Surya Bonaly

Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly (born 15 December 1973) is a French-born retired competitive figure skater. She is a three-time World silver medalist (1993–1995), a five-time European champion (1991–1995), the 1991 World Junior Champion, and a nine-time French national champion (1989–1997). Bonaly is the only Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on one blade; she performed it at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly was born in Nice, France, on 15 December 1973. She was initially named Claudine and placed in an orphanage by her birth mother. She was adopted at eight months by Suzanne and Georges Bonaly, who named her Surya, meaning "the sun" in Sanskrit. Suzanne worked as a physical education teacher and Georges as an architect. In the late 1980s, journalists claimed that Surya Bonaly was born in Réunion, an island off the coast of Madagascar, and was found lying on a coconut-strewn beach.

However, the skater's passport documented her birth in Nice. Bonaly believes that the media couldn't accept that a young black adoptee could have been born in France. Didier Gailhaguet, the first coach in her competitive skating career, later admitted fabricating this exotic backstory in order for her to gain more media attention and achieve better results in international competitions.

Gailhaguet also told reporters that she had been raised on a macrobiotic diet, ate birdseed for breakfast, and that the 17-inch ponytail she wore in her first Olympic appearance had never been cut. When Surya began researching her birth history, she discovered that her biological mother was from Réunion and her biological father from Ivory Coast. Two years after adopting her, the Bonalys bought a rural property, renovating a decrepit sheepfold to use as a house.

Surya grew up here, 50 kilometers from Nice. The house never had running water or electricity. Her parents also kept 26 goats. Surya took part in the daily farmwork. The parents nicknamed their house Sannyasa, a Sanskrit term that refers to a stage in a person's life. It is a period of spiritual development during which one renounces material possessions to concentrate purely on spiritual matters.

Surya had flute lessons at eight in the morning and English lessons. She also practiced fencing, ballet, horse riding, and diving. Her mother was a physical education teacher and practiced many sports; she encouraged Surya to do the same. When Suzanne Bonaly took her students to the ice rink, she also took toddler Surya with her. At around two years of age, Surya began to skate on double blades, to keep busy while her mother was teaching.

At age four, Surya developed a passion for gymnastics, training with Éric Hagard, who later coached Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos. Although she loved gymnastics as a teenager, Surya preferred figure skating and finally chose that. Nicole Erdos, her first childhood coach in that sport, has suggested that Bonaly's gymnastics practice had strengthened her and given her an advantage on the ice over other competitors.

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