2026年2月20日 / 美国东部时间上午11:52 / CBS新闻
这位奥运选手那对纤细、镶着银边的冰鞋划破空气，完成了一次罕见而轰动的后空翻——先一只脚，再另一只脚——紧接着单脚滑行瞬间落在冰面上，冰刀轻触冰面。观众先是震惊，随即爆发出雷鸣般的掌声，满是敬畏。
然而，这并非今年米兰-科尔蒂纳冬奥会的场景，选手也不是美国年轻的花样滑冰天才伊利亚·马林。那是在一代人之前——在美国队的”四周跳之神”出生前六年——当时后空翻在奥运会上甚至还未被允许。而法国花样滑冰传奇人物苏里亚·博纳利，后来因这一大胆动作而备受赞誉，却最初因这一动作被扣分。
“我觉得这很棒，”博纳利在接受CBS新闻采访时谈到这位21岁美国奥运选手在米兰的壮举，称赞他”想要走得更远，超越规则。我是说，那家伙太厉害了。他甚至敢于尝试后空翻，这真的很棒。”
这一突破重力的体操动作被恰当地称为”博纳利后空翻”，原因不言而喻。
图：1998年2月20日，日本长野冬奥会，法国花样滑冰选手苏里亚·博纳利在比赛中。Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty
1998年日本长野冬奥会，当时24岁的博纳利在她第三届也是最后一届冬奥会的最后一场比赛中，为自己、观众和镜头留下了一段难忘的瞬间。尽管她的跟腱撕裂伤仍在恢复中，博纳利知道自己几乎不可能赢得奖牌。
于是她决定放手一搏，完成了女子奥运花样滑冰史上的第一个后空翻，也是有史以来第一个单脚落地的后空翻。
裁判因这一当时被禁止的动作扣分。她在比赛中开始时排名第六，最终获得第十名。
“我来得太早了。我总是走在时代的前面，”博纳利告诉CBS新闻，”所以，人们不喜欢这一点。也许还有嫉妒，一种嫉妒感，一种恐惧感——因为他们在我身边，或者和我竞争。”
国际滑冰联盟（世界花样滑冰和速度滑冰的全球管理机构）自1977年起就禁止了后空翻，”因为这既太危险，又违反了花样滑冰单脚落地的原则”，据奥运会官网称。
1976年，也就是禁令实施前一年，美国选手特里·库比卡成为首位在比赛中完成后空翻的选手，但他是双脚落地。直到近半个世纪后的两年前，世界滑冰机构才取消了对这一动作的禁令。
如今52岁的博纳利是明尼苏达州沙塔克-圣玛丽卓越花样滑冰中心的教练，她告诉CBS新闻，看到马林因这个曾经让她失分的动作而受到赞誉，她一点也不失望。
“因为总得有人先开始，”她说，”尝试任何事情，成为第一个都是很困难的。我是个先驱……很棒……（但）当时确实不受欢迎。”
一些支持者指出，在这个以白人为主的运动中存在种族歧视，而马林（白人）多年后因类似动作受到赞誉，这与博纳利（黑人女性）当年因同样动作被批评为鲁莽叛逆形成对比。
博纳利是少数几位全球知名的黑人花样滑冰选手之一。她告诉CBS新闻，作为一名年轻运动员，”我没有太多可以效仿的榜样。”
“除了我自己、我的父母和我的团队，我没有得到太多鼓励，”她说，”三十年前，人们的思想更狭隘，所以我们不知道该如何对待或感受与有色人种相处。”
但她记得曾看到另一位黑人女性在冰面上驰骋，在她之前就开辟了道路。
“在我之前很久，我就看到了黛比·托马斯，你知道，那个美国冠军，她在1988年奥运会上获得了奖牌，真是太不可思议了，”博纳利说，”当时我在法国通过电视看她比赛，我想，哦，太酷了。”
当时博纳利只有14岁。她不仅追随了托马斯的道路，还在重大赛事冠军数量上超越了她，赢得10次法国全国冠军、5次欧洲冠军和3次世界亚军。尽管她从未获得奥运奖牌（托马斯获得铜牌），但博纳利参加了三届冬奥会，用她大胆的表演在创造力、多样性和包容性方面打破了运动的界限。
这种开拓精神也体现在美国队马林身上，尽管他在上周的比赛中意外摔倒，失去了奖牌争夺资格，但他仍然坚持这一动作。
“对我来说，推动这项运动向前发展更重要，”他告诉CBS新闻，”很多时候，人们不再谈论奥运冠军，更多的是关注你为这项运动留下了什么形象。”
他说他会继续做这个50年前首次亮相的后空翻动作。
“老实说，这真的很令人惊叹，”他说。
如今也是励志演讲家的博纳利表示，她鼓励其他人尽管会面临她所经历的评判和批评，也要在冰上开拓自己的命运。
“成为第一个尝试某件事的人已经更好了，”她说，”人们会仰望你，说’你被模仿了’。我从不模仿任何人。”
“我相信新一代能做出伟大的事情，但你必须保持冷静，”她补充道，”保持人性。因为即使你是冠军或名人，日常中你仍然要做个好人。这非常重要。而且，我认为，即使你脖子上没有世界冠军头衔或奖牌，这也不能定义你。你仍然是个很棒的人。”
Surya Bonaly, who backflipped at Olympics before Ilia Malinin was born, opens up about the gravity-defying move
February 20, 2026 / 11:52 AM EST / CBS News
The Olympian’s thin, silver-edged skates sliced up into the air in a rare, sensational backflip — one leg, then the other — landing on a single skate a split second later that shaved back into the ice. The audience, first stunned, then thundered applause in awe.
