"People said that her sin — before her other sins — was not being the Disney princess Barbie doll"

What a bunch of revisionist twaddle. Americans loved Harding back in the day, because Americans love the underdog. Who they hated was Nancy Kerrigan, who was too perfect and tried too hard and was basically Tracy Flick from "Election", but on the ice.

No, I'm pretty sure Harding's sin was that she admitted in court that she had known what her husband was going to do, and did nothing to stop it. She has reaffirned as recently as this year that those are indeed the facts.

Can we save our sympathy for actual victims?

@1 wins. Revisionist is right.

Nobody liked Kerrigan until Hardings goon squad made her a martyr.

I loved the movie. But Jesus Christ are people so simple to believe that movie is anything but an entertaining fictionalized pseudo-history?

Harding isn't some super villainess but she is a pile of shit criminal who allowed, and likely encouraged, her sporting rival to be attacked and then got caught lying about it in court.

@1 and @2 --- really? I always liked Kerrigan because she was the more graceful artist of the two while also having the athletic chops of a potential gold medalist. I didn't dislike Harding, but I liked her less because for her it seemed to be a competitive sport: it was not a question of going out there and giving the best performance you can, but rather of beating your competitors.

Anyway, I fell out of love with Kerrigan, not when she failed to win the gold medal, but when she started grousing about it. Oksana Baiul kicked her ass and everybody else's, and for Kerrigan to start saying it was unfair, and she deserved to win, was ungracious and tacky.

(Of course I realize that figure skating is, in fact, a competitive sport; but so is diving, and my favorite was always Greg Louganis --- not because he won everything, but because he did it so beautifully, and talked about it in terms of performing, not competing.)

(I don't really watch figure skating any more since the "sport vs. art" argument has been settled so decisively in favor of sport. I guess I'm an old curmudgeon.)

Fine journalism. No shit. Actual--fine journalism. Thank you.

Holy shit that Britney profile is brutal and great.

@2: absolutely, Oksana Baiul kicked Kerrigan's ass up and down the rink. When Olympic-level women's figure skating is good, it is sublime. That was one of those years. (I thought Sasha Cohen's silver in 2006 was amazing, as well.)

#metoo - well unless you want the actual truth about anything..., then it comes with an unenforceable $25,000 fine. So much for a “Free Press”, eh?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/na…