Watch This: Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding


This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Lillehammer Olympics and the most notorious incident in the world of figure skating. Who else remembers watching the media coverage as it all unfolded like a soap opera?

I was thrilled to find ESPN's 30 for 30: The Price of Gold on Netflix. I highly recommend it. The archival footage was amazing. It's worth watching for the clothes, costumes and hair alone. Above all, I appreciated revisiting this saga as an adult. 

The Price of Gold made me feel for Tonya Harding, Yes, she made bad decisions, but in many ways, she is a product of her environment, which was something I couldn't understand when I was in 4th grade. 

I missed NBC's documentary Nancy & Tonya which aired before the Sochi closing ceremony on Sunday night. If anyone can find it online, let me know! However, Nancy Kerrigan's interview after the documentary is online, and that was super interesting to hear a bit of it from her perspective. 

Nancy was definitely a role model for me as a child, in part due to her pretty costumes, but I'm even more impressed with her now as an adult who can somewhat comprehend the effects of negative press. I couldn't imagine the determination and willpower it would take to not lash back in the media and not even to defend yourself against backlash in the press, but to stay out of the drama and focus solely on recovering and training for the Olympics. Even now while Tonya still seems to be living in the drama of it all, Nancy is free, she's forgiven and forgotten, which is always a great lesson in life. 

I have always admired Nancy Kerrigan's class and sportsmanship, now she's also my new role model for what I want my skin to look like when I'm 44. 


2 comments

  1. So interesting! Definitely on my list to watch this week. Also, their hair in that photo...WHY?!?

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  2. I watched this! I never knew all the behind the scenes stuff, about her husband and the random hit man...so interesting how they pull all that together for these documentaries. I do remember VIVIDLY watching the two of them on TV at the Olympics though :)

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