving
leader Juan Antonio Samaranch, revealed by Simson & Jennings as a
former stooge of Spanish Fascist dictator General Franco, was
replaced by Belgian doctor Jacques Rogge who made the right
noises.
A 2004 BBC "Panorama" documentary claimed that 70% of those who
took bribes over Salt Lake were still in the IOC at that stage,
suggesting the purges had had only a superficial effect. Our
table suggests that there is still a way to go in cleaning up the
IOC:
http://pdxiss.org/ioc.htm
Jennings has since published other books on corruption in FIFA,
the body that controls world soccer. But by and large the work of
people like him have been confined to the shadows, and ignored by
the mainstream media who prefer to pick on people like Tonya.
Salt Lake proved a watershed in another way: it exposed what
skating fans have always suspected - that the outcomes of major
competitions are often rigged. The scandal, dubbed "Skategate II"
by the media, occurred when Canadian Pairs skaters Jamie Salé &
David Pelletier were demoted to silver despite turning in a
performance that most commentators thought was far better than
those of the Russian winners. French judge Marie-Reigne LeGougne
later confessed to having done deals with the Russians to knife
the Canucks in the back in Pairs in return for a favorable deal
for French skaters from the Russian judges in the Dance. Three
years later a suspected Russian participant in the rigging,
Chevalier Nusuyev, was "whacked" in what was believed to be a hit
by the Russian Mob.
http://www.pdxiss.org/port47.htm
Under enormous pressure from the IOC, International Skating Union
head Ottavio "Speedy" Cinquanta responded by belatedly awarding
two sets of gold medals, turning the competition into a farce,
and by later redesigning the scoring system in a way that the
average fan can't understand anymore and that makes corruption
easier to hide. This did more to alienate fans and caused TV
ratings to plunge even further.
As it turned out, this was not the first time corruption had been
mooted in skating: Canadian judge Jean Senft had complained of
vote rigging in the 1998 Nagano Olympics but was told by Skate
Canada head David Dore to zip her lip & stop rocking the boat.
When she went to the media, she was suspended because of
"national bias" and given no support from Skate Canada. Yuri
Balkov, a Ukranian judge Senft fingered as one of the ringleaders
was given a token suspension and was back to judge the 2002
Olympic Dance competition! A Russian & Ukranian judge were also
caught on camera exchanging signals at the 1999 Worlds and were
given slap-on-the-wrist suspensions.
A possible solution to this nightmare emerged in early 2003 with
the formation of the World Skating Federation as a figure-skating
only alternative to Speedy's ISU. Backed by many big names in the
skating world, the WSF would have ensured that figure skating
would finally be in control of its own destiny, retaining the 6.0
scoring system and adopting a zero-tolerance attitude to
corruption. The response from skating federations such as the
USFSA and Skate Canada was to do everything they could to
undermine and destroy this new organization, depite the fact that
the WSF was an alternative to the ISU, not the national
federations themselves. The USFSA engaged in a witch hunt against
WSF supporters such as Ted Clarke, Ron Pfenning & Jon Jackson,
wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars (that could have been
better spent on skaters) on spurious legal actions against them
that were later overturned by higher authorities. Unfortunately,
despite being exonerated, it came too late for the WSF which
folded a couple of years later without producing a single skating
contest, probably due to the ISU & USFSA pulling strings behind
the scenes to kneecap them:
http://www.pdxiss.org/port54.htm
http://www.pdxiss.org/port62.htm
The Inquisitor In Chief behind these actions was USFSA official
Morry Stillwell, a well known Tonyaphobe who circulated an e-mail
in 1993 alleging without any evidence that Tonya had faked a
death threat against herself to avoid competing in the 1993
regionals in Portland.
The result of all this nonsense is that skating viewership has
plummetted and skating is now rarely seen on TV outside of the
Olympics anymore, except on oddball cable channels or
subscription-only on-line services. It's a dramatic turnaround
from the heady days of the late 90's when competitions like "Ice
Wars" and "Too Hot To Skate" filled the primetime airwaves.
This destruction of a sport that was once top of the ratings has
received little coverage outside of a few books by skating
insiders published by niche-market publishing companies. Like the
work of Andrew Jennings, it's been ignored by the major media in
favor of cheap tabloid sensationalism.
LEGACY
While other scandals from that era - Amy Fisher, Monica Lewinsky,
O.J. Simpson, that woman who tried to hire a hit man to "whack" a
cheerleader's mother - have largely faded into the furthest
recesses of the public memory, 20 years on, the Tonya/Nancy
scandal continues to fascinate the world. Even in recent years
there's been an opera, a rock opera, musicals, a weird play from
France (a country that doesn't seem to have any obvious
connection to the scandal at all), a couple of upcoming
documentaries on major TV networks and continued mentions in pop
culture. U.S. Presidential candidates make references to it in
speeches. Journalism students write dissertations on its impact
on the media, feminist studies students on the class & gender
role issues involved. And you can guarantee that "Tonya's" and
"Nancy's" are regulars at Halloween parties across the USA come
each October 31st.
