Figure skating fans will not allow history to be rewritten during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. Headlines are buzzing over the acrobatic ice skating stunt that helped to push U.S. athlete Ilia “Quad God” Malinin into uncharted gold medal success.
The 21-year-old became the first person to victoriously complete an in-competition backflip and land on one foot during his free skate routine on Feb. 8. But in the last few days, viral clips of his history-making accomplishment sparked fanfare and debates.
One viewer gushed, “I know his performance today had a slight misstep, but this dude did a backflip and landed on ONE skate!! He’s 21 years old so we will get to see him for a ling time. Ilia Malinin is amazing.”
That reaction and others like it, though, were greeted with reminders of the legend who made the flip iconic. The high-stakes maneuver was banned 30 years ago and only became a legal move in 2024.
The formerly forbidden stunt, known as “the Bonaly flip,” was named after Surya Bonaly, a skater who competed for France in the 1998 Nagano Games.
The performance was a final fête marking her retirement from competition and years of being penalized and overlooked for her transformative and athletic approach to the sport.
Judges docked points from Bonaly for deploying the incredible trick in her professional finale, dropping her from sixth place to tenth. She told reporters that her goal was to “show the judges — who don’t appreciate what I do — just what I can do.”
A white skater is being celebrated today for a backflip at the 2026 Olympics, while in 1998, Surya Bonaly was punished for it. https://t.co/XCxzhIVjvH pic.twitter.com/mWhYNXz618
— Typical African (@Joe__Bassey) February 12, 2026
“She did it to make a point. She refused to fit in a box. She deserved the medal in 1998,” an IG Threads user wrote as footage of Bonaly’s 1998 flawless move was circulated.
Two others said, “Surya Bonaly did it first in 1998 and was penalized for it,” and “They act like they forgot!”
The dangerous acrobatics first impressed crowds when U.S. skater Terry Kubicka, who landed on both feet, executed the same move during the 1976 Olympics. Bonaly, though, revolutionized the flip with her same-foot, single-blade landing.
Still, someone argued, “She was not the first… His performance does not take away the relevance of what Bonaly achieved in 98.” This comment was met with intolerance from those who sought to undermine and undercut the fact that Bonaly was punished for her athleticism.
A fan responded, “The landing has EVERYTHING to do with it because Illia landed on 1 foot and THAT is what people are talking about.”
Another person shared, “And for the record, they only banned the ‘back flip landing on one skate’ because no one else could do it but Surya Bonaly.”
Three decades ago, ice skating was a less diverse sport; a fact that the pioneering Olympian noted when she spoke to the NY Post about Malinin’s gold-medal routine. Bonaly was asked about her take on Malinin winning the gold medal with her namesake flip.
“Sports is all about moving forward, step by step, [to] push boundaries and push limits, and I did it years ago… Thirty years ago, there were less people of color… now everything has changed. Thank God,” she told the outlet on Feb. 11.
Despite the headlines, Ilia Malinin is not the first Olympic figure skater to land a backflip. Surya Bonaly reacts to the renewed attention to her backflip in 1998. pic.twitter.com/QMdjs1BJOM
— Victor Blackwell CNN (@VictorBlackwell) February 11, 2026
“I’m not crazy, but I was called untethered and now it’s OK,” Bonaly continued. “It’s hard to be the pioneer … [but] I guess I would rather be the first than one of the thousands after.”
Like her longtime fans, Bonaly feels that she was ahead of her time. “It’s almost like I was born a bit too early for the Olympic world scene. … I would have been right on point [now] for entertaining the crowd and being a true athlete,” Bonaly explained in the 2019 Netflix documentary “Losers.”
In that same documentary, Bonaly spoke about her protest at the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships in Chiba, Japan, where she was awarded first place, only to be given a second-place finish. Convinced the judging was already biased against her and would not recognize her skills, she refused to wear her silver medal on the podium and removed it immediately after it was placed around her neck.
For years, Bonaly’s jaw-dropping flip was relegated to exhibitions, barred from Olympic competition. That finally changed two years ago when the ISU reversed course, lifting the ban in an effort to inject fresh energy into the sport and appeal to younger fans.
Although the showstopper hung up her professional skates 30 years ago, she still has a presence on the ice. Bonaly is currently part of the ice skating staff at the Shattuck-St. Mary’s boarding school in Minnesota.
