Women’s History Month is coming up in March, and we are celebrating countless women who have made an impact in the lives of others and who have been courageous enough to stand up for what they believe in. I wanted to write about someone that I recently found out about in the last couple of years, and who people have never heard of at all. She is someone who was way ahead of her time, someone who was held back due to the complexion of her skin and had her talent overlooked by many; yet she persisted, and she gave it her all.
Surya Bonaly was a French figure skater who performed the famous backflip during the Olympics. This was a big deal at the time, because not only was the flip illegal in the ice skating world, it had also only been performed by two people in history. These two people were white males, and they had landed on both feet. Bonaly, on the other hand, was a minority, and she had perfected the flip to land not on both feet but one skate.
Bonaly was the ice queen, and she was finally able to show her talent without being marked down once she left amateur skating and went pro. She defied expectations throughout her career. As a woman of color, she faced obstacles which pushed her to go the extra mile, defy the odds, and show her talents. In her honor, the backflip move was named the Bonaly, as she was the only person who performed it and successfully landed on one skate. She became a global phenomenon after her performance at the Olympics. Although the judges were not content with her move, the audience was awestruck, and she gained many fans.
