Tonya Harding then
America figure skater Tonya Harding was born in 1970 and started practicing figure skating at the age of four. Throughout high school, with the support and encouragement of her mother, Harding has devoted most of her time for training, eventually dropping out before graduating. She entered competitive skating during her teens, in the mid-eighties.
It was during the late eighties and early nineties that Harding rose to national fame. In 1991, Harding won the 1991 U.S. Ladies’ Singles title in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. The same year, she finished at second place at the World Figure Skating Championships, after fellow American Kristi Yamaguchi and before Nancy Kerrigan, who came in third.