The bad girl of figure skating has a new name - hero.
Tonya Harding used mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to help revive an 81-year-old woman who collapsed at a bar while playing video poker."I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her," Alice Olson told KOIN-TV. "She saved my life."
The deposed U.S. figure skating champion, reviled for her role in the 1994 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan, came upon Olson after stopping Sunday at the Lost and Found Saloon for a quick game of video poker.
"It was very, very scary," Harding told The Associated Press. "I kept my calm and cool and knew what I was doing. I had to do this. I thank God that I was there. Nobody else in the bar knew what to do. This lady was literally dead for probably two minutes."
Well, not really. Olson, who suffers from heart problems and diabetes, would have come to on her own and wasn't in any immediate danger, said hospital officials, adding, however, that Harding still did the right thing. Olson was released from the hospital on Monday.
Harding and her godmother, Linda Lewis, had just arrived at the bar when Olson tumbled from her stool onto the floor.
While Lewis started to give CPR, Harding called 911 on her cellular phone, then took over for Lewis. Harding said she remembered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from a class she took in school.
Saloon owner Kim Ip confirmed Harding's version of events.
"The lady came to in a couple of minutes," Ip said. "I'm grateful that Tonya was here."
Harding comforted the woman until paramedics arrived, Ip said.
"Once we got her back and I had her head in one hand and her hand in the other and was talking to her and trying to make her smile," Harding said. "I said, `So, have you ever been kissed by a woman before?' She said she hadn't and I said, `Well, I guess there's a first time for everything.' "
Harding worked with the elderly in the Meals on Wheels program as part of her probation for pleading guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution in the assault on Kerrigan, Harding's chief rival for the U.S. figure skating title. Harding was eventually banned from the sport for life.