Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Destroyed Her Career // The Tonya Harding Story

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

The 1994 Tonya Harding scandal involved a conspiracy to break the leg of rival figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, orchestrated by Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly to ensure Harding’s path to Olympic gold. While the January attack failed to break the leg, it caused a massive media sensation. Though Harding pleaded guilty only to hindering the prosecution after the fact, the scandal resulted in a lifetime ban from U.S. Figure Skating and an eighth-place finish at the 1994 Olympics, forever defining her career as one of the most bizarre in sports history.

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I can work with that. This should be tons of fun. Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again, now streaming only on Disney Plus. When WestJet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s,

one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. So at one point, she was the most hated person in America. Why? Well, the woman I'm talking about is this woman, Tanya. And Tanya's 23 when all this begins, and she's living in Portland, Oregon. And if you've heard of this story already, you know that Tanya is a professional skater. And she's really good at what she does. She's won multiple skating titles and championships. In fact, she's the first woman skater in U.S. history to land a triple

axle, which is like, I guess, an extremely difficult move. But now, in 1993, Tanya seems to only have one big goal in mind. She really wants to compete in the 1994 Winter Olympics and win. But to secure a spot on the Olympic team, she has to finish either first or second in the upcoming U.S. figure skating championship. So Tanya does her best to practice and prepare for it. But then something crazy happens. One day, some anonymous person calls into the ice skating rink where she's scheduled to compete

and issues a death threat saying that if, if you're a crazy happens, saying that if you're If Tanya performs in this regional championship competition, they're going to shoot her. Now, there's speculation that Tanya or one of her goons are the ones who actually called in the threat, I guess to garner sympathy for her or something, but that's never been proven. Regardless, Tanya chooses not to skate in that competition. And this is where her husband gets involved. This guy, Jeff. And so Jeff knows about this anonymous death threat against Tanya, and he hires

a bodyguard for her. This guy, Eckert. Now, this next part of the story is actually in dispute, so it all depends on if you believe Tanya was involved or not. But anyway, at some point, allegedly, Tanya, Jeff, and Eckert get worried that Tanya won't be able to skate better than her rival in the upcoming figure skating championship. And if she can't skate better than her rival, then she has no chance of winning and therefore no chance of getting a spot on the Olympic team. Not only that, but if Tanya wins the U.S. championship, she could receive millions of dollars in endorsement deals. And then if she goes on to win the Olympics, she'll be making even more money from endorsement deals and other stuff. So of course, all of them want Tanya to be

making more money, because that would mean Jeff and Eckert would also be making more money. So they decide that they need to get rid of Tanya's biggest rival, this woman, Nancy. And Nancy is also a professional skater and she's also damn good. So allegedly, Tanya, Jeff, and Eckert come up with a plan to send threatening letters to Nancy hoping that she'll drop out of the next

competition and then she won't qualify to be on the Olympic team. But somewhere along the way, they abandoned this plan because, I don't know, maybe sending threatening letters won't be enough to scare Nancy into dropping out of the competition. Instead, they decide to get someone to physically

attack her and injure. her. So Eckert goes to a friend of a friend. This guy, Shane. And so Eckert pays Shane $6,500, and he tells him to find Nancy and take out her leg. I guess Shane's like, all right. And so it's now 1994, a couple of days before the figure skating championship. And Nancy is at the arena in a practice session, skating around or whatever. After about an hour, she's done. And she leaves the and she grabs her bag and starts walking down a hallway back toward the locker rooms. But what she doesn't know is that Shane had been low-key watching her practice. The second Nancy enters that hallway, he follows her in there.

And now they're both in there alone. And that is when he pulls out a metal baton and pout, Shane hits her just above the knee, and she falls over in pain. Then Shane runs away toward the exit, and kaboom runs head first through a glass door smashing right through it, then he jumped into a getaway car driven by another goon who's involved in this, and they both speed away. Now, here's the thing. Nancy is legitimately injured from this attack, like her legs all fucked up, and due to this injury, she's unable to skate in the U.S. figure skating championship. Tanya, however, can still compete in the championship, and she does, and she ends up

winning it, actually, which means that she has officially secured a spot on the Olympic team. But that's where it gets interesting. Because the U.S. figure skating association, I guess they got together and they're like, fuck it. And they allow Nancy to compete in the Olympics anyway, even though she didn't qualify because, you know, she got hurt because she got attacked. So in the end, Tanya, Jeff, and Eckert, or whoever's plan it actually was, doesn't work. Because Nancy goes to the Olympics anyway. So anyway, news of Nancy getting attacked blows the fucking up. I mean, it's in every newspaper.

News stations are giving it wall-to-wall coverage. everyone in the country is talking about it. But you know who else was talking about it? Eckert. And at one point, Eckert is taking a paralegal class at the local college, because I guess he wants to be a paralegal, and he starts bragging to two of his classmates, explaining how he and his friends planned the whole attack on Nancy Kerrigan,

you know, the woman that's been all over the news. And to prove he's not lying, he even plays a tape recording from one of the meetings where they were planning the whole thing, because I guess he was secretly recording the meetings the whole time. Well, one of the friends in Eckert's class eventually talks to the FBI about all this. And the FBI's like, oh shit, we got to set up a sting operation. So they set up a whole sting operation. And they make this college class friend wear a wire and meet up with Eckert in the parking lot of some restaurant.

So they talk. And during the conversation, it doesn't take too long for Eckert to start bragging about the attack on Nancy. again. Only this time, everything is being recorded. So now the FBI finally has all the evidence they need. And so, bam, the feds arrest Eckert. Here's a picture of him. Now, pretty quickly, Eckert snitches on all the others. He's like, they ran on it too. And so, bam, they arrest Jeff and Shane and one of the other goons too. Meanwhile, the feds are still investigating Tanya, trying to figure out exactly what her role was in all of this. And while this investigation is going on, the 1994 Winter Olympics begins.

And both Tanya and Nancy end up competing in it and representing the United States. And in the end, Nancy finishes second place, winning the silver medal. While Tanya finishes eighth place and wins no medal, because, you know, eighth place doesn't get a medal. After the Olympics are over, the FBI finally has enough evidence against, Tanya, and so, bam, they arrest her. Here's her mugshot. Here's the thing, though. Ultimately, Tanya takes a plea deal, and she admits to knowing about the crime after it happened and failing to report it to the police. But she doesn't actually admit to helping plan the attack. She claims she had no part in planning that attack, and that her husband, Jeff, and Eckerd and

Shane and the other goon involved, all acted on their own, and she had no idea it was going down. Meanwhile, all four of the other guys gave testimony stating that Tanya was actually involved in the planning of the attack. So you guys can believe what you want to believe. There's been a lot of debate about this over the years about whether she was involved or not. Anyway, Tanya doesn't get prison time over this, but the judge does order her to pay a fine and compete around 500 hours of community service. And the United States Figure Skating Association strips her of her 1994 championship title, and permanently bans her from competitive skating. While Jeff is sentenced to two years in prison, Eckert gets 18 months in prison, Shane also gets 18 months in prison,

and the other goon, who was the getaway driver, he also gets 18 months in prison.