Does Skating owe a big thanks to Tonya?

[blue dog]

While responding (not very well) to the Mark Lund thread, I came to a question--

"Does skating owe a big thanks to Tonya?"

Yes, while many (including me) would argue that had Tonya skated the way she did at the Nationals, she would've been on the Olympic team, many (again, including me) think that the scandal was actually good for skating. Many people found Nancy Kerrigan boring to begin with, and when she was attacked, a lot of people who weren't normally her fans were all of a sudden her fans. Of course, skating boomed--Nancy was in every show, every pro competition--and she looked like a hero, beating Oksana, and at every pro appearance, they would go back to Lillehammer to remember what happened (CBS aired a special one year after Lillehammer, interviewing the athletes in figure skating how life has changed for them since then; no other Olympics before or since ever had a "one year later" show).

Consequently, Mark knew when to strike. Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, even the Enquirer couldn't get enough of Tonya vs. Nancy (I still have my copies hehehe). Mark's magazine was probably not selling as well before the scandal...but when the scandal hit, people became curious about the sport of skating. Not just skaters, but journalists' careers were built on this scandal (Christine Brennan calls her condo the house that Tonya built).

In a way, I felt kind of bad for Tonya--everyone else got something out of this skating windfall, except for her--she was banned. While Marie-Reine LeGougne will eventually be allowed to judge...she can't even be invited to pro competitions (her lone pro appearance had her finishing second to Surya, who idolized Tonya).

So, does skating owe Tonya some sort of thanks for the "whack heard 'round the world?"

 

[Ladskater]

No, not really - though this unfortunate incident involving Tonya and Nancy did attract some attention to figure skating - most of it was negative. It started making figure skating look like pro-wrestling. Figure skating has always been a very dignified sport and Tonya and company made it look like a three ring circus. Glad when this thing died.

 

[IDLERACER]

She was the tabloid's favorite cover girl from January of '94 until June of '94, when O.J. Simpson knocked her off the front page. If her life since the first half of '94 is any indication, it looks to me like she's been spending the last 12½ years desperately trying to get back on the front page...of anything! :disapp:​

 

[Fossi]

I think Michelle Kwan owes a big thanks to Tonya. Tonya was the villian and a young, innocent Michelle Kwan saved the day, and American figure skating fans fell in love with her.

 

[Jaana]

Although it is true that "skating" reached many people because of the unfortunate Harding incident, etc., I don´t think that the skating owes anything to her.

 

[orchid]

Skating "owes a thanks"to Tonya because she is the first US lady to land a triple axel in competition.

Michelle would have "saved the day" no matter the Whack. Michelle was on schedule and no matter how popular skating was, that is tv viewing, her career would be the same.

I can think of absolutely nothing notable in Kerrigan's amateur) skaing which was of interest with the exception of the Whack. So, I will jump out and state that Nancy's professional career success just may be due to the notarity of the Whack rather than her talent on the ice.

 

[IDLERACER]

I can think of absolutely nothing notable in Kerrigan's amateur skaing which was of interest with the exception of the Whack.

Well, one can argue that she popularized the concept of laying a hand on the thigh of the free leg during a spiral. Not sure how many people would consider that a good thing, however.​

 

[SeaniBu]

Nancy's popularity, yes.

Tonya did not need to do that and I still think her ex went for the wrong lady by accident. If her skates would have held up (she apparently broke them a lot) and not have been sidetracked by the "situation" it would appear (from posing the question myself here) Tonya still had a great chance at winning and didn't need to do that at all. FS was already at a "high" at that time according to stats. So no, I don't think it had a positive out come on FS as a whole. "Thanks" should be given to FS from Tonya for giving her a chance (and she was great IMO) that she decided to blow.

 

[Tonichelle]

I love Nancy's spiral... I find it to be very elegant... Jenny Kirk and Angela Nikodinov also use(d) that type of spiral...

and as a little girl I idolized both Nancy and Tonya... until the whack.

8-10 years ago I'd have agreed they owe a big thanks to her... but now skating's back to the popularity before the scandal, so I guess now it's a non-issue really.

The 'golden era' of figure skating - at least the pros (Scott, Kurt, Brian, Brian, Kristi, etc) should be very thankful for the attention it brought... however I think while they're thankful skating got noticed they were all pretty disgusted with what happened (reading scott's book he wrote in 99 he sounds like he never got over it lol)...

Tonya was not banned from professional skating, it's just that not many of the skaters would participate. She was banned from no organization but her peers, and I think that's totally their right. She let her athletic peers, and most of her fans (some stick by her, more power to em) down... I was heart broken at age 9 when it all happened...

