Surya Bonaly

Surya Bonaly
Bonaly in 1992
Personal information
Country represented	France
Born	(1973-12-15) 15 December 1973 (age 47) Nice, France
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Height	1.56 m (5 ft 1+1⁄2 in)
Former coach	Didier Gailhaguet, Annick Gailhaguet, André Brunet, Suzanne Bonaly, Tatiana Tarasova, Alain Giletti
Former skating club	CSG Pralognan AC Boulogne Billancourt
Former training locations	Marlborough, USA
Began skating	1985
Retired	1998
hide Medal record Representing  France Women's trampoline gymnastics World Championships 1986 Paris Tumbling team Figure skating: Ladies' singles World Championships 1993 Prague Ladies' singles 1994 Chiba Ladies' singles 1995 Birmingham Ladies' singles European Championships 1991 Sofia Ladies' singles 1992 Lausanne Ladies' singles 1993 Helsinki Ladies' singles 1994 Copenhagen Ladies' singles 1995 Dortmund Ladies' singles 1996 Sofia Ladies' singles World Junior Championships 1991 Budapest Ladies' singles 1990 Colorado Ladies' singles 1989 Sarajevo Ladies' singles

Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly (born 15 December 1973) is a French retired competitive figure skater. She is a three-time World silver medalist (1993–1995), a five-time European champion (1991–1995), the 1991 World Junior Champion, and a nine-time French national champion (1989–1997).

Bonaly is the only Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on only one blade; she performed it at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Early life[]

Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly was born in Nice, France, on 15 December 1973.^[1][2] Initially named Claudine, she was adopted at eight months from an orphanage by Suzanne and Georges Bonaly, who gave her the name Surya,^[3] a word meaning "the sun" in Sanskrit.^[4] Suzanne worked as a physical education teacher and Georges as an architect. Journalists, mainly American, began in the late 1980s to claim that Surya Bonaly was born on the island of Réunion, an island off the coast of Madagascar, and was found lying on a coconut-strewn beach. The skater's passport, however, indicated her that she was born in Nice.^[5] The story spread as she prepared for her first European championships in 1989. Bonaly believes that the media couldn't accept that a young black adoptee could have been born in France. For Didier Gailhaguet, the first coach in her competitive career, the media attention given to the skater allowed her to achieve better results in international competitions.^[5] He also told reporters that she had been raised on a macrobiotic diet, ate birdseed for breakfast and that the 17-inch ponytail she wore in her first Olympic appearance had never been cut.^[6] He later admitted fabricating these stories in order to draw attention to his skater, adding that he only mentioned Reunion because he dreamed of going there on vacation.^[5] When Surya began researching her birth history, she discovered that her biological mother was from the Reunion Island and her biological father from the Ivory Coast.^[7]

Two years after her adoption, the Bonalys bought a sheepfold in ruins and began to renovate it into a house. Surya grew up in this sheepfold fifty kilometers from Nice, a house without running water or electricity and populated with twenty-six goats.^[6] She took part in the daily work of the farm, milking the goats in the evening after training and even, with her parents, helping goats to give birth to kids. The sheepfold, located on the hills of Nice, is nicknamed Sannyasa, a Sanskrit term that refers to a stage in a person's life, a period of spiritual development during which one renounces material possessions to concentrate purely on spiritual matters. She had flute lessons at eight in the morning, followed by English lessons, then diving lessons and gymnastics.^[6]

Her mother practiced many sports and quickly encouraged Surya to follow in her footsteps. The first sport she practiced was fencing. She continued with ballet, horse riding, diving, and figure skating.^[8] In each discipline, she was very gifted.^[4] When Suzanne Bonaly took her students to the ice rink, she also took Surya, still a baby, with her. At around two years of age, Surya began to skate on double blades, which facilitate balance. She skated to keep busy while her mother finished teaching her class. In figure skating, Nicole Erdos was Surya's first childhood coach.^[6]

