Tonya Harding Set to Return to the Ice for Public Skating Show

Tonya Harding is lacing up her skates once again.

More than three decades after cementing her place in sports history, partly in infamy, the 55-year-old athlete is preparing for a public performance.

In an interview with CBS affiliate KOIN 6, Harding announced that she will headline “Tonya and Friends,” a public skating exhibition scheduled for December 12 at the Mountain View Ice Arena in Vancouver, Washington.

“The love of skating is the reason why I’ve always come back,” Harding told the publication. “I just can’t walk away from it.”

Harding burst onto the international scene in 1991 by becoming the first American woman to land a triple Axel in competition, winning the U.S. Ladies’ Singles title that same year. To prepare for her upcoming return, Harding quietly began training twice a week in the spring, working alongside her 1990s coach, Dody Teachman, and utilizing a training harness to rebuild her strength and stamina on the ice.

“She’s a force all her own,” Teachman told KOIN 6.

Tonya Harding is making a comeback to figure skating.

“I just can’t walk away from it,” she tells @KOINNews

https://t.co/dP08tGX8MQ https://t.co/KSuS0bJ87H

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) October 30, 2026

New York Times national investigative correspondent Mike Baker shared the interview on his X account with the caption, “Tonya Harding is making a comeback to figure skating,” and one user commented underneath, “She’ll be 56 in two weeks… is there even a market opportunity here?”

Tickets for the upcoming skating show appear to be sold out on the official site.

While the appearance marks a departure from traditional competitive circuits, Harding said she is eager to reconnect with fans in a celebratory environment.

“I just want people to come out and have fun and be able to enjoy a real skating show,” she said. “It makes my heart feel good. And I am really glad people can come see me skate again.”

Harding’s name remains infamous for the 1994 scandal involving rival Nancy Kerrigan and her then-husband, Jeff Gillooly, which resulted in her lifetime ban from competitive figure skating. That chapter later inspired the hit 2017 biographical dark comedy I, Tonya, starring Margot Robbie as Harding and Sebastian Stan as Gillooly, bringing her complex history back into the pop culture spotlight.

This also isn’t Harding’s first major foray back into entertainment. She previously traded her skates for the ballroom, finishing in third place on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars in 2018.