Surya Bonaly

Two years after her adoption, the Bonalys bought a sheepfold in ruins and began to renovate. Surya therefore grew up in this sheepfold fifty kilometers from Nice, without running water or electricity and populated with twenty-six goats. She takes part in the daily work of the farm, milking the goats in the evening after training and even giving birth to kids with her parents. The sheepfold, located on the heights of Nice, is nicknamed Sannyasa, a Sanskrit term that refers to a stage in a person’s life, or spiritual development, in which one renounces material possessions to concentrate purely on spiritual matters. She has flute lessons at eight in the morning, followed by English lessons, then diving lessons and gymnastics.

She expected the judges to reward her for improving her gracefulness, having stopped trying to land quadruple jumps and having improved from the previous championships, where she also finished second. Bonaly even cut her thickly braided ponytail because the judges didn’t like it. She claims to have made concessions to better suit the expectations of the judges, without ever being rewarded for her work, Bonaly told the french podcast "Surya Bonaly, corps et lames" : «I did everything I could, but I didn't paint myself white, that's for sure». Upset by the result, Bonaly stood beside the medals platform rather than on it. She eventually stepped onto the platform but took off her silver medal after it was presented to her; she was immediately booed by the crowd. After the medals presentation, Bonaly's only statement to reporters was: "I'm just not lucky."

She appeared in the episode "Judgement" of a 2019 Netflix documentary series that explored the lives of heroic individuals who bounced back from loss or perceived failure. In Bonaly's case, the episode focused on her defiance, "longevity" on the ice, and refusal to submit to conventions.

When asked about her experience as a black figure skater, Bonaly responded that even though she never had a racist encounter in her career, she probably would have been a World Champion if she wasn't black, stated Bonaly in the french podcast "Surya Bonaly, corps et lames". During an interview with the BBC when asked if she ever felt that things were harder for her being one of the first black figure skaters, Bonaly clarified her comments stating:« It was a mix of so many things. First, because I was black for sure and I didn't try to copy anyone.Second, because I came from a small country. Third, because I’ve had a different hairstyle and look and also because my mother made my skating costumes for so many years. All those things together was just too much for some people to handle»

As of September 2016, Bonaly was coaching in Minnesota. As of 2019, she works with figure skating camps and is a resident guest coach at Shattuck-St. Mary's School.

Bonaly became an American citizen in January 2004. After living in Las Vegas, Nevada, she moved to Minnesota in September 2015. Bonaly became engaged to skating coach Pete Biver on 18 September 2016. She has no children. Bonaly has been a vegetarian since she was born.

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 stood on top of the podium at the 1991 World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary. After taking her third national title, she competed at the 1991 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She was awarded the gold medal 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 in which she made a dove appear, a symbol of peace.

Bonaly was a member of the federal council of the French Federation of Ice Sports from 2010 to 2014. She was also the cultural attaché of the Monaco consulate in Las Vegas.

Bonaly toured with the Champions on Ice skating show for several years until it went out of business after 2007. She also performed in 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 backflip.

Bonaly is also against bullfighting, and requested to be received by the then president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, who received her at the Élysée Palace on 26 September 2007 in order to address the abolition of bullfighting and the prohibition of the entry in the arenas for children under 16.

Bonaly was an off-screen character on the "Will on Ice" episode of NBC's Will & Grace which originally aired on 12 January 1999. In 2010, she was a finalist on La Ferme Célébrités season 3. In 2015, she underwent surgery after the discovery of numerous cysts along her spinal cord, ending her performing career.

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

During the season, Bonaly was coached by Suzanne Bonaly and Tatiana Tarasova in Marlborough, United States. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Bonaly placed 6th in the short program. Unable to complete her planned routine or a successful triple lutz due to injury, she decided to perform a backflip landing on one blade during the free skate. Backflips had been banned since 1976 from competitions held under ISU rules. Having landed it on one foot, Bonaly hoped to not get a deduction but she ended up having her points deducted. Nonetheless, she was content with her decision to perform the move. Bonaly is the only Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on only one blade. Anne Hardy-Thomas, the French judge of the event, is approached by the technical delegate, who tells her that Surya Bonaly was insolent and had an unacceptable behavior. The judge replied : "She did well for all the past years". She finished tenth in Nagano and retired from amateur competition after the event.

In May 1996, Bonaly ruptured her achilles tendon while doing acrobatics. Due to the injury, she missed much of the following season. The French federation initially decided not to name her to the 1997 European Championships in Paris, believing that she lacked fitness, but Bonaly successfully appealed. She finished 9th overall after placing 6th in qualifying group B, 6th in the short program, and 10th in the free skate. She was not included in France's two-women team to the World Championships, passed over in favor of Vanessa Gusmeroli, the top French finisher at Europeans, and Laetitia Hubert who placed behind Bonaly at the same event.

In 1995, Bonaly won the European Championships for the fifth time, overtaking short-program winner Markova. At the 1995 World Championships in Birmingham, England, she placed fourth in the short program but rose to second after the free skate. She was awarded her third World silver medal, behind Chen Lu of China. For the third consecutive year she lost the gold medal by just one judge and one-tenth of a point. Her free skate had the most difficult technical content, with two triple lutzes, two triple-triple combos, and seven triples. For Bonaly to win, another skater would need to place ahead of short program leader Nicole Bobek.

