They outlawed this move just because she was the only woman who could do it.Â
Surya Bonaly was infamous for (among other things) doing a one blade backflip in the 1998 Olympics, and is the ONLY figure skater whoâs ever pulled that off. Not just the only woman, the only figure skater PERIOD. Thereâs like all of three Olympic-class male skaters who did backflips in their routines, and NONE of them could do it one blade.
But wait, thereâs more.
Backflips were banned from the 1976 Olympics onward on the official justification that skating jumps are supposed to be landed on one blade, whereas backflips are landed on both blades. The unofficial justification was it was too dangerous, both to the athlete and to the rink â if you didnât land it perfectly, you could not only break your ankle, but also punch THROUGH the ice surface.
Surya Bonaly was openly contemptuous of the figure skating judges, because they were a bunch of openly racist white men who always screwed her over by giving her lower scores than she deserved. That one-blade backflip was her ultimate FUCK YOU! to the Olympics judges, because she took an âillegalâ backflip and made it legal by landing it on one blade. Pretty much DARING them to mark her down for being epically awesome and pulling a move that their precious coddled white girls didnât have the guts to even think about.
They did, of course. White racism knows no bounds. But she utterly owned them with that move.
Not only did she do a fucking backflip and land, she landed then went right into a triple loop. like holy fuck.
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