Figure skating fans of the ’90s had a front row seat to greatness. Some (especially little Black girls) knew there was something special happening with Surya Bonaly’s gravity-defying backflips — landed on one leg no less — considering she was the only one at the time who could actually land them in competition. Others were disgusted (in a way I still cannot understand three decades later), because she wasn’t “following the rules.”
Surya landed her “Bonaly backflip” during the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998, where she was heavily penalized and placed 10th overall. On top of being known for her backflip, she was also one of the first female skaters to attempt a quad jump in the 1992 Olympics.
Now, during the 2026 Winter Olympics, US figure skater Ilia Malinin has been praised for being the first athlete to “legally” land a backflip on one leg. He’s even been dubbed the “Quad God.”
For those keeping track of the math, that’s 34 years after Surya’s quad.
Now, this is in no way a shot at Ilia’s accomplishments. At 21 years old, he wasn’t even alive when Surya wowed and delighted the Nagano crowd — she received a standing ovation before she even started her program — but was shamed by the judges’ panel. It further proves just how technically difficult it is to attempt what she did in her career. And there’s no denying that Ilia is extremely talented and destined for Olympic greatness. But revisionist history just isn’t going to work on this one, considering the ridicule Surya received her entire career was so heavily publicized.
Surya has been relatively out of the public eye since her final Olympics in 1998, but she was featured in the Netflix docuseries Losers (like seriously, title, come on!), where she discussed her experience in the predominantly white world of figure skating, and what she’d been doing since then.
The most striking thing from her episode is that viewers meet a bubbly woman — not a scorned sore loser as so many tried to make her — who’s excited about her impact and humbled by all of the accolades she received from her fans. She shared that athletes outside of her sport surprised her with high praise: “Hockey players, bobsledders, skiers, they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, that is the biggest thing I’ve ever seen! That’s the bomb!'”
Surya, now 52, coaches figure skating for young children in Minnesota. Her Instagram is one of the most wholesome places on the internet.
For those unfamiliar with Surya Bonaly’s Olympic impact, here’s a bit of her history, and the blatant racism she faced:
Surya Bonaly made her Olympic debut in the 1992 Olympics in her home country of France. During a practice session, she was chastised for landing her backflip “too close” to Midori Ito (a Japanese figure skating legend in her own right and 1992 Olympic silver medalist). Judges implied that she used her backflip and quad jumping athleticism to intimidate other skaters.
At the 1994 World Championships, she famously took off her silver medal at the podium, because she was frustrated with the judges’ decision to not place her as gold medalist after an ambitious routine and an almost too-close-to-call score count. Critics called her a sore loser who was just having a temper tantrum.
In her final Olympics — Nagano in 1998 — Surya did her big one. Since she planned on going pro after the games, she finished her Olympic career on her own terms. Surya landed her “Bonaly flip” on one edge, earning a standing ovation from a delighted crowd. She thought she could avoid a penalization, since the ban technically applied to a two-foot landing. But that was not the case.
At the end of her performance, she turned her back to the judges and bowed to the fans. In return, the judges dropped her ranking from sixth to tenth place. As a young figure skating fan, I remember feeling like her scores didn’t matter, because what I’d just seen on live television was the stuff of legend.
After her Olympics run, Surya started her professional career, where she was finally allowed to perform to the fullest of her ability with no outdated rules. She was a “Champions on Ice” star until 2007. Surya retired from the sport of figure skating in 2015. Since then, she’s been coaching young skaters in Minnesota. Talk about a mentor.
As a kid watching Surya on ice, I didn’t have the words to label a microaggression, but I definitely picked up on the way she was treated compared to my other childhood faves like Kristi Yamaguchi and Tara Lipinski. I remember the constant hen-pecking of her costumes and makeup choices. And to some degree, I internalized it as a little brown girl. I remember her being described as flashy, ostentatious, and intimidating; never graceful or beautiful like her counterparts.
It’s been vindicating to see Surya finally get the acclaim she deserves. Fans are not allowing any Surya erasure:
“Surya Bonaly originated the backflip in the Winter Olympics and was penalized for it. She should have won the gold medal. Now the Olympics is celebrating another skater for doing her move. The Olympic Committee owes her an apology and a gold medal.”
“Facing racism in the sport head on, Surya Bonaly landed the banned backflip on one foot and made history anyway.”
“Just to update everyone, Surya Bonaly is looking good and still got it. Bless.”
“reducing surya bonaly’s entire career to a backflip done at one of her last competitions (completely neglecting to mention her 3 world silver medals, 5 european championship titles, 9 french national titles, and junior world title) is a crime that should [be] prosecutable.”
“A black woman, Surya Bonaly, did it first and did it better… just saying.”
“Day 8-Surya Bonaly watching her as a little girl she was the only figure skater that looked like me. She was a force on that ice and skated HER way! Bold, unapologetic, authentic BLACK woman. Salute.”
“Yup. She could do it, no one else could, so instead of making it a crazy-high score, they banned it, and penalized her when she did it anyway. She was considered ‘too athletic.’ Code for ‘unladylike, because, you know…’”
“She was spectacular – not sure there was another woman I loved watching skate more than her.”
“This is crazy! I literally saw someone do a flip while ice skating for the first time TODAY while competing in the Olympics (it was a male). I figured he had to be the first person to pull this off but I guess I was wrong. Never heard of Surya until now but that was amazing!”
“That one foot was legendary. I remember watching it and getting chills. She deserved a gold medal. A true athlete who never got her flowers.”
“Surya made her backflips look elegant. Most other figure skating backflips look like hastily chucked cheerleading standing fulls.”
“Surya was the perfect mesh of artistry and athleticism on ice.”
Surya Bonaly deserves all the belated praise, and even more. It’s not easy to remember all of the names of the figure skating gold medalists throughout history, but Surya is an Olympic treasure who’s hard to forget.
Do you remember Surya’s performances on ice? Share your memories in the comments!
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