Surya Bonaly

Surya Bonaly is honestly one of the most electrifying athletes figure skating has ever produced, and I'll die on that hill. A five-time European champion and three-time World silver medalist, she dominated the early 1990s with raw power that the sport had never really seen before — the girl came up through gymnastics, and it showed in the most spectacular way possible. The judges famously never gave her the credit she deserved, but none of that matters when you remember the 1998 Nagano Olympics, where she landed a backflip on one blade — an illegal move, fully intentional, basically a middle finger to a system that kept scoring her down. Born in Nice, raised to defy expectations, Surya carved her own lane when the lane the sport offered her was too narrow. Absolute legend.

Name (English)

Surya Bonaly

Name (Japanese)

スルヤ・ボナリー

Reading

するや・ぼなりー

Born

December 15, 1973 (age 52)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Ox

Origin

Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Height

2 cm

Occupation

figure skater / gymnast

Motto

Private

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/suryabonaly1/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%AB%E3%83%A4%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9C%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC

Tags

• Alpes-Maritimes
• figure skater
• gymnast

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.