Tonya Harding: There's no such thing as truth. It's bullshit. Everyone has their own truth, and life just does whatever the fuck it wants.
Tonya Harding: I was loved for a minute, then I was hated. Then I was just a punch line.
Tonya Harding: It was like being abused all over again. Only this time it was by you. All of you. You're all my attackers too.
Tonya Harding: They got 18 months. I'll do that. Your honor. I don't have education. All I know is skating. I'm no one if I'm can't- I'm not this monster. I'm trying to do the best with what I know how to. It's like you're giving me a life sentence. You can't do that.
Tonya Harding: America. They want someone to love, they want someone to hate.
Tonya Harding: Where the fuck are my Dove Bars?
Jeff Gillooly: We can't afford 'em. Eskimo Pie is just as good.
Tonya Harding: I'm America's best figure skater! I don't want friggin' Eskimo Pies.
Tonya Harding: I mean, come on! What kind of friggin' person bashes in their friend's knee? Who would do that to a friend?
LaVona Golden: You fuck dumb. You don't marry dumb.
LaVona Golden: Call that a clean skate, for Christ's sake?
Skater Mom: Do not swear in front of the kids.
LaVona Golden: I didn't swear, you cunt.
Answer: It used to be a lot more popular. The Harding/Kerrigan Winter Olympic figure skating competition was the 6th highest rated program in TV history as of 1994, with 48.5 million viewers, no doubt helped by the controversy. It's slowly declined over time - from 1998 to 2018 viewing figures for the US championships declined by 1/3. Opinions about its loss of appeal range from a change in the scoring (used to be judges rating out of 6.0, now it's a more complicated points system), to a lack of "star power", with recognisable names grabbing people's attention. In the UK at least, skater team Torville and Dean were household names for a long time, but I'd imagine a lot of people would struggle to think of skaters with that level of popular recognition nowadays. That said, viewing figures for the 2018 US championships were 60% up on 2017, and membership of the US figure skating organization has risen for the last four years - these things wax and wane like any other.
Jon Sandys ★