Everytime someone brings up the "Backflip was banned because Surya Bonaly did it and the ISU didn't want her to succeed because they are racist" narrative I want to tear my hair out.
Like, she was definitely a victim of racist judging. But, the backflip wasn't banned because of her. It was banned in 1977. When she was 3. 21 years before she did it in the 1998 Olympics.
Was she frustrated and upset about how she was being judged when she did the flip? Yes. But was the backflip illegal because she was a successful black woman (paraphrasing a number of comments I've seen on posts about Ilia's backflip)? No. It was banned after a white guy did it 20 years earlier. Also white boy Ilia Malinin wasn't the reason it was unbanned. It was Adam Siao Him Fa doing a flip (and it going semi-viral) that got them unbanned.
Idk it's just frustrating because people get so focused on the backflip that they don't know that she was also a five-time European champion, and had multiple world medals. People get so focused on her frustration that they don't know about all that she achieved Despite the system and judges being against her. The controversy is what sells and it makes sense that the false narrative is what people know. but it loses nuance in a way that frustrates me.
