The first person to complete a backflip and land on a single skate on the ice wasn’t Ilia Malinin, the US figure skater, at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. However, he was the first person to do so legally. The person who first completed the move was Surya Bonaly, a Black woman and French figure-skater. Now, commentators are calling for her to be given the glory the move deserved.
In 1976, US skater Terry Kubicka pulled off a backflip and landed on two skates. However, the International Skating Union (ISU) deemed the move too dangerous and thus banned it.
Two decades later, French ice skater Surya Bonaly flouted the rule and performed the move and landed on a single at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. She knew that the judges would dock her points for the move, but she did it anyway.
In fact, she had pulled her groin muscle the day before the free skate and was in too much pain to complete her triple jumps, and instead, according to the Outlook Podcast, she decided to “do something easier.”
“Surya Bonaly is the only person who would think that doing a backflip would be easier.”
After her performance, she said to reporters that she wanted to “show the judges, who don’t appreciate what I do, just what I can do.”
The judges awarded her low scores, and she dropped to 10th place and retired from amateur competition after the event.
However, in 2024, ISU lifted the ban, and in 2026, Ilia Malinin included the move in his gold-medal-winning free skate at the Milan Winter Olympics.
Although his move sparked worldwide praise, it also received condemnation for a man receiving praise for a move which a black woman was penalised for.
In an interview with the Associated Press (AP), Surya, who is now an ice-skating coach and motivational speaker, said she was “born too early”.
“I broke ice for other skaters,” she said. “Now everything is different. People welcome anyone as long as they are good, and that is what life is about.”
She wasn’t the first black woman in ice skating. However, she was definitely one of the sports trailblazers for women of colour.
Mabel Fairbanks was prevented from competing in figure skating in the 1930s. Debi Thomas remains the only Black woman to win an Olympic figure skating medal (1988). In 2023, Starr Andrews became the first Black woman in 35 years to medal at U.S. Nationals. Today, the sport still lacks diversity.