At age four, Surya developed a passion for gymnastics, training with Éric Hagard, the current coach of the multiple European medalist Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos. Despite Surya's love for gymnastics as a teenager, it was nevertheless figure skating that really fascinated her. Forced to specialize, she chose figure skating. Nicole Erdos indicates that Bonaly's gymnastics practice strengthened her more than other skaters, giving her an advantage on the ice.^[6]

Career[]

Debut with Didier Gailhaguet[]

In 1984, Surya Bonaly watched the Winter Olympic Games. She then decided to try the double Axel and broke her ankle. She wore a cast for two months, and decided to continue practicing the flute until the summer.^[6] When she returned to the ice rink, the French team trained by Didier Gailhaguet took every available space on the ice, preventing Surya from training. Suzanne Bonaly then asked Didier Gailhaguet to give her daughter an hour on the ice, and the coach agreed. She tried again to do a double Axel with her broken ankle, which impressed Gailhaguet, who later claimed that "France had no hard fighters." He then proposed to Bonaly and her mother to come for each training session, which would last three weeks.^[4] At the end of the course, Bonaly had almost reached the level of the members of the French team, already managing to land a double Axel and a triple jump despite the short time she had spent on the ice.^[6] Gailhaguet asked her to move to Paris to train with him year-round.^[4]

The Bonaly family then moved to Paris. For six months, while training in Champigny-sur-Marne, she was home-schooled and lived in a van with her parents.^[9] Philippe Candeloro has mentioned that the family was accompanied by five dogs at that time. He also noticed the severity of her mother, who pushed Surya to train hard but also very closely governed the social life and hobbies of her daughter.^[10] A year later, Surya joined the French National Team. She then became the center of the media attention among French figure skaters, by being constantly put in the spotlight by Gailhaguet.^[4] At age twelve, under the impulse of Gailhaguet, she learned to do a backflip on the ice. Gailhaguet claims to have only transposed onto the ice what she was doing on a regular basis. She made her first backflip on the ice and in public at a gala in Annecy in 1986.^[10] She also became a world junior tumbling champion.^[4] The same year, again in tumbling, she was a world senior silver medalist in team at the 1986 World Championships with Sandrine Vacher, Corinne Robert and Isabelle Jagueux at the Palais omnisports of Paris-Bercy.^[11]

1987–1988 to 1989–1990[]

During the 1987–1988 season, Surya Bonaly became the French junior figure-skating champion in Cherbourg. At the French Senior Championships in Grenoble, she ended up in fourth place and was then sent to her first ISU Championship, the 1988 Junior Worlds in Brisbane, Australia, and finished 14th.

During the summer of 1988, she watched the Summer Olympics and noticed the sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner dressed in a colorful running suit and decided to take inspiration from her for her skating costumes which would later become more original and colorful, something considered unusual at the time in figure skating.

Bonaly usually made eight to nine jumps during her programs, whereas conventional programs usually contain six.^[12]

The following season, Bonaly won the bronze medal at 1989 World Junior Championships and her first senior national title. She also began appearing on the senior level, placing eighth at the 1989 European Championships and tenth at 1989 World Championships.

Bonaly was awarded the silver medal behind Japan's Yuka Sato at the 1990 World Junior Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She finished fourth at the 1990 European Championships and ninth at the 1990 World Championships.

1990–1991 season: World Junior and European titles[]

Bonaly began the season with a pair of senior international medals – gold at the 1990 Grand Prix International de Paris and bronze at the 1990 Skate Electric. Making her final junior appearance, she stood on top of the podium at the 1991 World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary. After taking her third national title, she competed at the 1991 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She was awarded the gold medal ahead of two German skaters, Evelyn Großmann and Marina Kielmann. During the invasion of Kuwait, she designed a gala skating program that included a magic trick in which she made a dove appear, a symbol of peace.

