Surya Bonaly is the biggest bad ass in Winter Olympics History

[MrScorpio]

Surya Bonaly saying "Fuck you" to those racist ass judges.


By Sailor Jupiter

I mention Surya Bonaly in my post about why I love the Winter Olympics, but since she is so amazing I thought you guys should know a little bit more about her.

Surya Bonaly is a three-time World silver medalist, a five-time European champion, the 1991 World Junior Champion and a nine-time French national champion. She is a former gymnast and the first woman to ever attempt the quadruple toe loop. On top of all of this, she is likely best known for her amazing free skate at the 1998 Winter Olympics, when she completed one bladed back flip. To this day she is the only skater to ever do this - not the only female figure skater, the only figure skater period. There have been 3 other skaters who have done back flips in competition (all men), but she was the only one to land on one blade.

Now back flips are crazy dangerous. If you don't land perfectly you can severely injure yourself, which would sideline any athlete, potentially permanently. In order to discourage athletes from attempting them, they were made illegal in Olympic competition. The official reason they gave is because all jumps must be landed on one blade to be scored and, of course, in order to complete a back flip you must land on both feet.

So not only did she complete an insanely risky and difficult move but when Surya landed her back flip she essentially made it legal, because she was able to do it while still only using one blade. She was daring the judges to try and low ball her. Unfortunately, they still ruled the move was illegal and deducted it against her in her final score. She may have been unable to medal but she got the last laugh. After completing her free skate she turned her back to the judges, showing them just how much their opinions matter. For this, and for everything else, she goes down in history as not only one the greatest figure skaters ever but a true bad ass.

http://groupthink.jezebel.com/surya-bonaly-was-the-biggest-bad-ass-in-winter-olympics-1517897822

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. I remember that. Very badass.

I've seen Scott Hamilton do them in non-competitions and love it!!

But I think he lands on both feet.

to all these badass figure skaters that do amazing things. Launch themselves into the air at high speed, twirl, and come back down without sustaining severe injuries due to inertia.

[LynneSin]

2. Here's her full program from the 1998 Olympics

I loved watching here skate because she was so unique with her style. She showed power but still had grace to do beautiful perfomances. But at the Olympics (and I think she did 3) she never was higher than 5th or 6th place. I thought she was medal worthy but it always seemed to be USA vs. Russia vs. Some country from SE Asia competing for the medals. Someone like Surya would come along and since she wasn't one of the top names from USA/Russia/Some SE Asia Country she would be ignored.

Edit note: back then scoring was different and it always seemed that there were 3-4 top names that would these amazing scores and anyone else, no matter how well they did, never had a chance. The scoring does seem better now at the Olympics. I remember just this past Olympics, Carolina Kostner, a veteran female figure skate from Italy at the ripe old age of 27, came into the Olympics as a long shot and took home the bronze. You would have never seen that happen 20 years ago back when Surya skated. I think Bonaly could have won medal under the new figure skating scoring system (provided she didn't do the illegal jump)

[elleng]

3. Thanks for this!

[Skittles]

5. I remember her

I liked her because she was TOUGH!!!

[LynneSin]

8. This is she looked tough - like she could kick my ass type tough

yet her programs still had an air of grace to them even though she had these amazing jumps.

I really think in the end she was a victim of the scoring/judges systems where 4-5 girls were 'deemed' the best of the world (and as posted usually from USA, Russia and a few of the countries of SE Asia like Japan, Korea or China). Anyone else was automatically considered second tier. Even if those so-called 'second tier' skaters did amazing performances like Bonaly she'd still be scored lower than the chosen ones.

[lovemydog]

6. Indeed, a supercool badass.

I looked her up on wiki. It says she moved from Nice, France to Las Vegas and became an American citizen. She's also helping younger skaters. She's a vegetarian. Hat tip to the rockin' Surya Bonaly!

[a la izquierda]

7. I loved her!

#1 she's from France
#2 she clearly loved what she did

[LynneSin]

9. She use to say she was from Reunion

Which is an island nation territory of France.

I was reading her wiki page and turns out that was a made-up story by her adoptive parents:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Bonaly#Personal_life
Georges and Suzanne (parents) initially told the media that their daughter had been born on the island of Réunion, because, as David Wallechinsky's Complete Book of the Winter Olympics explains, they thought this origin sounded more "exotic". When Surya approached the age of 18 and began researching her birth history, George and Suzanne admitted that Surya's biological mother had been from the island but that Surya herself had not been born there.

She is actually a US Citizen now living in Las Vegas. She is also a vegetarian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surya_Bonaly#Personal_life
Bonaly became an American citizen in January 2004. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Bonaly, a vegetarian, has appeared in many PETA ads in both English and French namely acting against Canada's seal hunt and against the fur trade.