This week the wildly popular dance reality show ‘Dancing With the Stars’ contained a suspenseful moment as the winner of “Dancing with the Stars: Athletes” was announced. Former skater Adam Rippon was the ultimate winner, but on the same stage was a woman everyone remembers; Tonya Harding. Tonya Harding was already famous, an Olympic women’s figure skater from Oregon, but it was the moment her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, attacked fellow US Olympian Nancy Kerrigan that insured her rightful place among greats sport scandals of all time. It took decades for Tonya to rehabilitate her brand.
In 2008 Tonya wrote her autobiography called ‘The Tonya Tapes’ and began working as a professional boxer, appearing on the television show the ‘Weakest Link,’ and other low budget projects. While making a surprise visit to the Ellen DeGeneres program, the producers of the ‘DWTS’ thought they’d have her back to compete in the “Dancing with the Stars: Athletes” competition. Although Tonya did not win the coveted first prize this week on “DWTS’ she’s back on track with a sellable career, happy to be back in the spotlight.
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