Figure Skating Champions, Sonja Henie, - Tanya Harding Scandal

 

Sonja Henie

The girl who brought ice skating into the main stream, was World Figure Skating Champion, Sonja Henie...
She was born on October 12,1912 in Norway, and became a three time Olympic Champion. First in 1928, again in 1932, and finally in 1936. A Ten time world champion in Ladies skating from 1927-36, and a six time European Champion 1931-36. She began to gain world recognition when she finished 8th in the 1924 Winter Olympics and by 1936 she was a full fledged star. To this day Sonja Henie as won more Olympic, and World titles than any other figure skater, but Henie did not stop there, she went on to become one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood.







By the mid 30s Henie was receiving fierce competition by younger skaters, and although she held onto her title, she wanted to cash in on her Championship status, and give up competing. Sonja signed a contract at Twentieth Century Fox and made a string of films that featured elaborate skating numbers, much like Ester Williams did with her championship swimming status a decade later.
Henie was also quite notorious. She had a sweet smile and an innocent face, but had three rocky marriages, and numerous affairs. Sonja Henie was known for her love of money and men. She did all she could to be wise with her money and make it work for her throughout her life.
She was diagnosed with Leukemia in the late 60s and passed away suddenly in 1969 at age 57.








 



Dorothy Hamill was U.S, Champion from 1974-1976 at the World Championships in Munich, Germany, and won a silver medal at the World Championships on 1975 at Colorado Springs. She gained national attention in 1976, when she won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. Hamill was not only a great skater, but her hair was fabulous and cut so well that it became her trademark. Fashion in the 70s was a decade where long and stringy evolved into Farrah wings, and Dorothy Hamill added a refreshing alternative to the longs styles that had become so standard. It had a wedge shape that moved with her on the ice, fanning out while she spun around, revealing its perfect shape. All the while, the hairstyle kept snapping back into place.
Women all over the world began copying her trademark hairstyle, that evolved slightly a few years later into the Lady Di haircut, when Princess Diana became engaged to Prince Charles.

Hamill became a spokeswoman for "the short and sassy look."

Tonya Harding

She was worked hard on the competitive skating ladder as a child and finished 6th at the 1986 Figure Skating Championship, and skated again in years 87, 88, and 89, each time finishing better. Tonya was considered a strong contender at the 1990 Figure Skating Championship after having won Skate America in 1989. She was also noted for landing the first ever triple axel at the U. s. Championship, an event in which she won the title with the event's very first 6.0 card ever. Harding was riding high with a number of wins, and tremendous experience skating and competing under pressure.
Harding is one of the best remembered champion ice skaters, although its not really because of her skating style, or her cute personality, but because she is connected to the only violent, soap opera style attack, that has ever taken place between Champion ice skaters. Harding had been a troubled child, dropping out of high school, marrying at 19, and divorcing at 22, and now was heading for the biggest trouble of her life.



In 1994, Harding's reputation changed forever when her competitor Nancy Kerrigan was walking off the ice after practice. She was suddenly struck in the knee by an unknown assailant wearing black and swinging a police billy club. It was not long before the unknown man was traced as Tanya Harding's ex husband, and the event caused a barrage of media frenzy in which Harding was portrayed as a demon with an ugly past, while Kerrigan was now the innocent damsel. The 1994 Olympics were watched with an intensity that went beyond who was the best skater. The American public was pulling for Kerrigan, and wanted Tonya out of there. It was as though the other skaters did not even exist.
Neither one of them won, but Harding's performance, as it turned out, was more stressed than Kerrigan's. She began her performance only to break down crying after slipping around the ice a few times. The judges let her leave the ice and fix her skates and make another attempt. She appeared again, but was clearly shaken by the publicity and pressure. She left the famous triple axel out of her routine and finished clean, but uneventful.

Nancy Kerrigan

Kerrigan rose to the national level after placing 3rd in the 1991 Figure Skating Championship. She received a bronze medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics and the following season she won the short program at the World Championship. She was receiving recognition and sponsors contracts from Reebok, and Evian to name a few.
Nancy began preparing for the 1994 Olympic season, and was working with a sports psychologist to get a grip on her nerves for competition.
Kerrigan's reputation as a skater more than doubled when she was captured on camera immediately after being attacked by a man who clubbed her knee and ran away. Kerrigan was crying and screaming "why, why, why", and the video was played repeatedly by all the news stations while the photo of Kerrigan crying in pain made the front cover of everything. When the it was discovered that her rival, Tonya Harding, was responsible, Nancy Kerrigan became the focus of the Olympics. Harding later pled guilty to the crime, but was allowed to skate in the Olympics. She may as well have been skating against Kerrigan wearing a black dress and carrying a broom, as the crowd was pulling for Kerrigan's win. Remarkably, just seven weeks after the attack, Kerrigan skated the best performance she had ever delivered in her life, while her foe Harding stumbled through hers.

 Kerrigan took the silver medal and Oksana Baiul walked away with the gold. Instead of everybody's sweetheart walking away with the silver to everyone's pleasure, Kerrigan received some bad publicity for the first time in her life. It seemed that while Karrigan waited over twenty minutes for Olympic officials to find a copy of the Ukranian anthem, Kerrigan was told by another skater that the delay in the presentation was because Baiul was putting on makeup. Kerrigan, showed an un-sportsman attitude by saying "oh, What's the difference, she is just going to come out here and cry anyway!" The comment was aired, and the public attitude toward Nancy Kerrigan was tarnished. Since that comment, she has been caught making similar remarks, and soon became widely viewed as angry and temperamental.