Surya Varuna Bonaly (born 15 December 1973 in Nice, France) is a French retired figure skater and coach. 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 first Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on one blade; she performed it at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and retired soon afterward. She had a long and successful career as a professional figure skater, performing in ice shows all over the world and winning many professional competitions. She became a coach in Las Vegas, Colorado, Minnesota, and Switzerland.
Early life
Surya Varuna Bonaly was born in Nice, France, on 15 December 1973. because "they are the babies no one takes". Suzanne Bonaly was her daughter's first skating coach. She made the French national team within a year.
At the 1988 Trophée Lalique, Bonaly came in seventh place. She came in third place at the 1989 World Junior Championships and won the gold medal for the first time at the 1989 French National Championships in December 1988. She came in eighth place at the 1989 European Championships and in 10th place at the 1989 World Championships.
In the fall of 1989, Bonaly competed at the Nebelhorn Trophy, where she came in second place, and at Skate America, where she came in sixth place. She again won the gold medal at the French Nationals and came in second place at Junior Worlds. She came in seventh place at the 1989 Tropheé Lalique, in fourth place at Europeans, and in ninth place at Worlds. of the competition. Bonaly later told reporters that it was the first time she did not fall while attempting the quad. She performed a backflip for the audience during the awards ceremony.
1991–1992 season: Second European title and first Olympic appearance
thumb|right|Bonaly performing in 1992
In 1991, Bonaly won Skate Canada and the Grand Prix de St. Gervais. She finished before German skaters Marina Kielmann and Patricia Neske, who came in second and third places, respectively. Bonaly did not attempt her quad jump during the free skate, when she portrayed a bullfight in which the bull is spared, but was able to successfully complete five clean triple jumps. As a citizen of the host country, Bonaly was chosen to represent France's athletes by taking the Olympic Oath during the opening ceremonies. An Olympic pin was made in her honor and her costumes were designed and donated to her by French fashion designer Christian Lacroix. Before the Olympics, The New York Times reported that Bonaly and her mother "engaged in a series of disputes" between her coach, Didier Gailhaguet, and Annick Dumont, her choreographer, which the French federation helped mediate. Susan Du later reported that Gailhaguet never lodged a complaint against Bonaly, but blamed Suzanne Bonaly for their dispute. ultimately resulting in a fall 40 seconds after starting her short program during competition, replacing her planned triple Lutz jump for a triple Axel jump, and coming in fourth place. Shortly before the practice for the free skate, the referee of the women's competition at the Olympics gave Bonaly's mother "a rare warning" During the free skating program, she became the first woman to attempt a quadruple jump at the Olympics, Scott Hamilton, during his commentary of the event's broadcast, said that she was "cheated by half a turn"; he later said about her quest to successfully accomplish the quad jump: "It turned a lot of heads. She was trying, but she was always a little short of rotation". Alain Giletti became Bonaly's coach in France, commuting four times a week by train from Tours to Paris to work with Bonaly; her mother filled in for him during his absences. Giletti stated that Bonaly's improvement was due to better artistic expression, more self-confidence, and a better environment, adding that "the blossoming of Surya is due most of all to the fact that she has rediscovered the joy of skating". She easily beat Nancy Kerrigan from the U.S., winning her qualifying group with six triple jumps "with grace" and with "surprising aesthetic appeal".
In February 1994, Bonaly competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. The Los Angeles Times, in the aftermath of the assault of Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships the previous month, reported that Kerrigan's "principle opposition", after coming in first place after the short program, was from Bonaly and Baiul. Bonaly came in third place in the short program, fourth place in the free skate, and finished in fourth place overall, behind Baiul, Kerrigan, and Chen Lu from China. After the Olympics, Bonaly and her mother moved to Pralognan-la-Vanoise, where Bonaly could train out of the public eye. Yuka Sato from Japan came in first place after the short program by a narrow margin. Both she and Bonaly won four first-place votes from the nine judges, although Bonaly also earned three third-place votes. Randy Harvey of the Los Angeles Times called Bonaly's free skate an "ambitious program" that included a triple toe loop-half loop-triple Salchow-double toe loop sequence of jumps and back-to-back triple jumps. She touched her hand to the ice during her triple loop jump later in the program and underrotated her triple-triple combination jump. According to the Associated Press (AP), Giletti had suggested that Bonaly attempt the quadruple toe loop jump during the free skate but chose not to, although she successfully completed a triple flip-triple toe combination jump. She touched her hand on the ice after a triple loop jump late in her program, which the AP said cost her the competition. She also chose to not attend the news conference held for the three top finishers afterwards.
