- Competitive ice skater Tonya Harding rises amongst the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the activity is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband intervenes.
- From the proverbial wrong side of the tracks in Portland, Oregon, former competitive figure skater Tonya Harding was never fully accepted in the figure skating community for not inherently being the image of grace, breeding, and privilege that the community wanted to portray, despite being naturally gifted in the sport athletically. Despite ultimately garnering some success in figure skating being national champion, a world championship medalist, an Olympian, and the first American woman to complete a Triple Axel in competition, she is arguably best known for her association to "the incident": the January 6, 1994 leg-bashing attack on her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan--who, unlike Tonya, was everything that the figure-skating community wanted in their representatives. Her association to that incident led to Tonya being banned from competitive figure skating for life. Tonya's story from the beginning of her figure-skating life at age four to the aftermath of the incident is presented. Besides Tonya herself, key people in her life give their perspective of their role in her life. Although they may agree on the broad issues at hand, such as that the incident did occur, they may vary widely in their recollection of the details. These people are: her waitress mother Lavona Golden, who despite having paid for her expensive figure-skating lessons, was abusive toward her physically and emotionally, never believing she was good enough in any aspect of the word, and who pulled her from school to focus solely on the figure skating; Diane Rawlinson, her first and longest-serving coach, who, for good or bad, largely let Tonya be Tonya in the way she presented herself to the figure skating world; Jeff Gillooly, her first husband, and partner in a turbulent relationship on a need to be loved, perhaps without truly loving each other; Jeff's friend and Tonya's bodyguard Shawn Eckardt, a dim bulb who believed himself to be a bigger player in the big scheme of life than he actually was; and sports journalist Martin Maddox, a fictional character who provides general commentary of what the sports media as a collective wanted out of Tonya and the incident.—Huggo
- Pushed into skating by her domineering and abusive mother, Lavona Golden, child prodigy Tonya Harding never got a break. Tonya's life has been a roller-coaster ride, from her tumultuous relationship with her first boyfriend, Jeff Gillooly, to her crushing defeat in the 1992 Winter Olympics. Despite being the first American figure skater to perform the notoriously challenging triple axel perfectly in competition, her abundant talent alone wasn't enough. After all, no one will ever forget the infamous incident involving her friend and fellow skater, Nancy Kerrigan. In an attempt to move beyond her troubled past, Tonya's last opportunity to prove herself arose during the 1994 Winter Olympics. Both loved and hated, Tonya Harding's talent and skill have impacted figure skating.—Nick Riganas
- In 1991, talented figure skater Tonya Harding becomes the first American woman to complete a triple axel during a competition. In 1994, her world comes crashing down when her ex-husband conspires to injure Nancy Kerrigan, a fellow Olympic hopeful, in a poorly-conceived attack that forces the young woman to withdraw from the national championship. Harding's life and legacy instantly become tarnished as she's forever associated with one of the most infamous scandals in sports history.—Jwelch5742
- Growing up with an alcoholic, abusive mother, poor, and on the wrong side of the tracks in Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding would never be accepted when it came to the world of figure skating. Although Tonya was a figure-skating prodigy, beginning her career at age four and winning competitions against competitors twice her age, she lacked the grace, beauty, and lifestyle of what had become known worldwide as the image of a ladies' competitive figure skater. This didn't stop Tonya, however. With the help of Diane Rawlinson, her first and longest coach, Tonya overcame many obstacles and began to make a name for herself in this cut-throat world of skating. Tonya became a national champion, a world medalist, and a member of the US Olympic team twice; she also made history by being the first-ever American woman to land a triple axel in competition. Her alcoholic mother LaVona worked as a waitress to pay for Tonya's coaching, but was horribly abusive and demeaning to Tonya despite her success. Around age 15, Tonya met her future husband Jeff Gillooly and his friend, her future "bodyguard" Shawn Eckardt. Young, rebellious, and in love, Tonya marries Jeff, who later becomes physically and mentally abusive. Despite Tonya's successes, she is probably most famously known for the 1994 attack on fellow figure-skater and Olympic medalist Nancy Kerrigan. Following the attack, an investigation began and quickly concluded that Jeff Gillooly and Shawn Eckardt were at the center of it. This led to the unveiling of Tonya's involvement in the attack, as many had suspected. Tonya's involvement, regardless of how large or small, resulted in her being banned from the world of competitive figure skating. This movie shows Tonya's life from the beginning of her career in childhood through the end of her career and what followed. Based on actual interviews with Tonya, LaVona, Jeff, Shawn, Diane, and others from that time frame, the viewers get an inside look at her life, issues, relationships and point of view on the attack. I was afraid to watch it since I was a fascinated teen when this took place and figured it would be an exaggerated version of the truth. However, this is tastefully done.—Carrie DeCosta
- The movie is based on interviews with Tonya and Jeff. Tonya says that she is a real person, and never apologized for being poor and being a redneck.
In 1970s Portland, Oregon, four-year-old Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) is forced to ice skate by her abusive mother, LaVona Golden (Allison Janney). Tonya is LaVona's 5th child from her 4th husband. Tonya has a natural gift for ice skating and within 6 months she won her first competition. As Tonya grows up, LaVona takes her out of school to focus on her skating career, and she trains extensively under the tutelage of coach Diane Rawlinson (Julianne Nicholson). Tonya is in constant terror of her mother who is abusive, tough, drunk and not a good role model for the other kids. LaVona never said anything encouraging to Tonya and nothing Tonya did on the ice was ever good enough. LaVona was seen hitting her with a hairbrush and once did not allow Tonya to urinate and she ended up peeing in her suit on ice. LaVona claims that Tonya skated better when she was enraged.
