While the American male skater is getting attention for performing the 1st legal backflip landing on one skate, let's acknowledge the 1st person to have done this: a Black French girl, Surya Bonaly.

[yehuda@turtleisland.social]

@benroyce
OMG tears of joy and admiration

@CStamp

[mor696@mastodon.social]

@benroyce @CStamp

Sometimes being yourself is simply more important than conforming!

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@Yehuda @CStamp

It's such a great lesson in life

There are constraints placed on what success means

But you can succeed on your own terms, your own way, by your own standards. And sometimes that can outshine what others have decided success means

[rolf_b_lh@muenster.im]

@CStamp will try to find later. Now I say good night

[jmcrookston@mastodon.social]

@CStamp

Bonaly was the only female athlete capable of the skill at that time, and later told reporters that she wanted to “show the judges – who don’t appreciate what I do – just what I can do.”

forbes.com

(www.forbes.com)

[lindarosesmit@mastodon.social]

@Mor696 @benroyce @CStamp most times

[rolf_b_lh@muenster.im]

@CStamp It was Terry Kubicka at the 1976 Olympics, my memory was wrong.
It was then counted a double (jump? what is a Lutz or Flip or Toeloop called in english?), if my memory is right this time and was forbidden very soon after.

[cstamp@mastodon.social]

@rolf_b_lh He landed on two skates. She was the first to land on one skate. They said a two foot landing didn’t count as a real jump, it had to be possible to land on one foot.

[rolf_b_lh@muenster.im]

@CStamp Ah, right you are!
I saw his backflip back then, and I wasn't sure if I liked it - looked like an experiment to me.
But now I have seen hers, too (on youtube), and that one was better by far.

[angelina@mastodon.online]

@benroyce @CStamp I also saw her doing this backflip when she was over 40, with pins on her back on a rink smaller than the competition ones.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@Angelina @CStamp

yeah i read about her back issues

her feats look amazing but the toll on the body... uggh

[kadsenchaos@23.social]

@benroyce @tshirtman @CStamp
I watched all of it back then, because I was figure skating myself at the time.
The judges did her dirty so many times, she finally had it.

[niavy@masto.bike]

@benroyce
Plus... She's French 🥳
(I didn't know about this story, it's amazing !)
@CStamp

#SuryaBonaly #Nagano #WinterOlympics #backflip #figureskating

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@niavy @CStamp

it really is amazing, and a powerful lesson in life:

"we define the terms on how you succeed and excel"

"no. i define the terms on how i succeed and excel"

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@Kadsenchaos @tshirtman @CStamp

there's racism in there too

[cstamp@mastodon.social]

@benroyce @Kadsenchaos @tshirtman Sadly, yep.

[jaystephens@mastodon.social]

@CStamp made me search the Web and learn several things thank you.
I found this short informative too
https://youtube.com/shorts/Q0NvfIvGR10?si=SWSFltBLplZEl1Yq

[cstamp@mastodon.social]

@jaystephens If you look through this thread, you’ll learn a lot more about why she chose to do the backflip while knowing she would get deductions. With regards to the flip, the first guy did a two foot landing. When they banned it because they thought it dangerous, they added that unless it could be done with a single foot landing, it didn’t qualify as a jump anyway. Surya Bonaly was the first to do the backflip and land it on one foot.

[jaystephens@mastodon.social]

@CStamp yeah I haven't dug into what exactly she was protesting and why, that's next

[vonxylofon@witter.cz]

@benroyce @CStamp I am irrationally angry that they cut that backflip in half like five times and showed it complete maybe once.