 

[mskater93]

Tonya WAS banned by US Figure Skating for life. That means she can't even officially coach someone. That's sad in a way because there would be (technically) some things that a skater could learn from her by taking lessons (not life lessons though! ) from her to improve jumps, speed, etc

 

[dorispulaski]

While I have always found Nancy an extremely boring skater, she did have one achievement other than her spiral. She was the first American to land a 3t3t combination, when she was a Junior. (Midori Ito landed the first one for a woman).

And her Halloween on Ice specials are quite good-for some reason, Nancy really connects with all the spooks and goblins of Halloween and it isn't stuffy.

 

[waxel]

I don't think she is "owed" anything. But the sport clearly benefitted from the incident -- which paved the way for Skating's mid to late 90's glory days. Think those days will ever return?

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

I think Tonya and the ensuing knee whack brought enough curiosity to have some additional people watching figure skating. However, did these additional people who watched figure skating become fans? No, they were already aware of the sport and just came for the media blitz. After the blitz, the sport regained it's prior popularity until the SLC scandal. Then fans left in droves. Nobody loves a fraudulent Sport.

Joe

 

[Jhar55]

Does skating owe Tanya a big thanks? I am not sure, she did get blamed for the whole thing. Was she in on the planning or just knew about it, and didn't say anything in fear of her ex? She always said she was abussed by him and threatened if she told. Don't think anyone really looked into that part so who really knows. It just seems that when National time rolls around the subject is always brought up.
As for Nancys skating never really cared for it she was kind of stiff looking, didn't care for her spiral, to me looks like she's trying to holding her leg up.
Wasn't the reason Tanya only skated in one Pro Comp was that almost all the skaters refused to skate with her?

 

[heyang]

Many skaters have said they would not skate in the same show as Tonya. I think they view her actions as having shamed skating. If she did know beforehand, then it's criminal. If she knew after the fact, she would have benefited herself and the sport by coming forward, instead of hindering an investigation to ensure a trip to the Olympics.

I think that the 'whack' certainly brought more attention to the 94 Olympics. The media (magazines, disson, etc.) certainly took advantage of it by producing an overwhelming # of shows. Without the whack, Nancy probably would have just toured and then quietly retired long ago. Skating's popularity lasted longer than the whack because of the quality and charisma of the pros of that period (Hamilton, Boitano, Yamaguchi, Browning, Wylie, Orser, Witt, etc.) and many of the amateurs, as well. If skating's popularity had been just about the whack, it would have died a long time ago.

Did skating benefit from the whack? Perhaps for a year or 2 afterwards - certainly enough to help it out a bit. The quality of the skaters kept it going. There's a reason why Boitano, Browning and Yamaguchi still have yearly shows after all these years.

Does anyone have stats? We've grumbled about the downsizing of skating. Is it actually just returning to normal from an abnormal high? If it's below pre-94, is a partly a factor of the multitude of viewing options and activities people have to choose from now?

On some level, Kerrigan and her husband have benefited on a great level from the whack. Without the 94 Olympics and the whack, Nancy's life would have been very different. She probably would not have met and married Jerry. She would not have the annual Halloween On ice, etc.

 

[Tonichelle]

according to my dad he says he sees skating on tv about as much as he did in the 80s and 70s (when he began watching because he had a crush on Dorothy Hamill [gag me]) he said he didn't understand why I whine about no pro shows on tv anymore, there are just as many now as before the 'golden era' if not more...

I wouldn't know, I grew up with Kurt and Scott and Brian and Kristi and Paul lol

 

[Mathman]

I think Tonya and the ensuing knee whack brought enough curiosity to have some additional people watching figure skating. However, did these additional people who watched figure skating become fans? No, they were already aware of the sport and just came for the media blitz. After the blitz, the sport regained it's prior popularity until the SLC scandal. Then fans left in droves. Nobody loves a fraudulent Sport.

I wonder how much the judging scandal at Salt Lake City actually affected the popularity of figure skating. It has always been regarded as a fradulent sport -- or at least one in which sleasy politics, back room deals and judges' bias have played an unwelcome role.

In 1906 Ulrich Salchow refused to compete in the World Championships in Munich because he knew that the judges would favor his big rival, German skater Gilbert Fuchs.

Two years later Fuchs returned the favor by refusing to participate in the 1908 Olympics because he knew that Salchow had already been preordained for the gold medal.

 

[gio]

Tonya had terrific, great jumps. I remember her for this.

