French champion Surya Bonaly backflipped on Olympic ice years before Ilia Malinin was even born, and it brought her penalization, not plaudits.

This is the first Olympics in 50 years where the move hasn't been illegal—and Malinin’s backflip has long been known as the “Bonaly flip.”

Many were expecting a quadruple axel, but the U.S. figure skating star completed a different move during his Olympic debut.

Surya Bonaly successfully landed a backflip on one blade during the 1998 Winter Olympics despite knowing the move was banned.

Editor's note: Follow Olympics figure skating live results and updates from 2026 Winter Games. MILAN — Backflips are now allowed in the sport of figure skating. American superstar and men's gold medal favorite Ilia Malinin peforms a backflip in his short ...

American figure skater Ilia Malinin was the first to do a legal backflip in almost half a century at the Olympics. But he wasn't the first to do it on Olympic ice.