Into her adulthood, Tonya rapidly becomes one of the best figure skaters in the United States. Against her mother's wishes, she begins dating the abusive Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan). Jeff starts off as a cute boyfriend, but soon starts abusing and hitting Tonya. For Tonya, it was her first and only boyfriend since she was 15 years old, and she didn't know any better and she believed Jeff when he said, "it's your fault". Jeff claims in his interviews that he never hit Tonya, and in fact it was Tonya who fired a gun at him.
In 1986 Tonya competes at the Skate America event in Portland and doesn't win. Her mother again abuses her for not trying hard enough at competitions and throws a knife at her, which hits her. Tonya promptly moves out and in with Jeff. Tonya consistently gets average scores despite out skating all other skaters in competitions. One judge tells her that they also score on "presentation" alluding to the poorly put together costumes that Tonya stitches for herself. Meanwhile Tonya marries Jeff. Tonya fires Diane and starts working with Dody Teachman (Bojana Novakovic) as coach.
In the figure skating community, Tonya continually faces prejudice for being "white trash", regardless of her skill (the only female figure skater to ever successfully complete two triple axle jumps. The first time at the 1991 US skating nationals) and consistency of winning. After the first triple axle, everything changed. Tonya started winning and became famous. Jeff became jealous and started hitting Tonya more than ever. Tonya moves out of Jeff's house as she had had enough. Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver) was Tonya's friend and fellow skater. Nancy and Tonya were friends and even roommates, but the media loved Nancy and hated Tonya. Jeff pursues Tonya to Sun Valley (where she had gone for a competition) and wins her back. But as soon as Tonya moves back with Jeff, her skating goes bad, and she starts missing the simpler jumps. The real reason was her weight gain because of her binge drinking and junk food habits.
At the 1992 Winter Olympics, Tonya fails to stick her landings (she claims that her skate was broken in practice, and it was welded back a little off and so all her landings were off) and finishes fourth. As Jeff continues to abuse Tonya, she divorces him. Defeated, she takes a job as a waitress, but Diane reaches out to Tonya and convinces her to train for the 1994 Winter Olympics. This was a rare case when the winter Olympics were held after 2 years and not the usual gap of 4 years. She performs well but still gets poor scores. She confronts a judge about her scores; he explains that Tonya's image is not wholesome enough and that she refuses to play along. Tonya approaches her mother for help, but is scolded and rebuffed, leading Tonya to reluctantly ask Jeff for support. On the day of her November 1993 competition at the Northwest Pacific Regional Championships in Portland, Tonya receives a death threat and chooses not to compete.
Realizing that he can sabotage Tonya's competition, Jeff instructs his friend Shawn Eckardt (Paul Walter Hauser) to mail death threats to Tonya's rival, Nancy Kerrigan. Jeff pays Shawn $1000 to do so. Tonya makes a phone call trying to locate Nancy's training arena and her practice times. Jeff claims that Tonya knew about the plan to mail threat letters to Nancy.
But then Shawn demands more money from Jeff, which he refuses and wants to call the whole thing off as the plan was only to mail threat letters. Shawn hires two inept crooks (Derrick Smith (Anthony Reynolds) and Shane Stant (Ricky Russert)) to injure Nancy after a practice session in Detroit. In January 1994, Shawn's henchmen strike Nancy's knee, and she cannot compete at the next day's National competition. The hired henchmen are arrested based on CCTV footage outside of Nancy's training venue.
Shawn's bragging quickly leads the FBI to him. He blames Jeff, who is horrified to learn that Shawn instigated the entire affair in order to draw attention. Shawn even tells Jeff that he was the one who sent the death threat to Tonya. Tonya qualifies for the Olympic team but realizes she will be found guilty by association. She goes to the FBI and reports what Jeff and Shawn did, but they show her interview transcript to Jeff after his arrest, and he races home to confront her. She briefly speaks to Jeff from behind a locked door, then climbs out the window, leaving him for good. Jeff later implicates Tonya by saying she knew beforehand about the attack.
LaVona visits Tonya and offers her kind words; however, when she asks if Tonya had prior knowledge of the attack, Tonya realizes that LaVona is wearing a wire and throws her out. Jeff, Shawn, and the henchmen are charged, and Tonya's hearing is postponed until after the Olympics. Tonya finishes eighth and Nancy wins the silver medal. When Oksana Baiul (Cassidy Balkcom) edges Nancy out for the gold and the first-ever Olympic medal for independent Ukraine, Tonya accuses Nancy of being a poor sport. Tonya avoids jail but is banned from competitive figure-skating for life. Heartbroken, she begs the judge to give her jail time instead of taking away the one thing she knows how to do; the judge refuses.
Jeff acknowledges that he ruined Tonya's career. He changes his name, opens a hair salon, divorces, and remarries. LaVona moves to Washington state and has no contact with Tonya. Tonya remarries, divorces, takes up professional boxing, and becomes a landscaper, house painter, and deck builder. She now lives happily with her third husband and their seven-year-old son. Text at the end states that Tonya wants people to know that she is a good mother.
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