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You don't know Surya Bonaly?! Or even more as a contender Lu Chen?!
Was Tonya Harding poorly coached?
- Thread starter drivingmissdaisy
- Start date
You don't know Surya Bonaly?! Or even more as a contender Lu Chen?!
Maybe the actual training on the ice was good. But Rawlinson's attitude of "It's okay for Tonya's mother to abuse her as long as she still gets to skate" was just plain wrong. She seemed to care more about Tonya as a skater than a person. Tonya should've been placed in a foster home years before she left home to be with Jeff. She might've even finished high school that way.
LaVona lost Tonya's 2 oldest brothers to CPS and let them be adopted out. She also lost custody of Tonya's sister Gina, and I think Chris was in and out of cps (but LaVona would sometimes get him back, but didn't seem to want to be bothered with the other 3). The 4 older siblings were from LaVona's prior marriages. Chris is the one that passed. That means Portland cps knew of LaVona's lack of parenting skill but left Tonya there anyway. Her father, Al, was apparently a good dad when he was around but he didn't protect Tonya from LaVona, and if he couldn't find a job in the area, he would seek work elsewhere and leave Tonya with Mom. There was an interview with Al where he said he regretted leaving when Tonya was a teen because if he had stayed she probably wouldn't have married Jeff. Tonya did drop out of high school, but went back later and got her GED (89 or 90). The school system there wouldn't work around her skating. The school should of let her do owe (if they have that in Oregon) work-study program- they attend half days and get the English, math, etc, then work in the afternoon. Tonya's skating could of been considered her work, and I think she did have part time jobs.
The DTWS theme tonight is the mvp in the athlete's life. Most of them seem to be choosing their mom. Tonya choose her dad (who passed away 9 years ago on april 1). She has rhumba for her individual dance, and cha-cha for the dance-off with Jennie.
There was a very promising junior skater named Michelle Cho who was also a victim of parental abuse. Someone reported it, she was placed in foster care and never skated again. She did thank the person who reported it for getting her out of the abusive situation.
I don't think foster care was the answer. It would have been better for her if she had a situation where she lived with her coach, away from her mother--similar to Gabby Douglas's situation in gymnastics (not that Gabby's situation was because of abuse). But by the time Tonya was 17 or so, she was making her own choices, and they were bad ones.
Having an abusive parent probably made Tonya resentful towards authority figures, and coaches would have fallen into that category. So while she had to do what her mother said or risk being abused, she could follow her coach's directives---or not. Despite her coach's warnings, Tonya smoked, ate whatever she wanted, avoided off-ice training, and as a result was often out of shape.
Maybe, maybe not. But I think Rawlinson's attitude was way out of line. It was more important for Tonya to have a reasonably healthy living environment than for her to be able to skate.
True, but was that even possible?
If you grow up with the kind of abuse Tonya did and drop out of high school at 15, you're probably not really capable of making good choices at 17. I mean, didn't her poor sister Gina leave home young (at 12 or 13?) as a prostitute or something? How could any child function in that kind of toxic "home"?
Yes, by that point, Tonya probably had too much psychological damage to really care about being obedient. That's why she needed to be in an environment that was reasonably strict that focused on her overall well-being rather than her skating per se.
How did this happen? Did other people call CPS on Golden?
Some "mother."
That's weird.
That would have certainly helped. But in a proper environment, the attitude of the parent or parent-substitute would have been, "Your school comes before your skating. Once you graduate, you can concentrate full-time on your skating—if you want."
I'm glad that she has good memories of her dad at least.
I remember her. Does anybody know what she's doing these days? She'd be around 40 now, I think.
Good—I hope things have turned out better for her than if she had stayed in the abusive home, even if she still got to skate.
Tonya had a hard life. On Dancing with the Stars on Monday night, the show was talking about the MVP (Most Valuable Person) in your life. Tonya’s was her Daddy and what a beautiful dance she decicated to him. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. By the way she made it to the Finals on Monday night. What a beautiful and graceful dancer..I cried like a baby...
She is happily married and has a son..
She is happily married and has a son..- Joined
- May 20, 2015
No, Tonya wasn't (overall) coached properly - you don't win a U.S. National title, a World Silver medal, and make two Olympic teams with poor coaching.
I do think that Rawlinson was definitely not a great coach for the elite level - other than Tonya, did she ever have another skater even make Senior U.S. Nationals?
I do think that Tonya greatly needed better mentoring off the ice. I've wondered so many times why Rawlinson was so
here.
I do think that Rawlinson was definitely not a great coach for the elite level - other than Tonya, did she ever have another skater even make Senior U.S. Nationals?
I do think that Tonya greatly needed better mentoring off the ice. I've wondered so many times why Rawlinson was so
here.
