I, Tonya

The Winter Olympics are back, and with them, figure skating.   The Russians, banned from competing as a national team due to their prior misconduct, do so as an aggregate referred to as “Olympic Athletes from Russia”.   The US is competitive, but so is the Italian couple.  I don’t pay nearly as much attention as the “intimate female companion”, affectionately referred to as Panda due to her Shanghai origin, of which she is rightly proud.   Likewise, she zoned out on the downhill skiing which intrigued me more.

We both enjoyed this film, starring Margot Robbie, best known as Harley Quinn in the “Suicide Squad” film (DC Universe) in the title role, but also Sebastian “Winter Soldier” Stan, Captain America’s buddy Bucky (Marvel Comics Universe) as the ever hated and ridiculed Jeff Gillooly.   Intriguing that the film came out around now, but not in wide distribution.  Our show at the local megaplex was under the radar, not even on the main list of movies.  But the seats were nice.

The 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, featured the dramatic competition on the US team between sweet, charming Nancy Kerrigan, vs. maybe-rough-around-the-edges Walmart Queen, Tonya Harding.  I can’t profess sufficient discernment to tell you which of the two was a better ice skater, though Harding apparently earned the distinction of being the first American skater to successfully complete a Triple Axel.  NO, this did not mean Harding slept with Axl Rose three times, as plausibly as we might attribute that to Harding.  My subjective impression is that they were both about the same skill.

I also don’t know much about Kerrigan’s background or social life at the time, but it seems Harding came from a lower class background and had the poor choice of picking Gillooly as a mate.  According to the movie, they were on-again, off-again, though they did marry.  Gillooly was physically abusive, though Robbie’s portrayal implies that Harding was probably in pari delicto.

According to the film, Gillooly asked his buddy Shawn Eckhart to send a death threat to Nancy Kerrigan to freak her out and put her off her game.  Shawn took it upon himself to hire a hit-man, Shane, to assault Kerrigan with a collapsible baton.  Harding claimed to be innocent, and the film appears to exonerate her – it’s a bit more vague about Gillooly, though later he’s shown confessing.  I’ll hold off on accusing Harding herself of being in the loop.  Decide for yourself. 

The end result was that Harding came in 8^th, Kerrigan #2 (silver medal), and Oksana Baiul won the gold – she remains unnamed in the movie.  Harding was banned for life from figure skating.    

Robbie doesn’t bear a huge resemblance to Harding, but she does bring the attitude, somewhat like Harley Quinn on skates.  We’ll see if she comes back for more HQ in the future.