In autumn 1995, Bonaly competed in the inaugural ISU Champions Series. She finished third and fourth at her assignments, which was not enough to qualify to the seven-woman final. Ranked first in the short program and second in the free skate, Bonaly took silver behind Russia's Irina Slutskaya at the 1996 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. She finished fifth at the 1996 World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, having placed seventh in the short where she fell on a triple lutz, and fifth in the free.

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, she 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, Nancy Kerrigan, and Chen Lu.

At the 1994 World Championships in Chiba, Japan – where the three Olympic medalists did not compete – Bonaly's final overall score was equal to home country favorite Yuka Sato, who would be awarded the gold medal after a 5–4 tiebreaker decision.

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 narrowly took the title with higher presentation scores. 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.

In January 1992, Bonaly outscored Kielmann and Patricia Neske for the gold medal at the European Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. In February 1992, she took the athlete's oath at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. During a practice session, she landed a back flip close to Japan's Midori Ito and was told by officials not to do it again because they believed that other skaters might be intimidated in practice sessions. Her costumes were custom made by Christian Lacroix. She 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 would be downgraded under the ISU Judging System. Although the door was open for her to win a medal after Ito and Harding had finished in 4th and 6th in the short program, and Kristi Yamaguchi and Nancy Kerrigan both made major errors in the long skating just before her, she placed 6th in the free skate and 5th overall.

After the Olympics, Bonaly parted ways with Gailhaguet and joined 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, making a number of jumping errors in both programs. She was so distraught with her poor performances and how she was marked that she considered turning pro midway through the event.

Bonaly was coached mainly by her mother from April to September 1992 and also made two month-long visits, in June and September, to Frank Carroll in southern California; although she wanted to stay with Carroll permanently, 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's a way of showing her technical abilities without limitations, by performing somersaults prohibited in competition.

Bonaly placed fifth at the 1991 World Championships in Munich, Germany, where she came very close to the first ever ratified quad by a female skater, but had other errors.

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.

The following season, Bonaly won the bronze medal at 1989 World Junior Championships and her first senior national title. She also began appearing on the senior level, placing eighth at the 1989 European Championships and tenth at 1989 World Championships.

During the summer of 1988, she watched the Summer Olympics and noticed the sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner dressed in a colorful running suit and decided to take inspiration from her for her skating costumes which would later become more original and colorful, something considered unusual back then in figure skating.

During the 1987-1988 season, Surya Bonaly became the French junior champion of figure skating in Cherbourg. At the French Senior Championships in Grenoble, she ended up in fourth place and was then sent to her first ISU Championship, the 1988 Junior Worlds in Brisbane, Australia and finished 14th.

The Bonaly family then moved to Paris. For six months, while training in Champigny-sur-Marne, she was home schooled and lived in a van with her parents. Philippe Candeloro mentions the fact that the family was accompanied by five dogs at that time. He also notices the severity of her mother, who pushes Surya to train hard but also very closely governs the social life and hobbies of her daughter. A year later, she joined the French National Team. She then became the center of the media attention among the French figure skaters, by being constantly put in the spotlight by Gailhaguet. At the age of twelve, under the impulse of Gailhaguet, she learned to do a backflip on the ice: Gailhaguet claims to have only transposed onto the ice what she was doing on a regular basis. She made her first backflip on the ice and in public at a gala in Annecy in 1986. Also in 1986, at the age of thirteen, she became a junior tumbling champion at the World Championships. The same year, again in tumbling, she won a silver medal in team at the World Championships with Sandrine Vacher, Corinne Robert and Isabelle Jagueux at the Palais omnisports of Paris-Bercy.

In 1984, Surya Bonaly watched the Winter Olympic Games and discovered there the skater Katarina Witt: she then decided to do the double axel and broke her ankle. She had to wear a cast for two months, and decided to continue practicing the flute until the summer. When she returned to the ice rink, the French team trained by Didier Gailhaguet took every available space on the ice, preventing Surya from training. Suzanne Bonaly then asked Didier Gailhaguet to give her daughter an hour on the ice, and the coach agreed. She tried again to do a double axel with her broken ankle, which impressed Gailhaguet, who later claimed that "France had no hard fighters". He then proposed to Bonaly and her mother to come for each training session, which would last three weeks. At the end of the course, Bonaly has almost reached the level of the members of the French team, already managing to land a double axel and a triple jump despite a short time spent on the ice. Gailhaguet asked her to move to Paris to train with him all year round.

Surya Bonaly (born 15 December 1973) is a French former 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).

Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly was born in Nice, France on 15 December 1973. Initially named Claudine, she was adopted at 8 months old from an orphanage by Suzanne and Georges Bonaly, who gave her the name Surya. A word meaning "the sun" in Sanskrit. Suzanne worked as a physical education teacher and Georges as an architect for the government. Journalists, mainly American, began in the late 1980s to claim that Surya Bonaly was born on the Réunion island and was found lying on a coconut-strewn beach. The skater's passport, however, indicates that she was born in Nice. The story spreads as she prepares her first European championships in 1989. Surya Bonaly believes that the media couldn't accept that a young black and adopted woman could have been born in France. For Didier Gailhaguet, first coach of her competitive career, the media attention given to the skater allows her to achieve better results in international competitions. He later admitted fabricating the story in order to draw attention to his skater, adding that he only mentioned the Reunion island because he dreamed of going there on vacation. When Surya approached the age of 18 and began researching her birth history, she discovered that her biological mother is indeed from the island and her biological father from the Ivory Coast.