I think this was called the Price of Glory but I may be wrong. It was on last night.
Pretty good documentary on all of that Harding-Kerrigan shit. I was like 17-18 and could have cared less when it happened so didn't know specific details.
Also since then I have trained some figure skaters so know more about the sport in general.
What I came away with:
- Tonya Harding does not accept any responsibility for the Kerrigan attack. The filmmakers and virtually every talking head in the movie seem to 100% put blame on her. I saw nothing that indicated she had anything at all to do with it (other than proximity to the morons who did it). She could be lying but I felt with everything they showed it looks like she was railroaded by the USA skating world and the tabloid media.
- The people interviewed from the skating world have clear and strange biases against Harding. Like always. Since she was 15 or something. Some of these 40 year old dudes really, really hate Harding with no actual basis.
- Tonya was poor which is insanely rare in American figure skating from what I know of it. The ice skating fed or USA Skating or whoever seemed to openly dislike that. They also did not care for her looks. Kerrigan was the show pony and ONE TRUE WAY.
- From what I could see Harding was the significantly more athletic and impressive skater. She looked worlds above Kerrigan to me.
- Not impressed by Kerrigan's toughness. Maybe there is more to that story if her career was discussed but she sat out the Olympic Trials because of a bone bruise (due to the attack...that was the worst injury). Fucking come on. Painkillers existed in 1994. Her whole life lead to that and she sat it out with zero bone, ligament or tendon damage. She was gifted onto the Olympic team later without competing.
- If you don't already know that ice skating is a fucked up sport then I can't see how you wouldn't come away from this movie with that impression. Even if you think Harding planned the job. If Harding did not do it then her life got mega-fucked forever which is her view.
- I would like to start a theory that USA Figure Skating paid Jeff Gilooly (sic?) and his thugs to slightly injure Kerrigan so they could ban Harding for life for Heathers/Mean Girls-like reasons. Spread the word.
T200 wrote:
- If you don't already know that ice skating is a fucked up sport then I can't see how you wouldn't come away from this movie with that impression.
I used to work with a guy who came up through the ranks of Canadian figure skating at the same time as superstars like Browning, Slipchuk and Stojko.
Unlike them, he's the one who got to the nationals level, but no further. He was good, but not good enough.
Since then, from what I've seen, he's led a life of quiet desperation, never quite finding his place in the world. I still bump into him now and again and he just doesn't seem happy.
T200 wrote:- Tonya Harding does not accept any responsibility for the Kerrigan attack. The filmmakers and virtually every talking head in the movie seem to 100% put blame on her. I saw nothing that indicated she had anything at all to do with it (other than proximity to the morons who did it). She could be lying but I felt with everything they showed it looks like she was railroaded by the USA skating world and the tabloid media.
If she was behind it, she would have used her preferred weapon:
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
- The people interviewed from the skating world have clear and strange biases against Harding. Like always. Since she was 15 or something. Some of these 40 year old dudes really, really hate Harding with no actual basis.
She was born in 1970, she competed in the 1994 Olympics. By then she had already been married and divorced from Jeff Gillooly.
- Tonya was poor which is insanely rare in American figure skating from what I know of it. The ice skating fed or USA Skating or whoever seemed to openly dislike that. They also did not care for her looks. Kerrigan was the show pony and ONE TRUE WAY.
- From what I could see Harding was the significantly more athletic and impressive skater. She looked worlds above Kerrigan to me.
More athletic but considerably less graceful (Kerrigan was the show pony, but that's part of what they want and desire)
- If you don't already know that ice skating is a fucked up sport then I can't see how you wouldn't come away from this movie with that impression. Even if you think Harding planned the job. If Harding did not do it then her life got mega-fucked forever which is her view.
Yes it is, very subjective. Wasn't there some big scandal with figure skating judges after that, in 1998 or 2002?
- The people interviewed from the skating world have clear and strange biases against Harding. Like always. Since she was 15 or something. Some of these 40 year old dudes really, really hate Harding with no actual basis.
She was born in 1970, she competed in the 1994 Olympics. By then she had already been married and divorced from Jeff Gillooly.
I am not really understanding what you said has to do with what you quoted.
I don't know when she got divorced but she was (at least according to this show) still very much married/living with Gilooly when he organized the attack on Kerrigan at the Olympic Trials.
I don't know anything else about figure skating judge scandals.
Sorry, I read it as implying she was 15 when it all went down, I was just making the point she was not an innocent 15 year old when the Kerrigan thing happened. After re-reading, I can see a different take.
I only bring up the judges controversy (it was 2002) as further evidence the sport is fucked up, and their star show ponies are picked out ahead of time.
WildGorillaMan wrote:Ten posts and no one's even alluded to Harding's leaked sex tape, back when leaked sex tapes weren't commonplace? This place is slipping.
Sorry, I googled that after the initial post and went down a rabbit hole of goodness that I am just now escaping from.
WildGorillaMan wrote:Enthusiasm combined with no skill whatsoever can sometimes carry the day.