Surya Bonaly of France was a “three-time Olympian (fourth in 1994) and three-time world silver medalist,” NBC Sports wrote. She came to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, “In what she knew would be her last Olympic performance,” in NBC Sports’ words, and “she was also still recovering from a severe ruptured Achilles injury in her right tendon from two years prior,” The Athletic wrote. “The day before her freestyle long program, she pulled a muscle that forced her to be carried up the stairs in Nagano, Japan.” She “was sixth in the short program while limited by injury. That put her out of realistic medal contention going into the free skate,” NBC Sports says.
She told the story to Radiolab in 2016, as The Athletic quotes her: “toward the end of the program I was supposed to go for two more triples,” but “I’m gonna crash, I can’t do it. I’m not capable, my leg is not with me anymore.” Instead, “I had a special thing in my back pocket.” “At the end of her four-minute routine, the 24 year old began to skate backwards. She threw both of her arms up towards the sky to create momentum,” The Athletic wrote, and she landed a backflip “on just her left leg.”
The move had been banned for over twenty years. Terry Kubicka “is believed to be the first person to land a backflip in competition,” NBC Sports says, and “The move was banned after the 1976 season.” “Bonaly knew the move meant judges would dock her points, but she did it anyway,” the Associated Press wrote. “It was unprecedented, since Kubicka had landed his on two skates,” NBC Sports says, and The Athletic: “Bonaly is the first and only person to ever land a backflip on one blade at the Games.”
“The crowd cheered,” the AP wrote, and “she then proceeded to turn away from the judges and take a bow,” The Athletic says. Then “the judges fired back at her flip with technical marks ranging from 4.8 to 5.3,” and “Ultimately, the Frenchwoman finished in 10th place.” “I wanted to do something to please the crowd, not the judges,” she said that night, according to the Miami Herald, as The Washington Post reported; to the Los Angeles Times she said, “It was a free skate, and I wanted to do something to please the crowd, not the judges.”
In 2024, U.S. Figure Skating reported, “at the 59th ISU Ordinary Conference in Las Vegas, however, the move was erased from Rule 610, which previously banned somersault type jumps in competition.” The proposal’s reason, as NBC Sports quotes it: “somersault type jumps are very spectacular and nowadays it is not logical anymore to include them as illegal movements.” “The proposal passed.” “Backflips became legal in ISU events in the 2024/25 season again following a rule change after being banned for decades,” the International Skating Union says. In February 2026, the AP wrote that “It’s a move known today as ‘the Bonaly flip,’” and Bonaly told it: “I broke ice for other skaters.”
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- It had been banned for over twenty years, and she did it at the Olympics anyway. NBC Sports (2024): “The move was banned after the 1976 season”; Terry Kubicka “is believed to be the first person to land a backflip in competition.” Associated Press: “Bonaly knew the move meant judges would dock her points, but she did it anyway.” 24
- Her name is Surya Bonaly. Olympics.com: “Surya BONALY France Figure Skating.” NBC Sports (2022): “three-time Olympian (fourth in 1994) and three-time world silver medalist.” 63
- In 1998, at her last Olympics in Nagano, she was hurt. Olympics.com: “Games Participations 3.” NBC Sports: “In what she knew would be her last Olympic performance.” The Athletic: “she was also still recovering from a severe ruptured Achilles injury in her right tendon from two years prior.” The Washington Post: “‘That was my last Olympics, and pretty much my last competition ever,’ she told the Root.” 6215
- The day before her free skate, she had to be carried up the stairs. The Athletic: “The day before her freestyle long program, she pulled a muscle that forced her to be carried up the stairs in Nagano, Japan.” 1
- A medal was out of reach. NBC Sports: “was sixth in the short program while limited by injury. That put her out of realistic medal contention going into the free skate.” 2
- Near the end, she was too hurt for her last two triples. Bonaly, on Radiolab in 2016, as The Athletic quotes her: “toward the end of the program I was supposed to go for two more triples”; “I’m gonna crash, I can’t do it. I’m not capable, my leg is not with me anymore”; “I had a special thing in my back pocket.” 1
- So she skated backwards, threw her arms up, and flipped. The Athletic: “At the end of her four-minute routine, the 24 year old began to skate backwards. She threw both of her arms up towards the sky to create momentum.” 1
- A backflip, landed on one blade. The Athletic: “in which she landed on just her left leg.” NBC Sports: “landing on one skate.” 12
- No one had ever done that in Olympic competition. The Athletic: “Bonaly is the first and only person to ever land a backflip on one blade at the Games.” NBC Sports: “It was unprecedented, since Kubicka had landed his on two skates.” 12
- The crowd cheered, and she turned her back on the judges to bow. Associated Press: “The crowd cheered.” The Athletic: “she then proceeded to turn away from the judges and take a bow.” 41
- The judges marked her down, and she finished tenth. The Athletic: “the judges fired back at her flip with technical marks ranging from 4.8 to 5.3”; “Ultimately, the Frenchwoman finished in 10th place.” NBC Sports: “ended up 10th overall.” 12
