Harding Tonya - The Tonya tapes: the Tonya Harding story in her own voice

The

TONYA

TAPES

The Tonya Harding Story

In Her Own Voice

Lynda D. Prouse

Foreword by Michael Rosenberg

by World Audience

ISBN 978-1-934209-80-6

10-digit ISBN 1-93420980-5

$18.99

A9 2008, World Audience, Inc.

303 Park Avenue South, #1440

New York, NY 10010-3657

USA

Photos Courtesy of Tonya Harding and Linda Lewis.

Photo on front cover courtesy of Al Harding.

Photo of Author on back cover courtesy of David M. Szabo.

Edited by Kyle David Torke.

Book Design by Matthew Ward (Mockfrog Design).

Copyright notice: All work contained within is the sole copyright of Lynda D. Prouse and Tonya Harding and may not be reproduced

without consent.

World Audience (www.worldaudience.org) is a global consortium of artists and writers, producing quality books, the literary journal Audience, and The Audience Review. Our periodicals and books are edited by

M. Stefan Strozier and assistant editors. Submit stories, poems,

paintings, photography, or artwork: submissions@worldaudience.org. Inquire about being a reviewer: theatre@worldaudience.org. Thank you.

New York (NY, USA).

Newcastle (NSW, Australia).

and to my husband, David Szabo,

whose steadfast belief in me made this book possible.

Lynda D. Prouse

To all those who have suffered abuse and havent been heard.

Tonya Harding

C ontents

Acknowledgments page 6

Foreword by Michael A. Rosenberg 7

Introduction by Lynda D. Prouse 11

Authors Note 18

The Interviews:

(1) The Comeback 23

(2) Little Girl Lost 37

(3) A God-Given Talent 71

(4) Rising Through the Ranks 89

(5) Boyfriends, Husbands, & Horror 100

(6) Walking a Tightrope 138

(7) The Accident That Would Change Everything 163

(8) Self-Esteem & Misinformation 173

(9) 1994 Nationals The Whack Heard Round the World 191

(10) Making Television History Skating at the Olympics 221

(11) After the Olympics 235

(12) The Hubcap Incident 263

(13) Update & Reflections 276

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my dear friend and manger Michael Rosenberg, who has gone far beyond the call of duty in order to see this book published. For his deep belief in The Tonya Tapes, his encouragement when others failed to get it, his excellent writing and editing skills, I am profoundly grateful. Thanks also to Linda Lewis for her support and tireless efforts in gathering many of the photographs for this book, and to those at World Audience, especially publisher Mike Strozier for his enthusiasm and patience, Matthew Ward for his thoughtful and creative book design, and of course, editor extraordinaire Kyle Torke. I am also very grateful to publicist Nicole Goesseringer, who has become such an integral part of our team.

And to my friends and family, especially brothers Terry and Bob, and sister Marlene, thank you for your support and for the time spent listening to me as I worked through this project. I love you all dearly.

Finally, thank you Tonya for trusting me with your story. The journey we took together has truly touched my heart.

Lynda D. Prouse

My love and thanks to Michael Rosenberg, Lynda Prouse, Linda and Greg Lewis, and to all those others who have been so supportive in helping me to regain my life.

Tonya Harding

Foreword

by Michael A. Rosenberg

Tonya Hardings First-and-Only Figure Skating Manager

What may surprise you is that Tonya Harding is nice C9 very nice.

If you went to a dinner party and around the table were seated champion athletes from several sports, at the end of the evening Tonya would most likely be one of your favorite guests. She is quick-witted, interesting, charming, funny C9 and, as I said, nice.

Her delightful social presence is amazing when you consider she was raised by an alcoholic and abusive mother and a weak father, sexually molested by her half-brother, forced by her parents to move to different homes (which for the most part were trailers parked in relatives driveways) at least twice per school year, lived in truly dirt poor conditions, and was never reallyCAtaught by anyone the niceties of social interaction.

Admittedly, she can also be unpolished, tough, coarse, and more comfortable in a pool hall with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other or working on a carburetor under the hood of a car than practicing a choreographed skating program on the ice. Unlike most women in figure skating, Tonyas image is definitely not the girl-next-door (which irked the United States Figure Skating Association to no end), and that dichotomy of personality has always made her a magnet for the press.

But somehow, some way, Tonya Harding wakes up each morning with a positive attitude and deep faith that eventually her life will all work out. She doesnt look back on her tribulations in a negative way; instead, she always seems to be optimistic and cheerful. And shes been jailed, on probation, despised, made the object of jokes on national TV, fined all of the money she had (and more), and ended up broke while watching many of her fellow skaters make millions of dollars due primarily to the upsurge of the sport she unwittingly brought to a spectacularly popular level.

I first met Tonya in 1991 after she won the first of her two National Figure Skating Championships; I signed her as a client with the expectation that she would be a serious contender for the Gold Medal at one of the two upcoming Olympics.

She was the most athletic female skater I had ever seen (and I have represented over 100 National, World, or Olympic Figure Skating ChampionsCAduring my 25-year career*); she was the first American woman to complete successfully the legendary (and only once previously performed by anyone) triple-Axel, the 3 / -revolution difficult jump that immediately brought her international fame.

I decided to fire her as a client in the fall of 1993, three months before the whack on the knee scandal, because her former husband, Jeff Gillooly, was constantly interfering in our relationship and advising her to demand more money for her skating appearances than I could negotiate for her. He was a rude, obnoxious, and arrogant man, and his influence over her was much greater than mine.

Terminating our relationship turned out, of course, to be one of the luckiest decisions in my life; otherwise, I would have been in front of the Portland grand jury stating that I knew nothing of the plot against Nancy Kerrigan, and I would have appeared as either a liar or at the least a very poor manager.

Instead, I watched all of the legal drama play out in the press, and I occasionally gave interviews (as her former manager) stating that I believed Tonya when she said that she had nothing to do with conspiring against Nancy who had been her roommate several times and who she considered to be a friend. I believed then, and believe to this day, that Tonya wasnt afraid to compete against Nancy: Tonya had beaten Nancy several times and was certain that she would again. The only skater Tonya feared was the 15-year-old Ukrainian, Oksana Baiul, the reigning World Champion.CA Tonya was cocky but she wasnt a criminal.

The next time I saw Tonya was in Lillehamer at the Olympic Games as she answered questions from worldCAreporters at the biggest press conference in Olympic history; and I saw her again when she had a security guard at the arena bring me backstage and she begged me on her knees to take her back as a client. Although I truly liked Tonya and believed in her innocence, I declined to re-sign her, mostly because I then represented her rival, Oksana Baiul, and considered my current obligations to Oksana to be an obvious conflict of interest.