Surya Bonaly — The People’s Champion
In the early 1990s, Surya Bonaly stepped into the world of figure skating. She didn’t fit the typical ‘’ice princess’’ mold but that didn’t stop her from achieving greatness. Her journey in figure skating started at age 11 in Nice before relocating in Paris. When Bonaly started her competitive career, she already came in as an outsider in a sport where you have to be an insider. Around this time, her first coach started exoticizing the young skater’s background to the media. The coach knowingly fabricated details of her upbringing because he believed the media attention allowed Bonaly to achieve better results in international competitions. However it only emphasized her otherness.
Bonaly eventually switched coaches and began training in the United States to focus on her artistic ability. Although she made progress, it wasn’t enough in the eyes of the judges. At the 1994 World Championships she performed well technically but judges granted win to Japanese skater Sato for artistic marks. Surya protested the decision by taking off her medal during the ceremony. Surya later explained that her actions came from a place of frustration. She had been consistently criticized for not fitting into the mold of what a skater should be.
She didn’t give up and competed again in the 1988 Olympics. Bonaly knew she wasn’t a medal contender, so she took the moment to make an impression. The figure skater decided to do her iconic one-footed backflip. Bonaly knew she would get penalized because the move had been banned since 1976. But that didn’t matter because the Olympics wasn’t a competition for her anymore but instead a place to exhibit her talent. “That was my last Olympics, and pretty much my last competition ever. I wanted to leave a trademark.” Instead of trying to convince the judges, she gave the audience a moment to remember.
While she never won an Olympic medal, Bonaly is a three-time World Cup silver medalist, five-time champion of Europe and a nine-time champion of France. With figure skating judges, her ex coach and the media all trying to put her in a box, Surya decided to be herself and by doing so she wrote history.
