The controversial American Figure Skater Tonya Harding has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Find out about her net worth, TV Show and other facts.
Who is Tonya Harding?
Tonya Harding is an American figure skating champion. She is a two-time Olympian and a two-time Skate America Champion. Harding won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and was placed second at the World Championships in 1991. Harding is also the first American woman to successfully complete a triple axel jump in competition. Tonya Harding started her skating career in the 80s and by 1986, was placed sixth at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She was placed fifth for two years after that and in 1989, she was placed third. She did her first triple axel at the U.S. Championships in 1991 and won the title. That same year in the fall 1991 Skate America Champion, Harding became the first woman to complete a triple axel in the short program, successfully execute two triple axels in a single competition and also complete a triple axel combination with a double toe loop. Tonya Harding became the member of the American ice skating team for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway. She stood in the eight place there. Harding won the event during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit because her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by an assailant during the practice session, who only bruised her leg. This caused her to withdraw from the event paving the way for Harding’s win. The attack became the hottest news of that time and eventually, Harding pleaded guilty of conspiring with an attacker. This led her to three years’ probation, 500 hours in community service and a $160k fine. Harding was even stripped of her 1994 U.S. Championships title and was banned from USFSA events. By the end of the 90s, Harding thought of career prospects in music and acting. In the early 2000, Harding got into boxing. She appeared on the Fox TV network event, ‘Celebrity Boxing’. The TV Show required her to do boxing with Paula Jones in which she won. Later on, many controversies followed with her boxing career. She went on to boxing professionally but gave up after a few years citing asthma reasons. In 2003, she appeared in a movie, ‘The Prize Fighter’. ‘The Prize Fighter’ was about a man who gets to fulfill his long cherished dream at the World Boxing Championship. Again in 2010, she toyed with a racing career. A film adaptation of her life, ‘I, Tonya’ was released in 2017. Actress Margot Robbie played the role of Harding in the movie, ‘I, Tonya’. Filmed in Georgia, the film retold all the events of the 1994 attack against Kerrigan and its aftermath of ending Harding’s skating career.
Net worth
Tonya Harding’s net worth is estimated to be around $30,000. She has tried various career options after been banned from her professional skating career right from music to boxing.
Tonya Harding TV Show
Tonya Harding became the commentator for the TV Show, The Smoking Guns Present, ‘World’s Dumbest Performer’ in March, 2008. ‘World’s Dumbest Performer’ was aired on truTV. The show was aired for 16 seasons with a total number of 197 episodes.
Interesting facts about Tonya Harding
There are some interesting facts about Tonya Harding which you might want to know: * Tonya Harding was born in 1970 in Portland, Oregon. She is the daughter of LaVona Fay Golden and her fifth husband, Al Harding. * Harding often said that her father had health issues which left him unable to work. Harding also said that her mother physically abused her. This was proved true when her mom accepted herself in The Oprah Winfrey Show. * She began skating at the age of three and her mother made many of her skating costumes. * She studied from the David Douglas High School in Portland during her sophomore year and later got her GED as she was busy with skating competitions. * She wrote her autobiography, ‘The Tonya Tapes’ in 2008. * Harding had an explicit ‘Wedding Video’ which showed her having sex with her then-husband, Jeff Gillooly. They sold it together to Penthouse for a handsome amount. * Harding appeared on an AAA Professional wrestling show in 1994, as the manager for the Wrestling stable Los Gringos Locos. * Harding and her band, ‘The Golden Blades’, tried to do some one-off promotional event in 1995, but they were booed off the stage in their only performance. * She even once acted a small part in a 1996 crime movie ‘Breakway’. In ‘Breakway’ she played the role of the girlfriend of the criminal. * Tonya Harding won her third pro bout against Alejandra Lopez at the Creek Nations Gaming Center. * In 2004, Harding had to cancel a planned boxing match against Tracy Carlton because of an alleged death threat against her. * In 2004, after having not boxed for a year, Harding was easily beaten in a match in Alberta by boxer Amy Johnson. * In 2009, Tonya Harding set a new land speed record for a vintage gas coupe with a speed of 97.177 mph driving on the Bonneville Salt Flats. * She had a brother called Karl. * She married her boyfriend, Jeff Gillooly in 1990 at the young age of 19. Their rocky marriage ended in a divorce in 1994. * She divorced her second husband, Michael Smith in 1995 and married 42-year-old Joseph Jens Price in 2010. * She got pregnant with her first child, a son in 2011. * In a recent interview with Piers Morgan and Tonya, things got heated rather quickly. Tonya cut the interview short after Piers Morgan said that she was not the victim in the 1994 attack and it was Kerrigan whose Olympic career was shattered.
Tonya Harding has had a life of hardships and controversies. She did not get the due credit for her skating talent.