That was not at this year’s Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, however, and the athlete was not the young U.S. figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin. It was a generation ago — six years before Team USA’s “Quad God” was even born — when the backflip wasn’t even permitted at the Games. And French figure skating legend Surya Bonaly, later lauded for her bold move, was first penalized for it.
“I think it’s great,” Bonaly told CBS News of the 21-year-old American Olympian’s feat in Milan, lauding him for “wanting to go further, going beyond, you know, the rules. I mean, that guy is amazing. So good for him to even try to go further, and doing the backflip.”
The gravity-defying gymnastic move has been called the “Bonaly backflip” for good reason.
Figure skater Surya Bonaly of France is seen in action at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, on Feb. 20, 1998. Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty
It was the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where the then-24-year-old Bonaly, with just moments left in what would be her final performance at her third Winter Games, gave herself, the crowd and the cameras something unforgettable. Still recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, Bonaly knew she was very unlikely to win a medal.
So she decided to go big, with the first Olympic figure skating backflip by a woman, and the first ever landed on just one skate.
The judges docked points over the then-banned move. She started the competition in sixth place and finished in 10th.
“I came really early. I was always ahead of my time,” Bonaly told CBS News. “So, people didn’t like that. Also, maybe jealousy, a sense of jealousy, a sense of fear — being next to me or competing with me.”
The backflip had been banned since 1977 by the International Skating Union, the worldwide governing body for figure and speed skating, “as both too dangerous, and because it violated the figure skating principle of landing on one skate,” according to the Olympics.
The first skater to land a backflip in competition was American Terry Kubicka, just a year before the ban was implemented, in 1976. But he landed on both feet. It wasn’t until almost half a century later, just two years ago, that the world skating body dropped its ban on the move.
Bonaly, now 52 and a coach at Minnesota’s Shattuck-St. Mary’s Figure Skating Center of Excellence, told CBS News she wasn’t at all disappointed to see Malinin celebrated for the move that once cost her points.
“Because somebody had to start,” she said. “It’s already difficult to be the first one for anything you try. I was a pioneer … great … (but) was not really welcome. But now I opened the doors or broke the ice for many people. And I think that is even more important.”
Surya Bonaly poses during a portrait session in Paris, France, Aug. 27, 2023. Eric Fougere/Corbis/Getty
Some supporters have pointed to racism in the predominantly white sport, contrasting the optics of Malinin, a white man, being celebrated years after Bonaly, a Black woman, was criticized as brash and rebellious for doing the same thing.
Bonaly is one of only a handful of globally-renowned Black figure skaters. She told CBS News she “didn’t have much example” to follow as a young athlete.
“I didn’t have that much encouragement beside my own, my parents and my team,” she said. “Thirty years ago, people have more narrow minds, so we were not aware about what’s going on, how to treat or feel good being near a person of color.”
But she remembered watching another Black woman on the ice, who blazed tracks years before her.
“Way before me, I had Debi Thomas, you know, that American champion, which actually got a medal in 1988 Olympics, was already amazing,” Bonaly said. “At that time, I was in France watching her on TV. I was like, oh wow, that’s cool.”
Bonaly was just 14 at the time. She would go on to not only follow Thomas’ path, but to surpass her in total major titles, taking 10 French national championships, five European titles and three world silver medals. Though she never won an Olympic medal, unlike Thomas who won a bronze, Bonaly competed in three Winter Games and bent the sport’s boundaries in creativity, diversity and acceptance with her daring routines.
That desire to break new ground is shared by Team USA’s Malinin, even after his disastrous wipeout on the ice last week, when he fell out of all medal contention.
“I think it’s more important for me to just push the sport forward,” he told CBS News. “A lot of the time, it’s not a lot of people (who) talk about the Olympic champions anymore, and it’s more about what image you leave for the sport.”
He said he’d keep pulling the backflip that first debuted 50 years ago.
“It’s honestly just a really big wow factor,” he said.
Bonaly, who is also now a motivational speaker, said she encourages others to carve out their own destiny on the ice, despite any judgments or criticisms like the ones she faced.
“It’s already better to be the first one to try something,” she said, “and people will be able to look up to you and say ‘you’re being copied.’ I never copy anyone.”
“I believe that this new generation can do great things, but you have to keep your head over your shoulders. Stay cool,” she added, “and stay human. Because even though you’re a champion or celebrity, you still have to be a nice person on a daily basis. It’s very important. And also, I believe, even if you do not have a world title or medal around your neck, it still does not define you. You are still a great person.”
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