This year’s 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan were full of feats and records as athletes competed throughout the last weekend. A spotlight shone on the U.S. Figure Skating Team when Ilia Malinin performed a backflip during his free skate team event, sparking a large debate about the move because of a previous skater, Surya Bonaly, who successfully attempted a backflip in 1998.
Born in 2004, Ilia Malinin has accomplished many feats throughout his career, including being the reigning U.S. champion since 2023, Grand Prix Final champion since 2023, World champion since 2024 and many more. Known as the “Quad God,” he is the first and only skater to land a move named the Quad Axel in a competition when he skated at the Figure Skating Grand Prix in 2022.
The Quad Axel was considered impossible or highly difficult to accomplish because it was a move that consisted of four and a half revolutions—a term used to refer to the number of turns in a jump, when most skaters of high skill attempt a Triple Axel or a simple Quad Jump. The only other skater who came close to reaching this feat was Japanese skater Yuzuru Hanyu, who attempted this move during the 2022 Winter Olympics.
In the recent competition, Malinin successfully completed a backflip during his short program and team skate event. The media turned into an absolute frenzy due to the controversy surrounding the move. Prior to recently, the move was considered illegal and was banned by the International Skating Union (ISU) in 1977.
Malinin is not the first skater to successfully complete a backflip. During the 1976 Winter Olympics, Terry Paul Kubicka, who was 19-years old at the time, was representing the U.S. in Austria. During his program for the men’s singles free skate event, he performed the first backflip in Olympic figure skating history. Right afterwards, the ISU issued a ban on the move from competition because it was considered “dangerous and incompatible with traditional figure skating technique.”
The ISU only lifted the ban from their technical rules in 2024, allowing the move to be performed legally during competitions such as the Winter Olympics.
What made the move controversial was not the backflip in itself but rather the ownership of the praise received from critics and fans. Despite Kubicka and Malinin being the first and second skaters to legally perform the move, French figure skater Surya Bonaly was heavily brought up in the conversation after fans discovered that the two men were not the only ones who performed a backflip in their choreography.
In 1998, the Winter Olympics were held in Nagano, Japan, and Bonaly was heavily criticized by the judges for performing a backflip during her program. It resulted in her receiving 10th place, stripping her of being a contender for the Olympic medal. Bonaly would later express frustrations about underappreciation for her craft and skills in various interviews with different publications.
It is important to note that the figure skating society predominantly consisted of white skaters with stricter rules for their programs. Bonaly, a Black woman, explained that she “had to be better than a normal skater.”
Fans took it upon themselves to praise Bonaly, demanding the acknowledgement of the skater and their feats amidst the celebration for Malinin’s. Multiple social media posts have come out, stating, “He’s a ‘genius.’ He’s so ‘innovative.’ He’s ‘the future of the sport’ . . . but Y’all ain’t say that decades ago when Surya Bonaly did a backflip and landed it on one blade. Nope. Y’all treated her like a sideshow instead of a damn pioneer!”
Dr. Stacey Patton on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/share/1HV415xNoa/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Another user and well-known actor, Wendell Pierce, came to X to express his dissent to the two-decade-long decision of the judges. He said, “Surya Bonaly originated the backflip in the Winter Olympics and was penalized for it. She should have won the gold medal. Now the Olympics is celebrating another skater for doing her move. The Olympic Committee owes her an apology and a gold medal.”
Wendell Pierce @WendellPierce on X. https://x.com/WendellPierce/status/2020549444953887009
Articles have also been written criticizing the praise Malinin, a white man, received compared to the behavior that Bonaly experienced from the judges and the figure skating community. With headlines such as “Funny how it became ‘revolutionary’ when a white skater did a backflip a Black woman mastered decades ago,” putting the word “illegal” in air quotes.
Dr. Stacey Patton on Newsone. https://newsone.com/6840590/surya-bonaly-backflip-ice-skating/
While Malinin’s performance was indeed revolutionary because it was performed legally and successfully, many believe that Bonaly should have gotten the same praise from the judges and fans despite its illegality during 1998.
Although the conversation has been brought up, Bonaly is currently retired in Minnesota, coaching and training young athletes in figure skating. She claimed that she may have been “born too early” for the figure skating scene, acknowledging that she would have received the same amount of praise as Malinin did had she been at her competitive prime during this Winter Olympics.
Both Malinin and Bonaly have shown how exemplary their technical and creative skills are when it comes to figure skating, building a pathway for future skaters to develop their techniques and programs as the rules for competition evolve throughout time.
