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Surya Bonaly (born December 15, 1973) is a
France|French professional figure skating|figure
skater, born in Nice, France. She began skating
when she was 18 months old. As a child, her
skating heroes were Midori Ito and Brian Boitano.
She stands 5 feet tall and resides in Las Vegas,
Nevada|Las Vegas, Nevada, United States|USA. She
became an American citizen in November 2003.

Bonaly, once a world champion gymnast, is famous
for both her back flip landed on one blade (she is
the only skater in the world capable of this) and
her defiant, saucy attitude. This attitude was
shown at the 1994 World Figure Skating
Championships in Chiba, Chiba|Chiba, Japan. With
Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul 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. Surya thought she was robbed. She showed
defiance when she just stood aside of the medals
platform rather than standing on it. Bonaly was
coaxed into standing on it, but took her medal off
after being presented with it. The crowd
immediately booed her. After the presentation, a
crying Surya was greeted by reporters.

During the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan,
having lost any medal chance due to a missed
triple Salchow jump, she decided to end her
amateur career with a symbolic gesture. She
performed her back flip, which is an illegal move,
in front of the judges. They penalized her, and
she finished 11th in the Olympic competition.

She is currently touring with Champions on Ice.

==External links==
* http://www.skateradio.net/Skaters/Bonaly/
Official website
*
http://www.ffsg.org/biographies/artistique-danse/b
onaly.htm Biography (in French)