Surya Bonaly

Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly (born 15 December 1973) is a French-born retired competitive figure skater. She is a three-time World silver medalist (1993–1995), a five-time European champion (1991–1995), the 1991 World Junior Champion, and a nine-time French national champion (1989–1997).

Bonaly is the only Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on one blade; she performed it at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Early life

Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly was born in Nice, France, on 15 December 1973. She was initially named Claudine and placed in an orphanage by her birth mother. She was adopted at eight months by Suzanne and Georges Bonaly, who named her Surya, meaning "the sun" in Sanskrit. Suzanne worked as a physical education teacher and Georges as an architect.

In the late 1980s, journalists claimed that Surya Bonaly was born in Réunion, an island off the coast of Madagascar, and was found lying on a coconut-strewn beach. However, the skater's passport documented her birth in Nice. Bonaly believes that the media couldn't accept that a young black adoptee could have been born in France. Didier Gailhaguet, the first coach in her competitive skating career, later admitted fabricating this exotic backstory in order for her to gain more media attention and achieve better results in international competitions. Gailhaguet also told reporters that she had been raised on a macrobiotic diet, ate birdseed for breakfast, and that the 17-inch ponytail she wore in her first Olympic appearance had never been cut. When Surya began researching her birth history, she discovered that her biological mother was from Réunion and her biological father from Ivory Coast.

Two years after adopting her, the Bonalys bought a rural property, renovating a decrepit sheepfold to use as a house. Surya grew up here, 50 kilometers from Nice. The house never had running water or electricity. Her parents also kept 26 goats. Surya took part in the daily farmwork. The parents nicknamed their house Sannyasa, a Sanskrit term that refers to a stage in a person's life. It is a period of spiritual development during which one renounces material possessions to concentrate purely on spiritual matters. Surya had flute lessons at eight in the morning and English lessons. She also practiced fencing, ballet, horse riding, and diving.

Her mother was a physical education teacher and practiced many sports; she encouraged Surya to do the same. When Suzanne Bonaly took her students to the ice rink, she also took toddler Surya with her. At around two years of age, Surya began to skate on double blades, to keep busy while her mother was teaching. At age four, Surya developed a passion for gymnastics, training with Éric Hagard, who later coached Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos. Although she loved gymnastics as a teenager, Surya preferred figure skating and finally chose that. Nicole Erdos, her first childhood coach in that sport, has suggested that Bonaly's gymnastics practice had strengthened her and given her an advantage on the ice over other competitors.

Skating career

In 1984, Surya Bonaly watched the Winter Olympic Games. Trying to perform a double Axel, she broke her ankle and had to wear a cast for nearly two months. When she returned to the ice rink, the French team trained by Didier Gailhaguet was taking every available space. Her mother asked Gailhaguet to give her daughter an hour on the ice, and the coach agreed. Bonaly tried again to do a double Axel with her newly healed ankle, which impressed Gailhaguet. He later said that "France had no hard fighters."

He suggested to Bonaly's mother that her daughter come for his training sessions, each lasting three weeks. At the end of the course, Bonaly had progressed rapidly and almost reached the level of members of the French team. She had learned to land a double Axel and a triple jump. Seeing her athletic gifts, Gailhaguet recruited her parents to move with her to Paris so that she could train with him year-round.

The Bonaly family moved to Paris with their daughter. For six months, while training in Champigny-sur-Marne, she was home-schooled and lived in a van with her parents. Philippe Candeloro described her mother as pushing the girl to train hard and closely monitoring her social life and hobbies.

A year later, Surya joined the French National Team. She was often a center of media attention, encouraged in the spotlight by Gailhaguet. At age twelve, she learned to do a backflip on the ice. Gailhaguet said that he encouraged her to do on ice what she was already performing in gymnastics. She made her first backflip on ice and in public at a gala in Annecy in 1986. She also became a world junior tumbling champion that year. The same year, again in gymnastics, 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.

1987–1988 to 1989–1990

During the 1987–1988 season, Surya Bonaly became the French junior figure-skating champion at Cherbourg. At the French Senior Championships in Grenoble, she placed fourth. She was sent as a junior to her first ISU Championship, the 1988 Junior Worlds in Brisbane, Australia. She finished 14th.

During the summer of 1988, Bonaly watched the Summer Olympics and was inspired by American sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner, who dressed in a colorful running suit. She decided to adopt more original and colorful skating costumes, something unusual at the time.

Bonaly usually made eight to nine jumps during her programs, whereas conventional programs usually contain six.

The following season, Bonaly won the bronze medal at 1989 World Junior Championships and her first senior national title. She began appearing regularly 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.

1990–1991 season: World Junior and European titles

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 won the 1991 World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

After taking her third national title, Bonaly competed at the 1991 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She was awarded the gold medal, placing 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 of a dove appearing, a symbol of peace.

Bonaly placed fifth at the 1991 World Championships in Munich, Germany. She nearly completed the first ratified quad by a female skater.

1991–1992 season: Second European title and first Olympic appearance

In January 1992, Bonaly outscored Kielmann and Patricia Neske for the gold medal at the European Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. In February 1992, she participated in the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. During a practice session, she landed a back flip close to Japan's Midori Ito. Officials told her to avoid that action, as they believed that other skaters might be intimidated in practice sessions. Her costumes were custom made by French designer Christian Lacroix.

Bonaly 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 was downgraded under the ISU Judging System. Poised to win a medal after Ito and Harding had finished in 4th and 6th respectively in the short program, Kristi Yamaguchi and Nancy Kerrigan both made major errors in the free skate before her. Bonaly placed 6th in the free skate and 5th overall.

After the Olympics, Bonaly started working with a new coach, André Brunet, who coached her for one month. 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. She had made a number of jumping errors in both programs. She felt she was unfairly marked and later said that she had considered turning pro midway through the event.

1992–1993 season: First World silver medal

From April to September 1992, Bonaly was coached mainly by her mother. She made two-month-long visits, in June and September, to coach Frank Carroll in southern California. Although she wanted to stay to work with him, the French skating federation was opposed to its skaters training abroad. Alain Giletti became her coach, commuting four times a week by train from Tours to Paris, and her mother filled in during his absences.

During the summer of 1992, Bonaly signed a contract to join Tom Collins' troop, Champions on Ice, two months a year. It enabled her to show her technical abilities without limitations, because she could perform somersaults and other actions that were 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 had higher presentation scores. But 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.

1993–1994 season

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, Bonaly 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, American Nancy Kerrigan, and Chen Lu from China.

The media criticized Surya's mother, Suzanne Bonaly, for allegedly being too strict with her daughter. Surya ran every morning, was forbidden to eat sugar, and had to be in bed by nine. Because Suzanne Bonaly was a physical education teacher, she stressed athletic prowess rather than the grace of a dancer in Surya’s skating routines. Suzanne Bonaly believes that she was criticized because of others' jealousy about Bonaly's abilities. Bonaly and her mother moved to Pralognan-la-Vanoise

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