Lavonna mentioned in the 20/20 interview that nobody could get Tonya to straighten up like Diane. I think that all bets were off once Tonya turned 18. She later worked with Dody Teachman who was a bit more lax in her approach. Apparently Jeff couldn't stand Dody (and vice versa) which created yet more problems for Tonya.
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- Dec 21, 2014
No, Tonya wasn't (overall) coached properly - you don't win a U.S. National title, a World Silver medal, and make two Olympic teams with poor coaching.
I do think that Rawlinson was definitely not a great coach for the elite level - other than Tonya, did she ever have another skater even make Senior U.S. Nationals?
I do think that Tonya greatly needed better mentoring off the ice. I've wondered so many times why Rawlinson was so
Diane did a lot as a mentor. It was a complicated situation. Please don't insult her by implying she was clueless or didn't try. She is also a very good coach and has recent young students who made sectionals, can land double axels and working on triples. There are a lot of coaches who make senior nationals only once or twice. That doesn't make them less than great.
I have to agree. But then there wouldn't be the figure skater Tonya Harding and my 13 year old self would have sorely missed her... I still think she was exceptional, no matter what she said afterwards - the judges (at least the international judges) simply loved her. With a cleanish skate she would have won everything.
I think this situation was difficult for her coach ... figure skating was all Tonya had after all, and to take that away from her would have been cruel as well ... and to have a student like that is surely a dream come true for any coach.
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- Nov 24, 2006
Diane was like a second mother to Tonya. Well, maybe a wealthy older sister, who paid for the majority of Tonya's skating expenses. Her coaching was completely focused on Tonya. Diane was around the family situation enough to know what Tonya's potential was, and I can understand her saying that skating was Tonya's ticket out of the gutter. Really, she was like a fairy godmother to Tonya. Who else would work to cover Tonya's skating expenses??? Tonya had an excellent coach, she was definitely not poorly coached. Tonya was just uncoachable in her later career. It's strange because it was like Tonya was offered this skating excellence and the means to make it happen on a silver platter, yet she still managed to screw it up. Sure, her homelife was crap, but exactly how much time would she be at home and dealing with LaVona? A couple hours in the evening? Meh. If her homelife was that rough, she could have just stayed at the rink all day or heaven forbid a public library and come home when it's time to go to bed. Many people have alcoholic parents and the best thing to do is just stay away from home. All things considering, Tonya had a sweet deal to develop a world class talent and all she had to do besides train hard is to manage the few hours of the day she would be around LaVona. Focusing more on school would have been good too. Tonya was just self-destructive and extremely manipulative and threw it all away all by herself.
I think Tonya's situation parallels Christopher Bowman's situation. There's only so much that a coach can do for someone who is troubled or in a troubling situation. I think that it is really difficult for a coach to take on the role of surrogate parent- nor should they feel obligated to either. They are professionals and Tonya made it all the way to the Olympics and had great skating technique in jumps, spins and skating skills. If there was anything that really done her in, it was the 6.0 system which did not recognize different forms of artistry and stayed in line with skaters promoted by their Federation. It's discouraging for a skater to be compared to Nancy Kerrigan- who had the long look that everyone liked, however was similar to Tonya in the way she presented programs and skated detached from her music. Neither lady was particularly artistic- though IMO Tonya was a lot more interesting to watch. I think that if she had NOT been competing under 6.0, she would have made more effort in presentation as opposed to feeling frustrated.
---edited to add NOT
---edited to add NOT
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- Jun 11, 2012
I thought Tonya did compete under 6.0. Huh? Tonya just wasn't a very smooth skater - she was totally athletic and I think she was completely into the jumping aspect of figure skating. But I agree that a coach can't be a surrogate parent.
Tonya made many, many poor decisions and that's what did her in. She didn't have to marry the guy that abused her or stay with him and no one forced cigarettes into her mouth. I hope she has turned her life around and is happy in her 3rd marraige but I, for one, will not make excuses for her during her skating years.
Tonya made many, many poor decisions and that's what did her in. She didn't have to marry the guy that abused her or stay with him and no one forced cigarettes into her mouth. I hope she has turned her life around and is happy in her 3rd marraige but I, for one, will not make excuses for her during her skating years.
Well put. There are many stories of difficult skating childhoods. Oksana Bauill slept and worked at her rink. Mirai Nagasu slept in a closet at her parents restaurant until they closed the place every night. Nancy Kerrigan's parents did not have much money and her mother was blind. I get that an abusive parent is very difficult. But we all have choices to make. I'm not sure where Tonya's father was when her mother was abusing her but he made choices too. I don't wish Tonya poorly because of her circumstances. Nancy Kerrigan was the victim of that leg clubbing in 1994. Let's not forget that. Should she have then made bad choices and used the attack as the reason? Tonya has had a good year with the movie and now DWTS. I do wish her well but my admiration goes to others.
Does her son look at all like her, I wonder? Has anyone seen a photo?
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