In order to understand why Tonya/Nancy survives today it is
necessary to understand just how enormous a phenomenon this thing
was at the time. Let's make no mistake: this thing was big. It
was as big as "Star Wars", at least during its brief two month
lifespan. People who didn't know a triple axel from a truck axel
were suddenly obsessed with women's figure skating. Big burly men
would end up in fights in pubs in disagreements over which side
they took. Hundreds of reporters would be camped outside the
houses of Tonya, Nancy, the skating rinks where they trained and
eventually in Lillehammer in an attempt to catch even the vaguest
hint of a "scoop". Anybody who had even the slightest connection
to anyone involved was tracked down and interviewed in a
desperate attempt to come up with some kind of new "angle" on the
story. And if they couldn't do that, they'd start covering the
coverage itself in an orgy of self-righteous and hypocritical
tut-tutting about how much time was being wasted reporting on a
"soap opera" instead of "real" news.
Like Nancy, we must also ask "Why?". What gives it such staying
power? Because it's got sex, violence, glamor, revenge, greed,
mystery, comedy & tragedy. Not to mention that "so strange it's
got to be true" factor that sends the Weirdometer right up to
"11". It's perfect, timeless, dramatic fodder. Shakespeare would
have killed for raw material like this. Because of these
qualities it's the "omniscandal", the "mother of all scandals",
the "one scandal to rule them all", the gold standard of
scandals, the perfect 6.0 of scandals. And for that reason it is
our prediction that people will still be discussing it when the
100th anniversary in 2094 rolls around.
Perhaps, however, we should leave the last word to Sarah
Marshall, an MFA student who teaches at Portland State University
and who has recently written one of the best pieces of pro-Tonya
writing we have come across in recent years. In this article for
"Believer" magazine, Marshall sytematically deconstructs many of
the myths that have built up around the affair:
http://www.believermag.com/issues/201401/?read=article_marshall
TWENTY YEARS ON: THE PROTAGONISTS - WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
THE SKATERS:
Tonya Harding - now married, Tonya lives in a rural area of
central Oregon. She is currently focusing on raising her child
who turns three in February. In recent interviews she revealed
that she is yet to take him skating.
Nancy Kerrigan - married her agent, Jerry Solomon, shortly after
the incident, and they are still together today raising a family.
Was in the news in 2010 again after her father died following an
altercation with her brother Mark.
Oksana Baiul - enjoyed a successful skating career. Was arrested
for drunk driving in 1997.
THE CONSPIRATORS:
"Stone Cold" Jeff Gillooly - now using the name "Jeff Stone",
Gillooly was recently interviewed by a reporter for "Deadspin".
He is married, with two kids, and lives in Clackamas, OR. only a
few kilometers from the mall where Tonya trained. He now sells
used cars for a living.
Shawn "Fat Man" Eckardt - was tracked down by a Willamette Week
reporter in 2004, living in a run-down area of Portland under
name "Brian Sean Griffith", running an IT company. Deceased Dec
2007.
Derrick "The Driver" Smith - now lives in Montana.
Shane "Hit Man" Stant - ironically, the man who actually wielded
the club seems to be one of the few people who comes out of the
affair with anything positive. In a new Bleacher Report article
he reveals that in recent years he has found religion and turned
his life around. At one stage he made an unsuccessful attempt to
join the Navy SEALS.
TEAM TONYA:
Michael Rosenberg - living in a retirement community in
California after enjoying a successful career as a talent agent
for skaters.
Elaine Stamm - lives in a retirement village in Arizona.
Diane Rawlinson & Dody Teachman (Tonya's coaches)- both are still
involved with figure skating.
Al Harding - Tonya's father died in April 2009.
THE LAW
Norm Frink (the D.A.), Ron Hoevet (Gillooly's attorney), Bob
Weaver (one of Tonya's lawyers), and various other lawyers
involved in the case held a reunion in the Dockside Saloon
recently in which they relived old times.
THE SUPPORTING CAST
David Hans Schmidt - committed suicide in Phoenix AZ. in 2007
after unsuccessfully trying to blackmail Tom Cruise over some
illegally obtained photos.
Morry Stillwell - USFSA President 1995-98. Now lives in
California.
Kathy Peterson - still owns the Dockside Saloon in Portland where
the "Tunee Can" note was found in a dumpster. They mention it on
their web site (http://docksidesaloon.com/aboutus.htm).
*****************************************************************
VISIT THESE GREAT TONYA WEB SITES:
PortIce - http://www.pdxiss.org
David House - http://www.tonyaharding.org
Charlie Main - http://www.charliesweb.com/tonya/tonya.html
Puppetboy - http://www.usapaul.net/tonya/
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
*****************************************************************
Back to Portlandian index
Back to PortIce Home Page