If you’re into the world of Olympic figure skating, perhaps you probably already heard of the famous Surya Bonaly. If you haven’t, here is the story of Bonaly’s performance in the 1998 Olympics.
First, there is narrative online the backflip in figure skating was made illegal after Bonaly performed it.
That, however, is false.
She unfortunately was not the pioneer of backflips on ice. She and her coach decided doing backflips on ice, because Norbert Schramm was performing backflips on ice in a show. In 1980, Scott Cramer performed 10,032 successful backflips on ice skates. Cramer was third to perform this move after Skippy Baxter and Terry Kubicka.
Kubicka did perform a legal backflip in the 1976 Olympics (yes, he was a white male). After he did this, ISU banned the backflip in figure skating competition. It was deemed too dangerous for it a skater makes a mistake, and it went against figure skating principle that flips should be landed on one skate.
It should be noted: YES, a backflip in figure skating IS extremely dangerous. Figure skaters trip up with their jumps already. Imagine tripping up a backflip; a skater could not only break their ankle but their neck. A live Olympic performance like that would be…memorable, to say the least.
As you can see, Surya Bonaly was born in 1973. There is no way the backflip could be made illegal because of a three year old.
This, however, is not to say Bonaly is any less of a backflipping badass.
At her first season in senior competition, she landed a backflip during practice, and it was right in front of Mindoro Ito, the favorite for the 1992 Olympics. In that same competition, she became the only woman to ever attempt a quad toe loop in competition; the first time that had been successfully pulled off was only three years before.
Yes, Bonaly did have to face racial discrimination. She was athletic and black, not the pale and thin image of a “ice princess.” She was labeled as a rebel, and the judges treated her so. Her performances were nitpicked to the studs, and her artistry was criticized. Bonaly faced the same plight of black ballerinas, because people didn’t she fit the light and graceful figure they expected.
Her plight became visible in the 1994 World Championship. She was tied with Yuka Sato, and a vote was the tiebreaker. Since Yuka was more in line with the ice princess image, Bonaly was placed in second instead of first. She did not want to share the podium, crying at the defeat, and the crowd booed her. (Sound familiar?)
Bonaly knew the 1997-98 would be her last season, and when he judges gave low scores on her fantastic short program, she knew she had to make a point. She was not planning a backflip in her performance, and she had been training to do a triple jump where the backflip took place. However, she completely pulled it off.
If you watch the video, you can notice the shock and awe of the audience. She knew the backflip could disqualify her, but she wanted to be remembered if she was never going to get the gold. She did not care though. When she placed 10th, as a result of not disqualifying her for the illegal move, she turned her back on the judges. She did not care she disrespected them. They couldn’t take away the fact she made history.
The French born figure skater is alive and well in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is coach to figure skater Sunny Choi, and she’s as inspiring today as she was in 1998.