Bonaly placed fifth at the 1991 World Championships in Munich, Germany, where she came very close to the first ever ratified quad by a female skater.^[13]

1991–1992 season: Second European title and first Olympic appearance[]

In January 1992, Bonaly outscored Kielmann and Patricia Neske for the gold medal at the European Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. In February 1992, she took the athlete's oath at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. During a practice session, she landed a back flip close to Japan's Midori Ito and was told by officials not to do it again because they believed that other skaters might be intimidated in practice sessions.^[14] Her costumes were custom made by Christian Lacroix.^[4] She became the first woman to attempt a quadruple toe loop in competition but the jump was not fully rotated in the air and she had to complete the rotation on the ice. Due to the under rotation, the quad would be downgraded under the ISU Judging System.^[15] Although the door was open for her to win a medal after Ito and Harding had finished in 4th and 6th in the short program, and Kristi Yamaguchi and Nancy Kerrigan both made major errors in the long skating just before her, she placed 6th in the free skate and 5th overall.

After the Olympics, Bonaly parted ways with Gailhaguet and joined André Brunet, who coached her for one month.^[16][17] She concluded her season at the 1992 World Championships in Oakland, California. Ranked tenth in the short and 12th in the free, she finished 11th overall, making a number of jumping errors in both programs. She was so distraught with her poor performances and how she was marked that she considered turning pro midway through the event.^[18]

1992–1993 season: First World silver medal[]

Bonaly was coached mainly by her mother from April to September 1992 and also made two-month-long visits, in June and September, to Frank Carroll in southern California; although she wanted to stay with Carroll permanently, the French skating federation was opposed to its skaters training abroad.^[17] Alain Giletti became her coach, commuting four times a week by train from Tours to Paris, and her mother filled in during his absences.^[17] During the summer of 1992, Bonaly signed a contract to join Tom Collins' troop, Champions on Ice, two months a year. It's a way of showing her technical abilities without limitations, by performing somersaults prohibited in competition.

Bonaly won the 1993 European Championships in Helsinki, having placed first in both segments ahead of Ukraine's Oksana Baiul and Germany's Marina Kielmann. At the 1993 World Championships in Prague, she took silver behind Oksana Baiul, who narrowly took the title with higher presentation scores.^[19] Bonaly had significantly more technical content than the winner. Bonaly performed seven triples, a triple-triple combination, and two triple Lutzes, while Baiul performed five triples but did not attempt a jump combination.

1993–1994 season[]

In January 1994, Bonaly placed first in all segments on her way to her fourth consecutive continental title at the Europeans Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. The other medalists were Baiul and Russia's Olga Markova. A month later, she competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Ranked third in the short program and fourth in the free skate, she finished fourth overall behind Baiul, Nancy Kerrigan, and Chen Lu.

The media often criticized Surya's mother, Suzanne Bonaly, for allegedly being too strict with her daughter: Surya being unable to enjoy a social life because of her schedule and her responsibility for Surya's skating style since Suzanne Bonaly is a physical education teacher and would rather tend towards having athletic prowess rather than having the grace of a dancer.^[12] Surya goes to bed at nine, is forbidden to eat sugar, runs every morning, but for the young skater, it is a habit and not a constraint.^[12] Suzanne Bonaly believes that the critics are rooted in jealousy.^[20] Bonaly moved with her mother to Pralognan-la-Vanoise, where she trained far away from the public eye.^[21]

At the 1994 World Championships in Chiba, Japan Bonaly's final overall score was equal to home country favorite Yuka Sato, who would be awarded the gold medal after a 5–4 tiebreaker decision.^[22]

Bonaly expected the judges to reward her for improving her gracefulness, having stopped trying to land quadruple jumps and having improved from the previous championships, where she also finished second. Bonaly also cut her thickly braided ponytail because the judges didn't like it.^[23] She claims to have made concessions to better suit the expectations of the judges, without ever being rewarded for her work. Bonaly told the French podcast Surya Bonaly, corps et lames : "I did everything I could, but I didn't paint myself white, that's for sure."^[24] Upset by the result, Bonaly stood beside the medals platform rather than on it. She eventually was coaxed onto the platform but took off her silver medal after it was presented to her; she was immediately booed by the crowd.^[25] After the medals presentation, Bonaly's only statement to reporters was: "I'm just not lucky."