1994–1995 season: Fifth European title
Bonaly came in first place at the 1994 Skate America. She was in third place after the short program, but was able capitalize on the mistakes made by Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya during the free skate; according to the Greensboro News and Record, Bonaly's "oft-troublesome assortment of soaring triple jumps and gymnast-like leaps boosted her past" Slutskaya, who was in first place after the short program and came in third place overall, and Kwan, who came in second place overall. Bonaly also won the 1994 Trophée de France and came in second place at the 1994 NHK Trophy. She won the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, which had to change venues due to a lack of ice at the original rink. She also competed at two professional-amateur competitions during the 1994—1995 season, coming in first place overall at the Thrifty Car Rental International Challenge and the AT&T Challenge. At the Thrifty Car Rental Challenge, Bonaly was favored to win. She came in second place in the short program, behind Olga Markova from Russia, but was able to "edge out" Markova in the free skate. Bonaly later told reporters that "I can't say it was 100 percent excellence, but I did my job out there". She also won the gold medal at the French Nationals again. Coming from behind, her performance, according to The New York Times, was "clearly the best". Her free skate, which was set to "lively gypsy music", triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination jump, which was the first time the combination was successfully completed in competition. The Tampa Bay Times called her performance "smooth and exciting after falls and mistakes by several of the top skaters", and also said that Bonaly was noted for being "more of a jumper than an artist on ice", although she had been working on her presentation scores because the judges, as she put it, "always have considered it a fault of mine". behind Chen Lu of China. She touched the ice during a combination jump, struggled with a few of her spins, and did "a good deal more churning than gliding". Bonaly earned 12 points, so she did not qualify for the finals for the Champions Series, the series of international competitions conducted by the ISU beginning in 1995. She had tied for the last spot in the finals, but her fifth-place finish in the free skate at the NHK Trophy was the deciding factor that took her out of the competition. She again won the gold medal at the French Nationals. She came in fifth place at the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships. Susan Du reported the injury occurred while Bonaly was practicing her backflip, although there were other reports that the injury occurred during an exhibition performance. She won her final and ninth consecutive French National title, which qualified her for the 1998 Olympics. The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, which she had used in previous seasons. The audience erupted and the judges were shocked after she landed her backflip. She thought that the rule prevented her from landing on two feet, so she hoped that she would not be disqualified because she landed it on one foot. She told The Root in 2014 that she never had quit skating, that she was planning to tour with Holiday on Ice in Europe for three months, and that had she performed in ice shows with Russian skater Evgeni Plushenko for years. She was the second black female skater, after American skater Debi Thomas, "to reach the international elite". Du stated that early in Bonaly's career, "Her pure athleticism was immediately evident. She was quick. She was aerial. It wasn’t enough for her to simply glide and dance when she could leap and spin". She performed her last backflip in 2014, but stopped doing them due to chronic pain. In an interview with the BBC, when asked if she ever felt that things were harder for her as one of the first black figure skaters, Bonaly said: <blockquote>"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."</blockquote> In 2016, Du stated, "The question of why Surya never attained Olympic gold, and the disqualification of her singular skill, is still a matter of controversy. It’s the reason her fame inhabits a cult status rarely enjoyed by even the most decorated skating stars. It’s why people still know her name long after she hung up her competitive skates for the last time in 1998". The podcast also stated that Bonaly broke the stereotype of the "white ice princess", so she was not well received, no matter how hard she trained or how she tried to please the audience and judges.
Bonaly has resided in the U.S. since 1997, first in Boston and then starting in 1999, in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she also trained while not touring. She became an American citizen in January 2004, when she was living in Las Vegas. She was able to retain her French citizenship. She skated for the first time as an American citizen in April 2004, at a Champions on Ice performance in Boston. In 2010, Bonaly served as the cultural attaché for the Monaco consulate in Las Vegas. She also was part of a delegation, which included other international celebrities, from the Society for the Protection of Animals, who met with the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, to address the abolition of bullfighting and to prohibit attendance at bullfighting events by children under the age of 16. In 2010, Bonaly met with Princess Caroline of Monaco, who recognized her for her "successful fundraising" for the World Association of Children's Friends (AMADE), a children's charity organization founded by Princess Grace of Monaco. from 2010 to 2014 and was the ambassador of "France of Talents and Colors", an association that fought against racism, violence, and discrimination in sport. In 2022, Bonaly co-wrote a children's book, Fearless Heart: An Illustrated Biography of Surya Bonaly, with Frank Murphy and illustrated by Anastasia Magloire Williams. The reviewer stated that the book was "a tad uneven", likely due to its poetic nature, though it had "standout illustrations".
As of 2025, Bonaly was receiving treatment for breast cancer. In November 2025, over the course of four days and while Bonaly was in Minnesota helping her mother, who was being treated for lung, breast, and sternum cancer, Bonaly's Las Vegas home was raided by burglars. They stole her collection of medals, as well as breaking windows, tearing down cameras, and cutting the Wi-Fi connection. Bonaly reported the robbery to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Programs
{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center
! Season
! Short program
! Free skating
! Exhibition
|-
! 1997–98 <br/>
|
- Caravan
|
- The Four Seasons <br/>