Surya Bonaly - Career

Career

Bonaly was born in Nice, France in 1973 and adopted by Suzanne Bonaly, a physical education teacher, and her husband Georges, an architect who worked for the government. Georges and Suzanne 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. Didier Gailhaguet, who was Bonaly's first coach of her competitive career, admitted fabricating the story because he thought it would interest the press.

It was said that Gailhaguet discovered Surya when she was 10 years old and ice skating in a public session. Years later, however, Surya said she had wanted to skate in Gailhaguet's competitive skating group and actually asked to participate.

Bonaly went on to become a nine-time French National Figure Skating Champion (1989–1997) and won the European Figure Skating Championships five times (1991–1995). She was a three-time silver medalist at the World Figure Skating Championships (1993–1995), but she never managed to win a world title, despite her strong jumping ability. Nor did she ever win a medal in the Winter Olympics, placing 5th in 1992 in Albertville, 4th in 1994 at Lillehammer, and 10th in 1998 at Nagano. Bonaly took the Athlete's Oath at the 1992 Winter Olympics.

Formerly a competitive gymnast, Bonaly is famous for her backflip landed on only one blade; she is considered the only skater in the world capable of this move. She is also known for having attempted a quadruple toe loop jump at the 1991 World Figure Skating Championships – the first and only female skater to have done so. Though she landed the jump, she was not fully rotated in the air and had to complete the rotation on the ice, making it a triple and not a quadruple jump. Bonaly was never credited with successfully landing the jump by the International Skating Union. However, despite her skills, Bonaly long suffered from low scores.

She competed in the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships in Chiba, Japan. With Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul and Chen Lu not competing, it was an open field for the championship. Bonaly skated a clean performance but, according to the judges, home country favorite Yuka Sato had a better skate. Bonaly thought she had been robbed and defiantly stood beside the medals platform rather than on it. Although she was coaxed into standing on the platform, Bonaly took off her silver medal after it was presented to her and was immediately booed by the crowd. After the medals presentation, a crying Bonaly was greeted by reporters. Her only statement: "I'm just not lucky." She believed she'd been robbed of gold in 1993 as well, as she thought she should have beaten Oksana Baiul at the '93 World Championship competition. (Baiul narrowly won the world title, having been outjumped and outspun by Bonaly but having received higher artistic impression scores.)

In May 1996, Bonaly suffered a very serious injury, rupturing her achilles tendon, that caused her to miss much of the following season.

Bonaly resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. and became an American citizen in June 2004. She toured with the Champions on Ice skating show for several years until they went out of business after the 2007 season. Bonaly also recently completed 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 signature backflip.