Surya Bonaly

From Free net encyclopedia

Surya Bonaly (born 15 December, 1973 in Nice, France) is a French professional figure skater.

Bonaly began skating when she was eighteen months old. As a child, her skating heroes were Midori Ito and Brian Boitano. She went on to become a nine-time winner of the French National Championships (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 medal in the Winter Olympics, placing 5th in 1992 in Albertville, 4th in 1994 at Lillehammer, and 10th in 1998 at Nagano.

Formerly a world champion gymnast, Bonaly is famous for her backflip landed on one blade; she is considered the only skater in the world capable of this move. Bonaly is just as famous for her defiant, saucy attitude. This attitude was on display during the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships in Chiba, Japan. With Nancy Kerrigan, Oksana Baiul and Lu Chen out, it was an open field for the championship. Bonaly skated a clean performance but, according to the judges, home country favorite Yuka Sato skated a better one. Bonaly thought she was robbed and defiantly stood aside 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. She believed she was robbed of gold in 1993 as well, as she thought she should have beaten Oksana Baiul at that particular World Championship competition (Baiul narrowly won the world title, having been outjumped and outspun by Bonaly but receiving higher artistic impression scores).

Having lost any chance for a medal during the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan due to a fall on a triple Salchow jump, Bonaly decided to end her amateur career with a symbolic gesture: with nothing left to lose, she performed her signature back flip -- an illegal move under International Skating Union rules -- in front of the judges. She was penalized for it and finished tenth in the competition.

Renowned for her strong jumping ability, including her difficult triple-triple combinations, and her difficult spin positions, Bonaly routinely scored high marks for technical merit. However, her spirals and footwork were weaker, and she had somewhat of a choppy skating style, occasionally stumbling while merely stroking around the ice. She was also criticized for her weak presentation style, referred to by some skating purists as merely a gymnast on blades. Her marks for artistic impression were decidedly weaker than her technical scores throughout her amateur skating career.

Bonaly resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA and became an American citizen in November 2003. She is currently touring with Champions on Ice, and to this day remains the most decorated figure skater of African descent.

[edit]