The international judge Anne Hardy-Thomas, absent from this competition, commented on the judges' decision. She stated that the judges are under great pressure, their names being displayed opposite their notes; she herself said that she sometimes put second a French skater to avoid being accused of favoritism.^[12] Two main clans stand out, the Anglo-Saxons and the countries of the Eastern bloc. American judges look for a graceful skater who meets the beauty standards, while European judges favor athletics and creativity, which benefits Bonaly.^[12]

The international federation first thought of punishing her for her behavior, then they changed their mind, believing that the justified disappointment of the skater was a sufficient mitigating circumstance.^[26]

1994–1995 season: Fifth European title[]

In 1995, Bonaly won the European Championships for the fifth time, overtaking short-program winner Markova. At the 1995 World Championships in Birmingham, England, she placed fourth in the short program but rose to second after the free skate. She was awarded her third World silver medal, behind Chen Lu of China.^[27] For the third consecutive year she lost the gold medal by just one judge and one-tenth of a point. Her free skate had the most difficult technical content, with two triple Lutzes, two triple-triple combos, and seven triples.

1995–1996 season[]

In autumn 1995, Bonaly competed in the inaugural ISU Champions Series. She finished third and fourth at her assignments, which was not enough to qualify to the seven-woman final. Ranked first in the short program and second in the free skate, Bonaly took silver behind Russia's Irina Slutskaya at the 1996 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She finished fifth at the 1996 World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, having placed seventh in the short where she fell on a triple Lutz, and fifth in the free.

1996–1997 season[]

In May 1996, Bonaly ruptured her achilles tendon while doing acrobatics.^[28] Due to the injury, she missed much of the following season.^[29] The French federation initially decided not to name her to the 1997 European Championships in Paris, believing that she lacked fitness, but Bonaly successfully appealed.^[28] She finished 9th overall after placing 6th in qualifying group B, 6th in the short program, and 10th in the free skate. She was not included in France's two-women team to the World Championships, passed over in favor of Vanessa Gusmeroli, the top French finisher at Europeans, and Laetitia Hubert who placed behind Bonaly at the same event.

1997–1998 season: Third Olympics[]

During the season, Bonaly was coached by Suzanne Bonaly and Tatiana Tarasova in Marlborough, United States.^[1] Prior to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Bonaly ruptured her achilles tendon.^[30] She placed 6th in the short program. Unable to complete her planned routine or a successful triple Lutz due to injury, she decided to perform a backflip with a split landing on one blade during the free skate. (This move is now dubbed a "Bonaly"). Backflips had been banned since 1976 from competitions held under ISU rules. Having landed it on one foot, Bonaly hoped to not get a deduction but she ended up having her points deducted.^[31] Nonetheless, she was content with her decision to perform the move.^[32][33] Bonaly is the only Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on only one blade. Anne Hardy-Thomas, the French judge of the event, was approached by the technical delegate, who told her that Bonaly was insolent and had behaved unacceptably. The judge replied, "She did well for all the past years".^[20] She finished tenth in Nagano and retired from amateur competition after the event.

