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Tonya Harding Sells Bizarre Tale of Rape, Kidnapping Orchestrated by Jeff Gillooly

Posted: May 15th 2008 12:15 PM ET by Michael David Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Olympics, Women's Sports, Winter Sports

2 COMMENTS
Former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding is selling a book, called "The Tonya Tapes" in which she offers, for the first time, an account of why she didn't go to the authorities in 1994 when her rival Nancy Kerrigan was injured in an attack orchestrated by her husband, Jeff Gillooly. Here she is explaining it on Today:

According to Harding, she planned to go to the FBI to report Gillooly, but Gillooly and two other men then kidnapped her, held her at gunpoint, raped her and told her that they would kill her if she didn't help them lie to the authorities.

Today host Meredith Vieira responded to that with the obvious question: Why has it taken her 14 years to tell anyone about this incident? Harding answered that she was ashamed. I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of people watching the interview will conclude that this claim is nothing more than a publicity stunt aimed at selling books.

Drugged Skater Update: Her Dinner Companion Took Viagra

Posted: Apr 25th 2008 9:58 AM ET by Josh Alper (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Olympics, Women's Sports, Winter Sports

0 COMMENTS
If police are still wondering who slipped GHB into Olympic ice dancer Pasha Grishuk's drinks at dinner the other night, they may want to check out her dinner companion. The New York Post reports that Grishuk called the man to see if he would admit slipping her the date rape drug. He denied that but did admit that there were other pills on the premises that night.

She reminded him he'd disappeared for 15 minutes in the bathroom and asked why he came back "acting weird."

He answered, "OK, fine, I took, Viagra," she quoted him saying.

The dinner partner, a man in his 60s, who was supposed to be discussing a business venture with the 1994 and 1998 ice-dancing gold-medalist, claimed he took the drug, because it "gives him energy," Grishuk said.

Uh, yeah, mysterious ice-skating enthusiast, we're all well aware of the kind of energy that Viagra provides and that's why it's a strange choice for a business meeting. Someone should remind him, it's Red Bull that gives you wings, Viagra gives you something else entirely.

Innocent until proven guilty and all that but, still, it's a pretty shady alibi. "Yes, that's blood on my shirt and yes, I'm not wearing any pants but I have no idea how that dead hooker got here, officer."

Olympic Ice Dancer Pasha Grishuk Slipped a Date Rape Drug but Escapes Unharmed

Posted: Apr 22nd 2008 4:25 PM ET by Josh Alper (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Olympics, Women's Sports, Winter Sports

1 COMMENT
Ice skating has a tough time finding it's niche in the United States. Sure, every four years for a week it becomes big news during the Winter Olympics but otherwise the athletes of the ice find it tough to get a mention beside the big boys of American sports. Making it worse, the rare times they do get attention it tends to have nothing to do with their athletic acheivements.

Think Tonya Harding's cronies kneecapping Nancy Kerrigan or Oksana Baiul wrapping her car around a tree. And, now, think Pasha Grishuk getting dosed by a date rape drug in Orange County. TMZ has the scoop.
The two-time Olympic gold medal winner attended a business meeting at the swanky St. Regis in the OC on April 12. Grishuk ordered a glass of wine at the table, which she briefly left unattended. After taking a few more sips, Pasha noticed a half-dissolved pill at the bottom of her glass. By the time cops and paramedics arrived, Pasha was feeling numb and ill. They also found a second glass she had been drinking from in the lounge and it had residue from a pill as well
Grishuk doesn't compete any longer so it's either a case of attempted date rape or a really bizarre publicity stunt. If it was the latter, job well done because I've know heard of Pasha Grishuk, something that wasn't true before today. If it's the former, here's hoping that whoever did it runs afoul of a serious beating sometime soon.

Shawn Eric Eckardt, Tonya Harding Pal Who Planned Attack on Nancy Kerrigan, Dies

Posted: Dec 15th 2007 5:13 PM ET by Michael David Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Olympics, Women's Sports, Winter Sports

3 COMMENTS
Shawn Eric Eckardt, the bodyguard of figure skater Tonya Harding who helped to plan the attack on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, just before the U.S. Olympic figure skating championships, has died at the age of 40.

Eckardt, who later changed his name to Brian Sean Griffith in an attempt to distance himself from the Harding-Kerrigan controversy, died of what has been termed natural causes.

