The Figure Skating Backflip Discourse Is Missing Some Context
False claims about the history of the move proliferate on social media
Every few years, Olympic figure skating discourse escapes containment and floods the internet.
This year, it’s the backflip.
If you’ve been on social media lately, you’ve probably seen a familiar claim circulating again:
A black, female French skater was “punished,” “singled out,” or “persecuted” for daring to do a backflip at the Olympics while an American white, male skater is now being celebrated for the same move.
It’s a compelling story. It’s also… not quite true.
Let’s clear this up, because the actual history is more interesting than the myth.
Why the Backflip Was Banned in the First Place
The backflip didn’t become illegal because of protest, race, or politics.
The move was banned in 1977, after Terry Kubicka performed it at the 1976 Winter Olympics. At the time, the International Skating Union (ISU) ruled that the move was dangerous and not aesthetically aligned with the sport’s direction.
From that point forward, any backflip (by anyone) was illegal in competition. No exceptions. No footnotes.
That ban stayed in place for nearly 50 years.
What Actually Happened in 1998
Fast-forward to the 1998 Winter Olympics, when French skater Surya Bonaly, a brilliant and athletic skater, took the ice.
Though she never won an Olympic medal, she had placed 4th and 5th in the two previous Winter Olympic games (1994 and 1992, respectively).
If there had been a Winter Olympic games in 1996, she would have been a strong contender for a medal. Unfortunately for her (and many other Olympic athletes in their prime) that was the year the Summer and Winter Olympic games began rotating every two years, so there were no winter games.
By the time the 1998 winter olympics came around, Surya was 26 years old, had suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon, and was already struggling physically in her free skate performances. The oldest person to ever win Gold in this competition was 24 (Shizuka Arakawa, 2006).
Bonaly knew she wasn’t going to win a medal.
Bonaly knew this would likely be her last appearance in the Olympics.
She knew the backflip was illegal.
And she did it anyway.
That backflip was not a scoring strategy. It was a statement. A very deliberate, very French, very iconic middle finger to a system that had never fully embraced her.
How do we know that? Because she said so.
And honestly? I will always respect that. Despite what social media users claim, she was not “excoriated” for it. She found plenty of support for her final Olympic performance.
But here’s the important part that keeps getting lost:
The illegal backflip was not what tanked her score.
If you watch the full program (and you should), you’ll see multiple technical errors elsewhere. The deduction for the illegal move was real, but it wasn’t decisive. She fell three times during the performance, failed to complete various other skills, and stumbled on landings. While Surya was a brilliant skater, that was not a great performance, and she knew that, too.
Yet, social media has been flooded for days with false information about her performance, the legality of the backflip, and the perceived “backlash.”
Crucially:
She was not the first skater to perform a backflip at the Olympics
The move was not banned because of her
She was not uniquely punished for doing it
She knowingly accepted the penalty because the moment mattered more than the placement.
That’s not persecution. That’s protest and, as Surya said, “gave people something to talk about.”
Why It’s Legal Now (and Why That Matters)
This year marks the first time since the 1970s that the backflip has been legalized in ISU competition.
When the move was banned in 1977, the ISU largely attributed it to the poor aesthetic, stating it looked more like gymnastics than skating. Which is true. The way Kubicka performed the backflip was neither smooth nor graceful.
It’s taken nearly 50 years to convince the ISU to change its mind, and only after many demonstrations did they do so.
Enter Ilia Malinin, who casually does things on ice that seem to violate the laws of physics. Malinin performed the now-legalized backflip during his program this week — and yes, it was stunning.
A few key points that matter for context:
The rule changed for everyone, not just him
The backflip is now legal because the sport evolved—not because history was rewritten
Both Malinin and Bonaly landed their flips on one foot (which is objectively cool)
With Malinin being the first during the main winter Olympic games to perform the skill, it was bound to garner attention. Malinin is also an American skater so it’s not surprising that there’s a lot of American coverage of his record-breaking performance. Aside from the backflip, his opening performance broke the record for those most-perfect score in the sport’s history, breaking his own previous record.
They were skating under different rulebooks, in different eras.
Why the Misinformation Keeps Spreading
The persecution narrative is emotionally satisfying, but it flattens history and erases what made Bonaly’s moment powerful in the first place.
At what she knew was the end of her Olympic career, she wanted to go out with a bang and show off her skills.
And Malinin’s flip isn’t impressive because it’s controversial.
We can honor both without rewriting the rules of time.
Bottom Line
The backflip was banned in 1977 for safety and style reasons
Surya Bonaly knowingly performed an illegal move in 1998 as protest
The move did not single-handedly ruin her score
The ban was lifted nearly 50 years later for everyone
Ilia Malinin is incredible
Surya Bonaly is iconic
Both things can be true
Sometimes the truth is cooler than the myth—if we let it be.
Tut-tut, there you go using facts again Ms. Jones.
We've entered an all-vibes, all the time world of alternative facts where an objective look at history is discouraged.
girl...I say LET IT BE.