COLD AS ICE
Tonya Harding FINALLY admits she knew about sensational plot to break ice skating arch rival Nancy Kerrigan’s leg before 1994 Olympics
DISGRACED figure skater Tonya Skater has finally admitted that she knew about the plot to break the leg of her Olympic rival in 1994.
The now 47-year-old says she overheard her then-husband Jeff Gillooly and bodyguard Shawn Eckardt talking about attacking one of her competitors.
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The pair would later hire Shane Stant, who assaulted US skater Nancy Kerrigan with a baton - striking her above the knee, five weeks before the Olympics.
Kerrigan, who was attacked in Detroit after a training session, only suffered bruising and managed to win Silver at that year’s games in Norway.
Speaking on ABC’s Truth and Lies: The Tonya Harding Story, the shamed athlete said she heard a conversation between her husband and Eckardt – who she described as “dumb as a post.”
“I knew something was up, “confessed Harding, who still insists she had no role in the vicious attack.
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She said: “I did, however, overhear them talking about stuff where, ‘well, maybe we should take somebody out to make sure she gets on the team.’
"I go what the hell are you talking about?”
The skater, from Portland, Oregan, calls herself a “pawn” who paid the “ultimate price.”
She said: “I'm always the bad person. And I never understood that.”
Harding, who finished eighth at the ’94 Olympics, was the subject of intense media scrutiny during the event in Lillehammer because of the alleged plot by her husband.
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The 47-year-old, who has now remarried, claims she thought her former spouse Gillooly would kill her “many times.”
Harding spoke about the moment she realised the American people were going to find out the truth behind the attack.
She said: “I get angry, nobody wanted to ever believe me. When I found out that the truth was finally going to come out.”
She continued: “My skating was great. But my life was in shambles.”
After Eckardt was shopped to the FBI by one of his friends, he implicated Gillooly who then agreed to testify against his own wife in exchange for a plea bargain effectively ending their troubled marriage.
In March 1994, after key evidence was found in a dumpster, Harding pleaded guilty to conspiring to hinder prosecution of her husband and the others involved.
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She received three years probation, 500 hours of community service and was hit with a $100,000 fine.
Controversy raged over whether Harding should be allowed to skate in the Olympics.
But when the US Olympic Committee scheduled a hearing to discuss whether she should be removed from the team, Harding filed a $25million lawsuit against the Committee, and the USOC backed down and agreed to let her skate in the Olympics.
Six months after the attack Harding was stripped of her titles and banned from US figure skating for life.
The extraordinary story is the subject of a critically acclaimed movie I, Tonya which stars Wolf of Wall Street actress Margot Robbie as Harding.
The film, which has a string of award nominations, hits UK screens on February 23.
Trailer for new ice skating blockbuster, I, Tonya, starring Margot Robbie
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