Tonya Harding should become commentator. | Golden Skate

Tonya Harding should become commentator.

BackStage Barbie

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 22, 2010
This would be a great way for IceNetwork to sell subscriptions and drum up interest for the sport in an Olympic year. After all, figure skating would be deader than it already is without the spike in popularity in the 90s that resulted from Tonya and Nancy. Tonya was a great skater and a hot mess....everything we hold near and dear. Fans would flock to this sport if Tonya Harding were to come back into the limelight.

Obviously USFS is much to prudish to ever approve this, but it's fun to think about anyway.
 

Icey

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 28, 2012
I wonder if Harding follows skating these days. What a sad waste of raw talent.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
This would be a great way for IceNetwork to sell subscriptions and drum up interest for the sport in an Olympic year. After all, figure skating would be deader than it already is without the spike in popularity in the 90s that resulted from Tonya and Nancy. Tonya was a great skater and a hot mess....everything we hold near and dear. Fans would flock to this sport if Tonya Harding were to come back into the limelight.

Obviously USFS is much to prudish to ever approve this, but it's fun to think about anyway.

LOL, especially if they let her say exactly--and I mean exactly--what was on her mind. LOL!
 

TonyaHardlyEver

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 6, 2013
I wonder if Harding follows skating these days. What a sad waste of raw talent.

Yes Tonya still follows figure skating. She's a fan of the athletic Japanese skater like Asada. Since the rise of Gracie Gold who's P.R. people have been plugging her as the "Next Tonya Harding" she has gotten mentioned. I think it is a shame that Tonya's legacy is reduced to a joke.
 

ks777

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
I watch Tonya on TruTV's worlds dumbest.. a lot but she never been funny nor entertaining. I really enjoy Nancy Kerrigan's commentary.
 

KKonas

Medalist
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Yes Tonya still follows figure skating. She's a fan of the athletic Japanese skater like Asada. Since the rise of Gracie Gold who's P.R. people have been plugging her as the "Next Tonya Harding" she has gotten mentioned. I think it is a shame that Tonya's legacy is reduced to a joke.

And what exactly is Harding's legacy to be praised? She had plenty of talent, but was lazy, wouldn't listen to her coaches, and was not too bright and carried a chip on her shoulder throughout her career. I covered her career for years and was in Detroit in the Press Room during the infamous knee clubbing incident.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
And what exactly is Harding's legacy to be praised? She had plenty of talent, but was lazy, wouldn't listen to her coaches, and was not too bright and carried a chip on her shoulder throughout her career. I covered her career for years and was in Detroit in the Press Room during the infamous knee clubbing incident.

I'd never feel comfortable watching her commentate on any skating. I'm sorry, but the skating world has no place for her. As KKonas points out, it wasn't just what happened to Nancy. Tonya was not a dedicated skater by any means. If we want an American commentator with a triple axel, we should see to it that Kimmie Meissner receives training as a broadcaster.
 

TonyaHardlyEver

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 6, 2013
I'd never feel comfortable watching her commentate on any skating. I'm sorry, but the skating world has no place for her. As KKonas points out, it wasn't just what happened to Nancy. Tonya was not a dedicated skater by any means. If we want an American commentator with a triple axel, we should see to it that Kimmie Meissner receives training as a broadcaster.
It wasn't that she had a triple axel it was the fact that she was the second woman to complete one. Kimmie's triple axel was a joke. We still haven't had an American woman land one properly since Harding. NOTHING will take that away from her. She didn't need to off the competition to win a silver medal at Worlds in 1991. Considering the odds stacked against her. Let's not try to strip her of her raw talent just because she made a huge mistake and was lax in her training at times.
 

noskates

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
And what exactly is Harding's legacy to be praised? She had plenty of talent, but was lazy, wouldn't listen to her coaches, and was not too bright and carried a chip on her shoulder throughout her career. I covered her career for years and was in Detroit in the Press Room during the infamous knee clubbing incident.

I have to agree. I never enjoyed watching Tonya skate because I was always waiting for a costume mishap or a broken shoe lace or some other kind of drama. She may have had mad talent but I never saw grace or smoothness in her skating - just big jumps! It is such a shame that someone with any talent falls along the side because of poor personal choices and maybe even poor guidance. I thought BackyardBarbie was kidding when she posted that idea.
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
Actually, I'd love to hear Alexei Mishin commentate. He's done so in a few shows and he's been quite insightful, and always respectful. (He once called Alexander Abt "a shining star born too early, or too late...").

...maybe not at US Nationals though. :laugh:

Although the level of :popcorn: would be hilarious.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Me for Tamara Moskvina! Do any of you remember the segments she had in the after show for the 2006 Olympics :love:
 

DianaSelene

Medalist
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Actually, I'd love to hear Alexei Mishin commentate. He's done so in a few shows and he's been quite insightful, and always respectful. (He once called Alexander Abt "a shining star born too early, or too late...").

...maybe not at US Nationals though. :laugh:

Although the level of :popcorn: would be hilarious.

Actually, I believe Mishin commentated on one of the Russian channels the 2010 Vancouver ice dance programs. Can't remember for sure, it was either the compulsory or original dance.
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
Actually, I believe Mishin commentated on one of the Russian channels the 2010 Vancouver ice dance programs. Can't remember for sure, it was either the compulsory or original dance.

Was he any good?
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I'd never feel comfortable watching her commentate on any skating. I'm sorry, but the skating world has no place for her. As KKonas points out, it wasn't just what happened to Nancy.

But then again, yeah, it was.

Even if you are Janet Lynn, Dorothy Hamill, and Michelle Kwan rolled into one, complicity in a criminal plot to assault and disable a fellow competitor -- you have to draw a line, no matter how many years pass.
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
You're right, Math, and I stand corrected. Whenever this subject comes up, I am reminded that an inch in the other direction would not have ended quite so uneventfully for Nancy. It makes my blood run cold when I think of what that little crew was willing to do to get Tonya into the Olympics. And really, all Tonya had to do was to practice and skate up to her potential, and she'd have been an asset to any team of any country in the known universe.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Strange, I was watching something on ESPN about a basketball player with tough breaks. Sam? who played for Portland, Oregon team. Showed crowd and swear I saw the young Tonya. She loved sports like most skaters. Funny her name came up.

I have much compassion and believe in second chances but the ban for life was correct. It is sad she did not have the support/family/money to allow here to believe in herself without the whack. Nancy, bless her still skates. She never got her gold nor her due, methinks. Same Oly medals as Kwan. And a beuaty to boot,as was/is Kwan.
 

Pepe Nero

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 11, 2011
I freakin' love this idea! Tonya and Johnny Weir would make great team. Holy cow, the thought of it. Would be much better than Tonia Kwiatkowski and Mike Mancuso. (TK's not bad, actually; I quite like the technical precision of her commentary. But Mancuso is a sad blight on IN coverage.)

A bit random, but do any of you have Universal Sports? Have you heard the person they had doing "commentary" on their 4CC and Euros coverage? I think she also records airport PA messages.
 
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