Tonya Harding is getting ready to figure skate again.

Harding, 55, spoke about her plans to skate again in an Oct. 30 interview with KOIN 6, a CBS affiliate in Portland, Ore. “The love of skating is the reason why I’ve always come back,” she told the outlet. “I just can’t walk away from it.”

Harding’s skating breakthrough came in 1991, when, at the U.S. Championships, she became the first American woman to land a triple Axel in competition. She won the 1991 U.S. Ladies’ Singles title that year. She later performed the triple Axel at the 1991 World Championships (finishing in second behind Kristi Yamaguchi and in front of Nancy Kerrigan) and at the 1991 Skate America event. After that year, however, she never landed the triple Axel in competition again. 

She competed in the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. Ahead of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, Kerrigan was brutally struck on the lower right thigh with a metal baton at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships (she ultimately won the silver medal at the Olympics). 

Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and her bodyguard, Shawn Eckardt, conspired to hire Shane Stant to attack Kerrigan. Harding long disputed her involvement, but she was eventually convicted of conspiracy to hinder the prosecution’s investigation into the incident. She received three years’ probation, 500 hours of community service and a $160,000 fine. She was also banned from the U.S. Figure Skating Association for life, unable to compete or coach others.

Though Harding is not competing, on Dec. 12 she’ll take part in “Tonya and Friends,” a public skating show scheduled for at Mountain View Ice Arena in Vancouver, Wash. “I just want people to come out and have fun and be able to enjoy a real skating show,” she told KOIN 6.

Harding said that she started skating twice a week in the spring with hopes that an opportunity for a public performance would come. Her practice on the ice has included working with a harness as she builds back her strength. 

“It makes my heart feel good,” Harding said about her return. “And I am really glad people can come see me skate again.”

Dody Teachman, who started coaching Harding in the 1990s and is helping Harding return to the ice, told the outlet, “She’s a force all her own.”

After leaving skating in the ‘90s, Harding appeared as a boxer, beginning with an appearance on Celebrity Boxing in 2002. She ultimately took part in six fights, winning three. 

In 2017, Harding’s story got renewed attention when I, Tonya was released, starring Margot Robbie as Harding, Sebastian Stan as Gillooly, Allison Janney as Harding’s mother LaVona Golden and Caitlin Carver as Kerrigan. The movie was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Actress for Robbie, and Janney won Best Supporting Actress.

Harding competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2018 during a special, four-week season that featured current and former athletes. She finished in third place. “I’m not here to prove anything to anyone except myself,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “I’m just really glad that my son will grow up knowing that his mommy was not a cheater.” She welcomed son Gordon Price in 2011 with husband Joseph Price.

In 2019, she competed on and won season 16 of Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition, earning $25,000 for the charity of her choice, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“My family and I are doing good,” she told PEOPLE in January 2024. “For the past year, I have been working as a custodian for two businesses that are part of one corporation.”