Surya Bonaly

 
 

She is a three-time World Championship silver medalist (1993-1995), a five-time European champion (1991-1995)…

Surya Bonaly (born December 15, 1973) is a former figure skater from France. She is a three-time World Championship silver medalist (1993-1995), a five-time European champion (1991-1995), a 1991 World Junior Champion and a nine-time French champion (1989-1997).

Bonaly is the only Olympic skater to complete a somersault on only one plate; she performed it at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

A black skater from Réunion Island was adopted in France. She was engaged in jumping on a trampoline, becoming athletic and unusually jumping, which influenced the technique of her skating and especially the jumps, which she could do without the necessary speed and with under-spin in 1/4 turn, or even 1/2 turn (while jumping in an arbitrary the program does not count), having already landed on the ice. Nevertheless, the judges rightly rewarded her for such difficult and risky elements in the marks for her technique (for example, at the 1995 World Championship - six marks of 5.9). A feature of Bonaly's career is five victories in a row at the European Championships and none at the World Championships (where she could not beat a number of European figure skaters).

In 1989 she made her debut at the European and World Championships. The coaches immediately relied on record-breaking difficult jumps to the detriment of the quality of gliding and other elements, in the debut free program they included, for the first time in the world among women, two cascades of two triple jumps (lutz-sheepskin coat and two sheepskin coats). At the 1990 European Championships, coaches included an incredibly complex set of elements in her program: a quadruple toe loop, a quadruple salchow (the first attempt to perform two quadruple jumps in one program by a woman), two triple lutz, etc., only two quadruple and six triple jumps, of which Bonaly coped with only four of the least difficult, after which the coaches began to simplify the programs. At the 1991 World Championships, for the first time, he performs a four-turn jump (toe loop), landing cleanly, but not twisting it.

At the 1994 World Championships, she refused to climb the podium (the only case in history), disagreeing with the results of the competition (only one referee's vote was not enough to win), after the persuasion of ISU President Paulsen she rose and took the medal, but then immediately took it off. In 1996, Bonaly again tried to perform in the program a quadruple jump (salchow) and a triple lutz-triple sheepskin coat with an under-spin. Bonaly's mother periodically changed coaches, attracted a Russian specialist N. Volkova, paying attention to the artistic side of skating, which the skater could no longer combine with the previously achieved technical complexity. In the last years of competitions in amateurs, Bonaly could no longer cope even with the usual triple jumps. At the 98 Olympics, she took sixth place after the short program, at the very beginning of the free program she allowed a fall on the cascade, already realizing that there was no chance of a medal, she included the prohibited back flip in the program, causing a violent reaction from the public (the judges additionally deducted 0.2 points of both ratings for this item).

Surya Bonaly's Notable Performances and Competition Records

Surya Bonaly competed in numerous national and international competitions throughout her career. Here are some of her notable performances:

  • 1991 French National Championships: 1st place

  • 1991 European Championships: 1st place

  • 1992 French National Championships: 1st place

  • 1992 Winter Olympics: 5th place

  • 1992 World Championships: 4th place

  • 1993 French National Championships: 1st place

  • 1993 European Championships: 1st place

  • 1993 World Championships: 2nd place

  • 1994 French National Championships: 1st place

  • 1994 Winter Olympics: 4th place

  • 1994 World Championships: 2nd place

  • 1995 French National Championships: 1st place

  • 1995 European Championships: 1st place

  • 1995 World Championships: 3rd place

Bonaly also competed in various other competitions, including the Grand Prix series, the Champions Series, and the Professional Skaters Association (PSA) championships. She won several medals in these competitions, including multiple gold medals in the Champions Series and PSA championships.

It's worth noting that Bonaly's performances often included acrobatic elements, which were not allowed under the rules of many competitions. As a result, she received lower scores and penalties for some of her performances. Nonetheless, she continued to innovate and push the boundaries of the sport.