 

[mememe]

Skating was alrleady "growing" BEFORE the Tonya/Nancy thing. Landover went ;prime time in 1992, I think it was, and promoters (this was before Disson was very much involved -- Dick Button's Candid Productions ran most of the pro stuff, with Mike Burg and JP Sports starting to get involved) were already coming up with more pro competitions (the Professional Skaters Guild, or whatever it was called, with Carol Schulman as the president had come up with several new competitions), the Russians were being allowed to do Landover and Challenge of Champions for the first time in 89, I think it was; there was a pro comp in France in 1989 or 90 (Gods of the Ice or something like that), Challenge of Champions (produced by Candid Productions) was held, variously, in Paris, Moscow, Barcelona, Oslo, etc. Pro-Ams started in 1992 or 93, again, before the Tonya/Nancy thing. The first Skating/gymnastics shows (called Symphony of Sports in their first incarnations, and Disson's first associated with skating, although he wasn't the main producer back then) were held, I think, in 1989 or 90 and continued for three or four years, televised by ABC (maybe someone else later, but ABC to start with). Stars on Ice's schedule had ramped up to about 40-50 cities, Tommy's Tour of Champions (as it was called back then) was expanding -- I think it hit 40-60 cities in the late 80s and early 90s, the shows were always very well-attended (the 1988 tour sold out within a day or two with a 25-30 city schedule, I think, and they added another 10-15 cities, and those sold out, the 1989 tour, the first with "pros" allowed, was 45 or so cities and nearly all sold out). It went every year with between 40 and 65 or so cities, depending on whether it was an Olympic year or not. Boitano started his own tour (Skating) with Katarina Witt in 1990 and it ran for three years until SOI bought it out BEFORE 1994, Boitano had a TV special (Canvas of Ice) and Brian Orser and Liz Manley had TV specials in Canada (each of them had 2 or 3 specials each) ....

And all of that happened before 1994.

So Tonya didn't "make figure skating popular" by herself. The sport was already growing and would likely have continued to after 1994, with popular big names like Boitano, Hamilton, Orser, Browning, Yamaguchi, Baiul, T&D, K&P, U&M, etc., available for competitions and shows. The attack on Nancy Kerrigan did bring more attention to a sport that was ALREADY growing more popular and had a charismatic group of stars in both the pros and in the amateur ranks (when it was still at least somewhat amateur). It did give the sport an artificial "lift" for a while -- that is, as Boitano and others have noted, pretty much "anything on skates" could get on TV -- but it wasn't THE thing that made skating popular -- it simply brought in some people who were curious about the big "whack" story -- some became big fans and stayed, but probably the majority of them eventually moved on to other things. And the fact that pros like Yamaguchi, Boitano, Hamilton, etc., were American and were serious about giving good performances and keeping their skills high, and were surrounded by other charismatic U.S. stars (Paul Wylie, etc.) and interesting non-U.S. stars (Witt, Browning, Baiul, etc.), AND the fact that CBS lost its NFL contract in 1994 and was looking for some counter-programming on Sundays, it's likely that even WITHOUT those thugs trying to knock Nancy out (and what happened is not a joke -- I can't even imagine what it would be like to be attacked like that out of the blue when you were in a place you felt safe and protected and someone tried to cripple you for no reason at all that you could imagine at the time), figure skating would have continued to grow. As much as it did? Of course not -- that WAS an "artificial" high. But I still think there would have been pro-ams, an increase in pro comps (and maybe the ISU would have been sensible enough to figure out how to either incorporate them into the ISU umbrella or would have been willing to work hand-in-hand with the pro side of the sport, had there not been SO much attention and SO much money floating around that it got dog-in-the-mangerish and wanted to control everything and grab all the money) and the "amateurs" being able to earn money (which was also already starting, before 1994). The growth would probably have been more realistic and incremental, however, and so perhaps the huge downturn that has been happening (which is dropping below levels it was before 1994, when there were several "skating specials" on each year, along with pretty decent coverage of nationals and worlds, some coverage of what were then the "fall competitions" like Skate America, etc., and some nice pro comps and pro-ams, as well).

So no, I don't think Tonya "deserves" our thanks or should get "credit" for skating's popularity. What happened at 94 Nationals was terrible and the resulting frenzy of interest in skating didn't really benefit it all that much. The skaters who prepared and worked hard and cared about presenting good skating, whether in shows, amateur competitions, pro competitons or whatever, are the ones to thank, not a thug who attacked someone, with or without Harding's involvement and/or blessing. And I hope that skating can survive the results of that artificial frenzy about the sport (which resulted in yes, some VERY bad concepts and skating, both in the "pro" and the "ISU" level, and seems to have been the cause for much of the "war" between those two entities that has left less work for both sides of the sport) and regain the spot it was occupying BEFORE 1994.

 

[Mathman]

Thabks for that outstanding analysis, Mememe. And also Heyang. :yes: