TV Review: Anything to Win - the Tonya Harding Story

At the 1994 U.S. Figuring Skating Championships, an unknown assailant struck skater Nancy Kerrigan on her right knee with a club, forcing her out of the program and securing a place on the U.S. Olympic ice-skating team for Portland, OR skater Tonya Harding. It wasn't long before people suspected foul play, and eventually Harding's husband, Jeff Gillooly, and Harding herself were implicated in the attack, despite Harding's claims to not knowing her husband had planned to attack Kerrigan.

Despite pleading guilty to her role in the attack, Harding to this day maintains her innocence. Harding was allowed to remain on the Olympic team, but finished a disappointing fourth place to Kerrigan's silver-medal program. From that moment Harding moved from fame to infamy. She was banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Association and stripped of her title. Anything to Win: The Tonya Harding Story tells the story from Harding's point of view. Unfortunately, it does not make for compelling television.

We learn of Harding's love of skating from an early age, a child prodigy who developed into a very good skater (Harding would end up being the first U.S. woman to pull of the triple axel in her skating program during the 1991 U.S. figure skating championships). Harding seemed to be going on raw talent and, despite her skill, did not land a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in 1988 or 1992.

The major problem with Anything to Win is Harding herself, who comes across rather whiny, convinced she was Olympic material because she could do the tripple axel, and seems to think she deserved to be on the Olympic team. And while the tripple axel has been hailed as "the Everest of women's figure skating," Harding could not place into the U.S. Olympic team until 1994, after the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. Even then, she finished a disappointing eighth place.

Harding tells a familair story of a neglectful, alcoholic mother during her childhood (Harding eventually ended up in the custody of her father after the divorce of her parents). And through it all, as Harding tells her tale, she comes across as incredulous that she did not win an Olympic medal. I suppose that's an understandable position to take, but Anything to Win does not present Harding in a way to make her sympathetic. Quite the opposite, actually.

Article Author: Scott C. Smith

Scott C. Smith is a freelance writer from Happy Valley, Oregon. He has a cat and likes pop culture a little too much.

Visit Scott C. Smith's author page — Scott C. Smith's Blog