Tonya Harding Price at 55: ‘I couldn’t ask for more’
With a husband, son and family life she has always wanted, Tonya Harding Price looks positively at life these days
BATTLE GROUND, Wash. — Through all the trials and tribulations that for many years turned her life into a soap opera, Tonya Harding has tried to stay above the fray.
“I have to think positive,” she says.
Tonya sips on a hard cider as we talk while I have lunch — Jager steak bites, her favorite — at Playmakers Bar & Grill on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. By the time we are done an hour later, three-quarters of the drink still sits in the glass.
It has been seven years since I did my last interview with Tonya, updating Portland Tribune readers about the life of the two-time Olympian and U.S. figure skating champion, whose second title was stripped after she pled guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution in the fabled Nancy Kerrigan case of 1994.
At the time, 24 years later, life had settled down and taken a dramatic turn for the better. She was married to a decent guy, Joe Price, with whom she had a son, Gordon. A film about her life, “I Tonya,” had been released and was rated by Sports Illustrated as the best sports movie of 2017. And she was just coming off the high of her participation in “Dancing With the Stars,” in which she performed superbly and enjoyed the experience even more.
Joe and Tonya have been married for 15 years now (courtesy Tonya Price)
“I never could have imagined things would be the way they are now,” Harding — who now goes by Tonya Price — told me then.
With those exciting times long past, I would offer that in some ways, life is better for her now.
Tonya and Joe are still together, married now for 15 years. Gordon, 14, is a freshman in high school.
“God has given me sustaining gifts,” Tonya says. “The best gifts he gave me were my husband and my son. I wasn’t supposed to be able to have kids. I was 39 when I was pregnant. All the doctors told me if I did conceive, that I would not be able to carry the baby to term. I couldn’t ask for more. I have had so many experiences in my life. The best is family. Being able to have your own family and live your life.”
After living in a motor home for three years, Joe, Tonya, Gordon and their six-year-old golden retriever Dorado — “golden” in Spanish — now live in an apartment in southwest Washington. (Tonya asks that I get no more specific. “I still get death threats on social media,” she says.) Tonya is grateful for their living quarters.
“Life can be hard,” she says. “Living in a motor home … was really hard. We got through it. Now that we are in an apartment … it is so nice to take a shower when you want, do laundry when you want. I am so happy. It makes me feel so much better.
“If you can endure what we went through, you are a survivor. You can do it any time you have to. We have really been blessed.”
Joe works at the local Ace Hardware.
“He loves it there,” Tonya says. “He is a great employee. People come in and ask for him.”
Gordon has settled into high school after struggling with some classes academically in middle school.
“Things are going really well,” Tonya says. “Gordon is becoming more mature now that he has started high school. He has every grade above a ‘C’ now.
“He loves music. He is in choir and he was in band. He plays trombone and acoustic and steel guitar and he can sing. He takes after his dad in that respect,” she says, laughing. “I know I don’t have the greatest voice, but I do love to sing.”
Six-year-old Dorado is also a big part of the family.
“Like any golden retriever, he cannot keep a paw off you,” says Tonya, showing off photos. “You pet him and he puts the paw on you. He is a very loving dog. They have some sort of love hormone that is bred in them. I didn’t want to train him to be a guard dog. I just want him to be the family dog.” She laughs again. “He understands a few things, like ‘No!’ And ‘Stop!’ ”
The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.
Tonya is doing custodial work five or six days a week at two restaurants in the area. It is hard work, but she says that is not a problem.
“I like it,” she says. “I usually get up about 5 (a.m.) and am at work by 6:30 or so and am done before noon. I love the company I work for and the people I work with. They treat me with respect. They are like, ‘Tonya, we need you to take over all (five of the company’s restaurants).’ I can’t do that; I can only work 40 hours a week.”
Do customers recognize her?
“They still do,” she says. “People come up to me all the time and ask, ‘How’s it going?’ Some will ask for an autograph.”
Tonya displays a cowgirl look at Halloween (courtesy Tonya Price)
Tonya turned 55 on November 12. She celebrated twice — with a party on the Saturday before, then with a family dinner on her birthday.
“I hadn’t celebrated my birthday in years, but hey, it was, ‘I’m turning 55, I’m having a party,’ ” she says. Friends and co-workers arranged it for her at one of the company restaurants.
“So many people showed up,” she says. “It was fun. First time I stayed up until 11:30 (p.m.) in a long time. I took the next day off, the first day of work I have missed in three years.
“My birthday dinner (at El Rancho) was wonderful. I had a burrito with beans and chicken and cheese and rice all together in one. I like to have a Margarita with Mexican food. That’s the only place that makes a good one. They asked what size I wanted. Gordon said, ‘Mom, get the large!’ I said, ‘I’ll take a large.’ It was hilarious.”
