00:00Backflips are illegal in competitive figure skating.
00:03But that didn't stop her.
00:04In 1994, Surya Bonnelli became the first woman to attempt a backflip in Olympic figure skating.
00:11It's a move that's been banned since 1976 when American skater Terry Kubica performed it at the Winter Olympics in
00:18Austria.
00:19To this day, this backflip is the first and only legal backflip ever performed in competitive figure skating.
00:25But Surya wasn't too concerned about the legality of the trick.
00:29Why?
00:30Well, Surya had already been to the Winter Olympics two years earlier.
00:34Which is when it became clear to her that she didn't quite fit the established mould of figure skaters.
00:39Every time she does one of these breaks, it stops the floor of the program and it really hurts her
00:43artistically.
00:44Surya preferred athleticism over artistic skating and the judges looked down on her for it.
00:49Saying that her style didn't meet the figure skating criteria.
00:53So when the Winter Olympics came around again in 1994, Surya decided that she was going to play by her
01:00own rules.
01:01Surya's Olympic run started off in a relatively standard way, but it quickly became clear that she wasn't there to
01:08take it easy.
01:09Surya pushed her abilities to the limits and she was performing far more explosive and spectacular jumps than the other
01:16skaters.
01:16Triple jumps like this one right here, triple toe, no triple toe!
01:19She still had a little bit of hope that the judges would see her differently this time.
01:23So her choreography was more artistic and graceful than before, while still keeping the impressive jumps that only she could
01:31do.
01:31However, halfway through her routine, disaster struck.
01:36Surya picked herself up and kept going with her routine.
01:39But with that one failed landing, she knew her chances of getting a gold medal were gone.
01:45But for Surya, losing that hope was freedom.
01:49There was one trick that Surya knew that she could do, which no other female skater had even attempted in
01:55competitive figure skating.
01:56It definitely wouldn't win her a medal.
01:59In fact, even attempting the trick would result in an automatic two point reduction to her score.
02:04See, when backflips were officially banned in competition, the reason given was that they are unnecessarily dangerous and aren't a
02:11real skating jump.
02:12Because it was thought impossible to land them on one foot, which is typically how figure skating jumps are performed.
02:18But at this point, Surya had made the decision that she was going to forget the judges.
02:22And instead, Surya would leave her mark on the history books.
02:27Surya has taken a lot of criticism for not being artistic.
02:31But she's really developing her own unique style.
02:34And I find her athleticism really exciting.
02:36Surya was once a junior world champion pummel.
02:40Nice, one foot landing on the backflip.
02:45Truly amazing.
02:46The only person in the world I've seen land a backflip on one foot.
02:50I do a backflip and it hurts to land on both feet.
02:53Surya turned her back to the judges and faced the crowd.
02:56Have you ever seen her do that before?
02:57No.
02:58This is just amazing.
02:59One of the complaints from the judges that makes this jump illegal is to say,
03:02Well, you can't land on one foot.
03:03Well, Surya finally just showed that you can.
03:06You can all share some time again.
03:07Thank you so much.
03:09Thank you so much.
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