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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
She did stay at those heights. Two time Olympian!

And wtf your post is ridiculous. It shouldn't matter at all what Tonya was like, it shouldn't ever be about giving someone their due, it should be about how well you skated that day. By your own posts she was a decorated skater who had had a good career. You're contradicting yourself left and right.

What breaks food she receive? And not things that other usfsa does for all skaters at that level like travel expenses.

I retract my use of the word wealthy to describe Kerrigan's family, it doesn't get to what I was getting at. [/quote]

She bombed at her second Olympics and she only went there because she sued USFSA.

What's ridiculous? When Tonya skated well, she was rewarded.  She was a decorated skater.  That disposes of any myth that the "skating powers were against her." They weren't. She screwed up her own career, all by herself. She had a good career despite her many failings, and if she worked hard and actually listened to her coaches and other advisors, she could have done a lot better.

You don't understand skating if you say it doesn't matter what Tonya was like.  Skating officials make judgment calls all the time based on how they think a skater will perform. Why do you think there is a drama every year about who goes to the Olympics? Because only a national champion is guaranteed an Olympic berth. Everyone else goes there at the discretion of the committee who make their decision based on the entire body of work of a particular skater, not their performance during Nationals.  That's why Wagner went to the last Olympics despite placing 4th (because she performed well up to that point) and that's why she's tantruming that she isn't going this year (because she didn't perform well up to that point).

As to the rich and varied ways in which Tonya was an asshole, always having an excuse for her failures:

- 1990.  USFSA hosts an elite training camp where top coaches teach skaters how to stroke with style and move more gracefully, something that Tonya was in dire need of.  Yamaguchi, Bobek and Ervin work their bums off. Tonya stands in the corner with her arms crossed, don't want no stinking grace, I'm great as I am already.

- 1991.  Wins the Nationals but takes it eaaaaaasy after the win. Stops practicing.  Goes to the Worlds untrained and fat, and Yamaguchi takes the title easily.

- 1992.  The Albertville Olympics.  France.  Tonya, says USFSA, go to France when everyone else goes. Acclimate.  Get over jet lag so you are in top form when you skate. I never get jet lagged, Tonya says.  Stays home and practices at a rink in a shopping mall.  Flies to France just three days before the competition.  Bombs the short program and finishes out of medals. Sorry, I'm jet-lagged, says Tonya to reporters in the mixed zone.  Lies about smoking, too.

- 1993.  A strap on her dress pops off at the Nationals, and she receives permission for a do-over.  That happens to everyone occasionally but it happens to Tonya a LOT.  A LOT.  Later, a USFSA official said he thought Harding unsnapped the dress after missing her first jump.  That same year, there is a famous skate-on-the-judging table dealio at Skate America. (And the same thing will happen four months later in Norway).

- Also at that competition, Tonya tells reporters she has an ovarian cyst.  Can explode at any moment. She is skating at a terrible risk to herself, forget about results. Earlier that fall, USFSA holds a special training camp in Norway for the Olympic hopefuls.  Tonya was invited but never showed up, informing her coach she won't make it as the coach was on the way to the freaking airport.  It's the cyst, she says. Exploding soon.  Yet a week later Tonya is well enough to skate in a show and go to Skate America. Had she canceled ahead of time, another skater would have a chance to go. Her fan club had raised a thousand dollars for her Norway trip.  Harding never returned the money.

- Her behavior in the wake of the attack was despicable.  Tells ABC she wished Kerrigan good luck coming back next season - strange comment, seeing as everyone knew she would be back in a couple of weeks.  The sad thing was that the entire attack was unnecessary.  The US had two Olympic berths.  If Harding skated well, one of them would go to her, unquestionably.  She had every reason to expect that, and if she trained well, it was completely within her reach.  Her lawyer admitted she lied to the FBI, so the responsible thing would have been for her to withdraw from the team.  Yet not only did she not do it, she filed a $25 million lawsuit against USOC to prevent it from kicking her off the team (as she knew they would want to).

But yeah, sure, you want to believe she had "no one in her corner", please go ahead.  You convinced me. Tonya is a victim. Poor, poor, Tonya.

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