Tonya looks in excellent shape. She carries only 105 pounds on her 5-1 body.
“On the last night of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (in 2018), I was 119,” she says. “I’m in the same shape as I was when I was skating (in the early ’90s).”
Looks can be deceiving, however.
“I am in pain a lot — mostly my lower back,” she says, then reeling off a litany of injuries she says she has sustained through the years. Broken ribs, broken sternum, broken collarbone, broken vertebrae in the neck. Torn rotator cuff. Injuries to both elbows.
“But you know, it’s just life,” she says. “I push through. Not going to let things stop me from doing what I do.
“I am doing good. My life has its ups and downs, just like anybody else. With the economy how it is, who can afford to do things?”
She and her husband seem to finally be making ends meet financially, though. In a life that has rarely been stable, Tonya Price has some stability.
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Tonya is currently involved with one outside project. A production company has been working with her on what sounds as if it will be a mini-documentary.
“I have worked with these people before,” she says. “They are wanting to do what would probably be my last skating show and put it into a small … I don’t know if you would call it a documentary.
“We filmed me at the ice rink; we did a partial interview here recapping stuff in my life. We did a small shoot at the apartment. They followed me to my work. I don’t know when it will be completed; we just made the sizzle (promotional reel).”
Tonya hadn’t skated since she did a “Merry Christmas” video that she put out on Instagram during the 2024 holiday season.
She is back working with Dody Teachman, her old coach of the early ‘90s, at Mountain View Ice Arena in Vancouver. Tonya is pleased with the results.
“On my third day back, I already got the double loop, the double salchow and the double toe (loop) down,” she says, showing me a couple of new short videos of her skating exploits.
I tell her I am impressed at what she can do on the ice at her age.
“God gave me the gift,” she says. “That’s the only thing I could ever say. I do have a good work ethic. I have a set schedule. It’s like, ‘This is what I do, and please don’t mess with it.’ ”
For the upcoming doc project, “they wanted to film me sitting at home, having coffee in the morning,” she says. “Sorry. I wake up, get dressed, have my coffee and have a smoke — sorry, still doing it. But that is my time to wake up and get ready to go to work. So no, we are not filming that.”
The production company hopes to sell the film to Netflix, Hulu or another streaming service, Harding says. She has another wish.
“I would like to do a (skate) filming where everybody who wants to come and see me skate in person can,” she says. “I am going to be skating (at Mountain View) usually on Tuesdays. And if the film is a go, I will be skating more often.”
One thing has changed at age 55.
“I love being on the ice, but it is so cold,” she says. “It is between 20 and 26 degrees in there. If it is cold outside, you know it is cold inside. I am usually wearing three layers. I have my tights, I have my ‘warmies,’ and my stretch pants over the top of those. I have a T-shirt, a turtleneck and a sweatshirt and gloves. And if I could wear more, I would,” she adds with another laugh.
Tonya keeps in touch with representatives of “Dancing With the Stars” and with her dance partner, Sasha Farber. They scored a perfect 30 and won the final round of competition before she finished third overall in ’18. She covets a sequel.
“If they would bring us back as like maybe the top four or five contenders of a series of shows, a dance-off or something like that, I would love it,” she says. The ’18 competition was “some of the most fun I have ever had. I love performing. That was like the ultimate. Everything was taken care of for you. All I had to do was work hard and enjoy myself.
“They have things planned out so far in advance. I have called them many times. I said, ‘Are you ready for me yet? I’m in perfect condition.’” Another laugh.
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Now it is time to ask about the past, which is not as pleasant for Harding to discuss. The mother of Tonya’s dysfunctional childhood, LaVona Golden, remains out of her life.
“It has been more than 15 years since we have had any contact,” Tonya says. “When you disown someone, you don’t go running back to them.” She softens for a moment. “If she dies and I hear about it, I will go to the funeral.”
Despite the indignities Tonya suffered as a child — including sexual abuse by a relative and verbal and physical abuse from her mother — she rose up to become one of the world’s premier figure skaters, competing in a pair of Olympic Games. In 1991, she became the first woman to complete a triple axel in the short program, to successfully execute two triple axels and to complete a triple axel in combination with the double toe loop on her way to a U.S. title and a silver medal at the World Championships.
That is when things began to go south. She placed fourth in the Olympics and sixth in the World Championships in 1992, then failed to make the U.S. team for the ’93 World Championships. The nadir came in January ’94, when skating great Carrigan was attacked after a practice session before the U.S. Championships. She was clubbed above her right knee by a man wielding a baton — Shawn Stant, who had been hired by Tonya’s former husband, Jeff Gillooly, the intent to prevent Carrigan from being able to compete in the nationals or Olympics that year.
Injuries kept Carrigan from participating in the U.S. Championships and, two days later, Tonya won the title. Both were selected for the U.S. team in the Norway Olympic Games, where Kerrigan earned a silver medal and Tonya placed eighth.
In March, less than a month after the Olympics competition, Tonya pled guilty to the Class C felony offense. She admitted to knowledge of the assault plot, in helping provide a cover story for Gillooly and co-conspirator Shawn Eckardt and to lying to the FBI during investigations. Tonya was sentenced to three years of probation, a $100,000 fine and 500 hours of community service.
Despite a grand jury concluding there was evidence that she participated in the attack plot, Tonya was not charged in an indictment due to terms of her plea agreement. She was subsequently stripped by the U.S. Figure Skating Association of her 1994 U.S. title and banned for life from participation in USFSA events as a skater or coach.
In the years after the incident, Tonya struggled through life. Her second marriage lasted a year. She did a little acting. I first met her in 2003 as she began a six-bout pro boxing career in Memphis on the undercard of a Mike Tyson fight.
In 2010, she met Price, got married and, it would seem, life began to get much better.
When I ask Tonya about whether or not she has regrets, she feigns ignorance.
“For …?”
For the Kerrigan incident. The ensuing controversy and the penance required. Failure to turn her remarkable skating talents into an Olympic medal.
“Getting a medal is like icing on the cake,” Tonya says. “For me, it was about being one of the best in the world. I was able to get there.”
Tonya is determined to concern herself with the present and the future, and to not let the negatives of the past haunt her.
“Life throws you some wild curves,” she says. “It is a roller coaster, that’s what it is. You choose to ride it or choose to get off. Well, I am going to ride it. That is just who I am. I don’t give up on things. I can’t let the past bring me down. I don’t think about it; I don’t worry about it. I worry about the here and now and the future.
“It is really about being loved and wanted and respected and appreciated. That’s what I want. If I would never have gone through what I went through, I may never have met my husband. I wouldn’t have had my son. I wouldn’t change a damn thing.”
Nothing?
“Nope,” she says. “You go through things in your life, and you either learn a lesson, or you become something better.”
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Life seems better for Tonya these days. Home life is good. Work is good.
Playmakers is affiliated with Meals on Wheels, which focuses on feeding seniors in need. That connects with Tonya from her time fulfilling community service obligations in Oregon City in the late ‘90s.
“I worked for the community center, cooking and serving meals to elderly people who came in,” she says. “Sometimes, that was the only meal they would get in a day. To find out the company that I work for works with Meals on Wheels, it’s so heartwarming. That is totally cool.”
Tonya is looking forward to the holiday season.
“I love Christmas,” she says. “Besides Easter, Christmas is my favorite time of year. On my birthday, I was already thinking about putting up Christmas lights. The quicker I can get them up, the happier I am. This is going to be a great Christmas. We get our own Christmas tree.”
Joe is the youngest of eight siblings.
“His family consists of about 50 adults and 20 children,” Tonya says. “Our holidays are busy and fun. Everybody is coming together in the middle of (December) for what amounts to Thanksgiving and Christmas put together. It’s ‘ThanksChristmas.’ ”
Tonya is laughing again. I ask about her interest in the Winter Olympics in the oncoming months.
“I wish everybody the best of luck,” she says. “Go out there and enjoy it.”
Will she be watching?
“I don’t watch lots of TV,” Tonya says. “I watch my cop shows — CSI, NCIS, the new Magnum P.I. and Hawaii 5-0. It gives you action. It shows the compassion. There is so much about them that is like real life. And you are not dealing with all the women who think they are the boss of everything, like those ‘Real Housewives of …’ shows. Oh my God. I could never watch those. I watch 10 minutes of it, and I’m like, ‘What?’ ”
I ask about goals. What does she want to accomplish over the next few years?
“Another time on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ one of the best things I have ever done,” she says. “Hopefully skate for the public one more time. I would love to do an exhibition. I want to see my son graduate from high school. He was just a little loaf of bread not too long ago (laughs).
“Hopefully we will be able to own our own home someday. That is what we really want. And we have to have property, with two of everything in the barn. Two ponies, two goats, horses … a couple of cows. I love gardening, being able to feed my family. When you grow things in your garden, it tastes so different from what you buy in the supermarket. It tastes better, and I’m sure it’s because of the chicken poop, which is the best fertilizer there is.”
One more laugh. I find myself laughing, too.
“I have to keep myself on the upbeat,” she says. “I don’t think negatively about things. I’m human. Sometimes things happen. But don’t dwell on it. Deal with it and work through it. That’s the only thing you can do. Live life to the best of your ability every single day, because you never know when it could end.”
Nor where the conflicts will begin.
“It saddens me what this world has become,” Tonya says. “Everyone is affected by it. “But I am hopeful that things are starting to turn around. I have to think positive.”
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