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MILAN — When U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin completed a one-footed backflip in the men's free skate in Sunday's team event, the crowd at Milano Ice Skating Arena audibly gasped before erupting in cheers.
Malinin's gravity-defying move capped a mesmerizing program that propelled Team USA to its second consecutive team gold medal. He became the first skater to land a one-blade backflip on Olympic ice since France's Surya Bonaly performed the maneuver at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games.
The backflip has been openly embraced since its return to figure skating in 2024, but it was received much differently three decades ago when Bonaly chose to end her Olympic career on her own terms. The move was banned by the International Skating Union (ISU) in 1977 because it was deemed too dangerous.
But Bonaly did it anyway.