The attack created international headlines even before Eckardt confessed that he and Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly had planned to injure Kerrigan to give Harding a better chance of making the U.S Olympic team. Eckardt, Gillooly and Harding were all convicted of crimes related to the attack on Kerrigan, as were Shane Stant, who hit Kerrigan, and Derrick Smith, who drove the getaway car.

Eckardt ultimately served a little over a year in prison for his role in the attack.

Sochi, Russia Gets Winter Olympics

Posted: Jul 4th 2007 9:08 PM ET by Michael David Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Olympics, Winter Sports

0 COMMENTS

When the International Olympic Committee announced today that Sochi, Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Russian delegation immediately began talking up the positive effects the Games would have on their country:

"It was a historic decision for all countries," Sochi bid chief Dmitry Chernychenko said. "Russia will become even more open, more democratic."

Whether that's true or not we won't know for years, but there's no question that having Russia as a host country will be good for the Olympics. Russia has won 293 Winter Games medals but never hosted the Winter Games, and the country's devotion is evident in the country's pledge of $12 billion to build Sochi into a world-class winter sports complex. Sochi should be a great host city.

Bode Miller Quits U.S. Ski Team

Posted: May 12th 2007 3:51 PM ET by Michael David Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Olympics, Winter Sports

2 COMMENTS
Bode Miller, the skier whose great talent and brash personality made him one of the biggest stories (and one of the biggest disappointments) of the 2006 Winter Olympics, has announced that he is quitting the U.S. ski team.

This was a difficult decision for me to make," Miller said. "Despite any of our past differences, I have been part of the U.S. Ski Team for 11 years and I cherish the relationships I have built with my teammates, the coaches, staff, sponsors and trustees. I do not believe I can excel and perform at the level I demand of myself under the guidelines the U.S. Ski Team has presented. I will continue to ski as an American under the U.S. flag, and am proud to do so."

Miller has won World Cup races in the slalom, giant slalom, Super-G, downhill, and combined. He needs two World Cup wins to match Phil Mahre's American record of 27.

Team USA Looking Red, White and Green

Posted: Apr 23rd 2007 11:05 PM ET by Mirtle M.D. (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Olympics, Winter Sports, General NHL

1 COMMENT

With the world hockey championship quickly approaching, the American team added three more fresh faces - Ryan Suter, Adam Hall (pictured) and Jason Bacashihua - today to a roster chock full of youngsters.

In fact, there are just six players with 1970s birthdates, something that highlights Team USA's go-with-the-kids approach. The likes of Keith Tkachuk, Doug Weight and Mike Knuble are staying home, likely due to their own personal choice (which says something in itself, perhaps, of the state of the country's national program).

The average age on the squad is 24 years, 10 months, a figure brought down significantly by a pair of 19-year-olds in Erik Johnson and Phil Kessel and one 20-year-old in Jack Johnson. With just-turned-30 Brian Pothier as the grizzled veteran on the blue line, the average defenceman's age is just 24 years, one month.

Team USA has won just one medal at the past 10 world championships, a bronze in 2004 in Prague, and just two since 1962.

The U.S. is currently ranked seventh in the IIHF world rankings, behind Slovakia and just ahead of supposed minnows Switzerland, Latvia and Belarus. A terrible showing in Moscow could potentially drop the Americans further, although a fall out of the top nine - where every team will be guaranteed a berth in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver - is unlikely.

Tonya Harding Blames Asthma Medication for Behavior

Posted: Mar 15th 2007 11:59 AM ET by Michael David Smith (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Olympics, Women's Sports, Winter Sports

164 COMMENTS
It's Bizarre Excuse Week here at FanHouse. A day after we learned that Evander Holyfield's use of performance enhancing drugs was because of bad shrimp, we've now learned that Tonya Harding says she has been acting strange lately because she's on asthma medication.

Deputies received two calls four hours apart on Sunday, the first shortly before 5 a.m. from Harding, who was at a towing company in Yacolt, said she was being followed by several people and believed someone was trying to hide weapons on her property, Sgt. Timothy L. Bieber said.

A deputy found no evidence to support her claims but noted that she also said she was having an adverse reaction to an unspecified medication.

The second call was from a woman who said she was a friend of Harding and reported that Harding was "tweaking out, seeing animals" and scaring her children, Bieber said.


A friend of Harding's says that because of her asthma, she "was prescribed medications which did not interact correctly." I'd say so. Tweaking out, seeing animals and scaring children is no way to go through life.

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