Her skating clubs were CSG Pralognan^[1] and CSG Champigny.^[2]

Technical statistics[]

Jump combinations[]

Bonaly was known for her way of performing jumps and making very difficult new combinations :

• 1989 European Championships in Birmingham and 1989 World championships in Paris: 1st female figure skater to attempt the Lutz - triple toe loop combination.
• 1991 Skate America in Oakland: 1st female figure skater to attempt the flip - triple toe loop combination.
• 1991 Skate Canada in London: 1st female figure skater to attempt the triple - triple - double (triple toe loop - triple toe loop - double toe loop) combination.
• 1992 NHK Trophy in Tokyo: 1st female figure skater to attempt the Salchow - triple toe loop combination.
• 1993 World Championships in Prague: 1st female figure skater to attempt the toe loop - half loop - triple Salchow combination.
• 1993 Piruetten in Hamar: 1st female figure skater to attempt two triple - triple combinations in a free skate. She attempted the combination again at the 1994 Olympic Games and at the World Championships in 1994 and in 1995 by performing in the same free skate the flip - triple toe loop combination and the toe loop - half loop - triple Salchow jump sequence.
• 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano: 1st female figure skater to attempt a triple - triple combination at the Olympic Games in the short program (triple toe loop - triple toe loop).

Quadruple jumps[]

• Bonaly was the first female figure skater to attempt a quadruple jump in competition at the 1990 European Championships.
• She tried at least thirteen times to do the quadruple toe loop or / and the quadruple Salchow in competition: two attempts at quad jumps at the 1990 European Championships (salchow and toe loop), a quad toe loop attempt at the 1990 World Championships, a quad toe loop attempt at the 1990 Goodwill Games, a quad Salchow attempt at the 1990 Trophée Lalique, a quad toe loop attempt at the World Championships in 1991, a quad toe loop attempt at the 1991 NHK Trophy, a quad toe loop attempt at the 1991 French Championships, a quad toe loop attempt at the 1992 Olympic Games, a quad toe loop attempt at the 1992 World Championships, a quad Salchow attempt at the 1993 Skate America, a quad Salchow attempt at the 1993 Piruetten and a quad Salchow attempt at the 1996 World Championships.
• She landed four times the quad toe loop in competition: at the 1991 World Championships, at the 1991 NHK Trophy, at the 1992 Olympic Games and at the 1992 World Championships but always with incomplete rotation.
• At the 1990 European Championships in Leningrad, she was the 1st figure skater to attempt two different quads in the same free skate (Salchow and toe loop).

Backflip[]

• Bonaly performed her first backflip at an exhibition at the age of twelve in Annecy. Bonaly is also the first and only Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on one blade. She has performed on several occasions a backflip landing on two blades followed by a triple toe loop, a backflip landing on one blade followed by a triple Salchow and two backflips in a row. The backflip remains prohibited in competition, but Bonaly performed it at her last amateur competition at the 1998 Olympic Games. At age 40, she performed her last backflip in public at an exhibition in São Paulo, Brazil.

Later career[]

Bonaly toured with the Champions on Ice skating show for several years^[34] until it went out of business after 2007. She also performed in shows in Russia with Evgeni Plushenko and was a guest skater at Ice Theatre of New York's December 2008 gala in NYC where she successfully performed her backflip.^[35]

Bonaly was an off-screen character on the "Will on Ice" episode of NBC's Will & Grace which originally aired on 12 January 1999.^[36] In 2010, she was a finalist on La Ferme Célébrités season 3.^[37] In 2015, she underwent surgery after the discovery of numerous cysts along her spinal cord, ending her performing career.^[38]

She appeared in the episode "Judgement" of a 2019 Netflix documentary series that explored the lives of heroic individuals who bounced back from loss or perceived failure. In Bonaly's case, the episode focused on her defiance, "longevity" on the ice, and refusal to submit to conventions.^[39]

Bonaly is coaching in Las Vegas while regularly doing seminars abroad.^[40]

Racism in figure skating[]

In an interview with the BBC, when asked if she ever felt that things were harder for her as one of the first black figure skaters, Bonaly stated : "It was a mix of so many things. First, because I was black for sure and I didn't try to copy anyone. Second, because I came from a small country. Third, because I've had a different hairstyle and look and also because my mother made my skating costumes for so many years. All those things together was just too much for some people to handle."^[31]

