{"id":128683,"date":"2026-02-10T12:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T12:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128683\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T12:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T12:12:09","slug":"ilia-malinin-backflip-controversy-brews-ahead-of-mens-skating-nbc-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/128683\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Malinin backflip controversy brews ahead of men\u2019s skating \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilia Malinin<\/a>, the U.S. figure skater nicknamed the \u201cQuad God,\u201d became the\u00a0first person to legally land a backflip on one skate in the Olympics<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 although one trailblazing woman pulled it off when the move was still forbidden.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old from Virginia delivered a crucial free skate on Sunday night for the winning American team, filled with his trademark quadruple jumps and capped off the gold-medal-clinching performance with his dramatic backflip.<\/p>\n

\"play\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a move known today as \u201cthe Bonaly flip\u201d \u2014 named for France\u2019s Surya Bonaly. Nevertheless, it is Malinin getting showered with praise, prompting many on social media to lament the way his achievement has eclipsed that of Bonaly, who is Black, and wondering if that is due to the color of her skin.<\/p>\n

\"NAGANO,<\/p>\n

FILE — France’s Surya Bonalay does a back flip during the women’s long program at the White Ring. Bonalay finished out of the medals. (Photo by John Tlumacki\/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Ari Lu, 49, was among those on TikTok saying the figure skating world owed Bonaly an apology. Where Malinin is praised for his athleticism, Bonaly was judged, she told The Associated Press in a text message on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething a Black person used to be derided for is now celebrated when done by a white person,\u201d said Lu, who is Black herself. She added that critiques of Bonaly at the time appeared related to her appearance rather than her skills.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the first night of men\u2019s figure skating, Team USA\u2019s Ilia Malinin stunned spectators with a backflip on the ice \u2014 but didn\u2019t finish in first place.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A ban, and a backflip to end a career<\/p>\n

The first person to pull off a backflip at the Olympics was former U.S. champion Terry Kubicka, in 1976, and he landed on two skates. The International Skating Union swiftly banned the backflip, considering it too dangerous.<\/p>\n

Over 20 years later, at the 1998 Nagano Games, France\u2019s Surya Bonaly flouted the rules and executed a backflip, this time landing on a single blade \u2014 an exclamation point to mark her final performance as a professional figure skater. The crowd cheered, and one television commentator exclaimed, \u201cI think she\u2019s done that because she wants to, because it\u2019s not allowed. So good on her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonaly knew the move meant judges would dock her points, but she did it anyway. The moment would cement her legacy as a Black athlete in a\u00a0sport that historically has lacked diversity.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Malinin, the U.S. figure skater nicknamed the \u201cQuad God,\u201d became the\u00a0first person to legally land a backflip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29209,29241,9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-128683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympics","9":"tag-figure-skating","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}