Surya Bonaly

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]

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.

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]

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]

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.

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]

Yuka Sato at the Stars on Ice 2010

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 stepped 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]

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.

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.

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.

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]

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).

• Surya 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).

• Surya 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 perfomed 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.

Bonaly performing at a gala in 2007