- She said, “I wanted to do something to please the crowd, not the judges.” The Washington Post: “‘I wanted to do something to please the crowd, not the judges,’ she said that night, according to the Miami Herald.” The Athletic: “‘It was a free skate, and I wanted to do something to please the crowd, not the judges,’ she told the Los Angeles Times.” 51
- In 2024, the backflip was finally made legal. U.S. Figure Skating (October 3, 2024): “This year at the 59th ISU Ordinary Conference in Las Vegas, however, the move was erased from Rule 610, which previously banned somersault type jumps in competition.” NBC Sports: “The proposal passed.” International Skating Union: “Backflips became legal in ISU events in the 2024/25 season again following a rule change after being banned for decades”; Deanna Stellato-Dudek “has not seen a woman doing a backflip since Surya Bonaly (FRA) performed it in the 1990s.” 728
- Today, many call it the Bonaly flip. Associated Press (2026): “It’s a move known today as ‘the Bonaly flip.’” 4
- “I broke ice for other skaters,” she said. Associated Press (February 9, 2026): “‘I broke ice for other skaters,’ Bonaly said.” 4
Sources
- Forgotten Fridays: In her last Olympic competition, Surya Bonaly pulled something special out of her back pocket (Rhiannon Walker, February 18, 2022) The Athletic / The New York Times
- Figure skating backflip: Ilia Malinin, Surya Bonaly, Adam Siao Him Fa (October 16, 2024) NBC Sports
- Quads are coming to Olympic women’s figure skating, but Surya Bonaly started it all (Nick Zaccardi, January 28, 2022) NBC Sports
- Malinin’s Olympic backflip, with a telephone interview with Surya Bonaly (Associated Press, February 9, 2026) FOX Sports
- Twenty years later, figure skating’s most famous backflip remains amazing (and illegal) (The Washington Post, February 22, 2018) Red Deer Advocate
- Surya Bonaly, athlete page Olympics.com
- The Backflip is Well, Back… (October 3, 2024) U.S. Figure Skating
- Yes, she can backflip: Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Maxime Deschamps continue to amaze (October 22, 2025) International Skating Union
- Fact check: Backflip Was NOT Prohibited In Figure Skating Because Of Surya Bonaly (February 2023) Lead Stories
Notes
The ban: NBC Sports says “The move was banned after the 1976 season,” and U.S. Figure Skating dates it to the close of that season; The Athletic says the ISU banned it in 1977, and Lead Stories says the ISU never confirmed the date. The Short says only “over twenty years.”
“Banned because of Bonaly”: a popular claim says the backflip was banned because of her; Lead Stories found it false, and the Short never says so. She had done backflips in exhibitions before, including the 1994 Olympic exhibition, Lead Stories says, so the Short says no one had done it “in Olympic competition.”
Placings: she was sixth after the short program (NBC Sports, The Athletic); The Athletic says the marks first dropped her “from sixth to 11th place,” and she finished 10th, the placing the Short uses.
Her career: one 2026 report says Nagano ended her professional career, but she turned professional afterward and skated in shows for years, “her last one at a show in São Paulo, Brazil at age 40” (NBC Sports). The Short says only “her last Olympics.”
Why she did it: reporters often call the backflip a protest against the judges. The Short uses only her own words about the crowd; she also told the Los Angeles Times, “The judges weren’t pleased with me no matter what I do” (The Athletic).
Ilia Malinin’s backflip at the 2026 Olympics, which the AP says made him “the first person to legally land a backflip on one skate in the Olympics,” is not part of this story.
Surya Bonaly is alive. Only competition results, the rule change, reporting on that night and her own published words are used; her private life is left out. Terry Kubicka, Adam Siao Him Fa and Deanna Stellato-Dudek are named only for their backflips.
Pictures: no free photo shows Surya Bonaly at the 1998 Olympics, in competition or doing her backflip, and agency photos of Nagano aren’t used. She is in three portraits by John Mathew Smith: with a bouquet in Baltimore in 2001, a close portrait in Baltimore and one in front of flowers, both undated; and on the right, beside Marina Anisina, as a guest in the stands at the 2012 World Figure Skating Championships in Nice on March 27, 2012 (Luu). The backflips are by other skaters, not her: Terry Kubicka upside down in his backflip at an exhibition in the Edenhal, Amsterdam, on March 16, 1976, the season after which the move was banned (Hans Peters / Anefo, Nationaal Archief); Adam Siao Him Fa in his backflip at the 2024 Grand Prix de France in Angers on November 2, 2024, a multiple-exposure image (Phantom Kabocha); and Deanna Stellato-Dudek in her assisted backflip with Maxime Deschamps at 2025 Skate Canada International in Saskatoon on October 31, 2025 (SpiritedMichelle). The White Ring, Nagano’s 1998 Olympic figure skating arena, is seen on November 10, 2024 (快速踊り子), and the 1998 Olympic cauldron with the Nagano Olympic Stadium on September 9, 2018 (Christophe95), not during the Games. The street sign “Rue Surya Bonaly, Patineuse artistique internationale” is in Champigny-sur-Marne, France, on January 18, 2025 (Chabe01). The officials and spectators in these photos are not named.
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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