Meet Surya Bonaly, the Figure Skater Who Did the Backflip First – Because of Them We Can
Ilia Malinin's one-footed backflip helped Team USA win gold and revived recognition for Surya Bonaly, who performed the same banned move at the 1998 Olympics.
- On Feb. 8, Ilia Malinin landed a one-footed backflip during the men’s free skate at Milano Ice Skating Arena, helping Team USA secure its second consecutive team gold.
- The ISU's 2024 rule change reversed a 1977 prohibition, reclassifying backflips as choreographic sequence elements after decades of being banned as too dangerous.
- Landing her 1998 Nagano Olympic routine with a one-blade backflip, Bonaly performed it while injured and knowingly penalized, as a final act of defiance.
- Surya Bonaly, former French figure skater, praised Malinin's commitment to entertaining audiences and said the attention helps refocus recognition of her legacy after his Olympic backflip.
- Black skating analysts and observers say figure skating judging institutions and media framed Surya Bonaly's 1998 flip as defiance, while similar acts by white skaters now receive praise, revealing memory laundering in historical narratives of innovation.
19 Articles
19 Articles
Meet Surya Bonaly, the Figure Skater Who Did the Backflip First – Because of Them We Can
She did it first. And she did it on one blade. If you’ve been watching the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, you’ve probably seen the internet lose its mind over American figure skater Ilia Malinin landing a backflip during competition. It was historic, it was electric and it was legal. But nearly three decades ago, French figure skater Surya Bonaly did the very same thing on Olympic ice, landed it on a single blade, and was penalized for it. At th…
Surya Bonaly’s Backflip Was ‘Illegal’ In 1996 — So Why Is It ‘Revolutionary’ Now That A White Man Is Doing It? [Op-Ed]
L–R: Surya Bonaly from France performing a backflip on ice during the 1996 Miko Trophy. (Photo by Franck Seguin/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images). Surya Bonaly poses during a portrait session in Paris, France on 08/27/2023. (Photo by Eric Fougere/Corbis via Getty Images). Surya Bonaly from France during the closing gala of the 1995 World Championships. (Photo by Jean-Yves Ruszniewski/TempSport/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images) As the sports world celebrat…
‘No One Else Could Do It’: Ice Skater Surya Bonaly Hits Back as Ilia Malinin Gets Olympic Glory — and the Medal — for What Derailed Her Career
Figure skating fans will not allow history to be rewritten during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. Headlines are buzzing over the acrobatic ice
He wasn't the first to do it, nor was he the first to do it when it was allowed. So why is American figure skating star Ilya Malinin's backflip getting so much attention?
Forbidden fifty years in competition, the perilous jump has been allowed since last year. Two skaters make it at the Games: the Frenchman Adam Siao Him Fa and the American Ilia Malinin. The figure, popularized by Surya Bonaly, has long incarnated a taboo "One day or the other, time will give you reason", promised a famous advertisement for this newspaper. For Surya Bonaly, this took only twenty-eight years. The former French champion, emblematic…
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