In an interview with The Root, Bonaly stated : "...Race matters for sure, because I know that if I'd been white, I would have had more [endorsement] contracts and been bigger."^[41]

Bonaly elaborated on the matter in Mathieu Méranville's 2007 book Sport, malédiction des Noirs? :

"There aren't many black figure skaters in the world. In France, it's starting to get better. If I were white, I would have been a gold medalist a long time ago. My motto was to tell myself that there was this obstacle but that I had to go beyond and work more because I knew it would be harder for me. I told myself that if my rival made five triples, I had to make seven. I tried not to think about race even if it was a reality. But how much influence race had on my marks ? Two percent? More ? I don't know. If I were light-skinned, it probably would have been easier. I preferred to be philosophical about it, since I was evolving with white parents."^[42]

Activism[]

Bonaly takes part in numerous conferences and events which aim to encourage the participation of people of colour in sport.^[4]

She participated in numerous PETA's campaigns against Canada's seal hunt and the fur trade.^[43]

Bonaly is also against bullfighting and requested to be received by the then-president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, who received her at the Élysée Palace on 26 September 2007 in order to address the abolition of bullfighting and the prohibited entry in bullfighting arenas to children under 16.^[44]

Bonaly was a member of the federal council of the French Federation of Ice Sports from 2010 to 2014. She was also the cultural attaché for the Monaco consulate in Las Vegas.^[45]

She was the ambassador of the association "France of talents and colors", which aims to fight against racism, violence and discrimination in sport.^[46]

Personal life[]

Bonaly became an American citizen in January 2004.^[47] She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[48] Bonaly became engaged to skating coach Peter Biver on 18 September 2016.^[38] She has no children.^[20] Bonaly has been a vegetarian since infancy.^[49][50]

Decorations[]

• 
  Commander of the Legion of Honour: Knight (2019).^[51]

Programs[]

Season	Short program	Free skating	Exhibition
1997–98 [1]	Caravan	The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi
1995–1996	A Little Princess by Patrick Doyle	Cirque du Soleil Die Irrfahrt um's Glück by Franz von Suppé Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Paquita by Ludwig Minkus	Circle of Life (from The Lion King The Wall Check Point Un Parfum de fin au Monde Love for Ever by Osvaldo Camahue and the Czech Jazz & Symphony Orchestra
1994–1995	Cries of Beirut by Dana Dragomir		From the Death of Innocence by DJ Trastornado
1993–1994	Cries of Beirut by Dana Dragomir	The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi	From the Death of Innocence by DJ Trastornado
1992–1993		The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi
1991–1992	Zorba the Greek by Mikis Theodorakis	Gaîté Parisienne by Jacques Offenbach Malagueña	Un bel dì, vedremo (from Madama Butterfly) sung by Mirella Freni
1989–1990		The Feeling Begins Scheherazade

Competitive highlights[]

International[1]
Event	87–88	88–89	89–90	90–91	91–92	92–93	93–94	94–95	95–96	96–97	97–98
Olympics					5th		4th				10th
Worlds		10th	9th	5th	11th	2nd	2nd	2nd	5th
Europeans		8th	4th	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	2nd	9th	6th
Cup of Russia											4th
Lalique		7th	1st	1st	5th	1st	1st	1st	3rd
Nations Cup						1st
NHK Trophy					2nd	1st	1st	2nd	4th
Skate America			6th	5th	3rd		2nd	1st	4th
Skate Canada			7th		1st						3rd
Goodwill Games				3rd				1st
Nebelhorn Trophy			2nd	1st
Piruetten							4th
International: Junior[1]
Junior Worlds	14th	3rd	2nd	1st
National[3]
French Champ.	4th	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	2nd

References[]

External links[]

• Quotations related to Surya Bonaly at Wikiquote
• Media related to Surya Bonaly at Wikimedia Commons