During the women’s free skate portion of the team event at the 2022 Winter Olympics, 15-year-old Kamila Valiyeva of Russia become the first to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics during competition.
Prior to Valieyva’s amazing move, only two who have competed in women’s competition are believed to have attempted to land the skill in competitions before, Black figure skater Surya Bonaly of France in 1992 during the Albertville Games, and Japanese figure skater Miki Ando during the 2006 Torino Winter Games—neither were successful.
French figure skater Surya Bonaly’s attempted quad thirty years ago, while she was a teen, was discounted due to under rotation. However, she paved the way for future attempts. Skating rules had precluded those competing in the women’s category from performing quadruple jumps in the short program, but Bonaly, best known for her single-blade backflips, would not be deterred.
She noted to NBC Sports’ Nick Zaccardi that she had landed clean quads in practice, making it clear that she was capable of doing what many thought women weren’t capable of.
“I wanted to do it, not because I wanted to be the first woman to do it, but because I know that women don’t have to just be pretty and try to do a nice spiral,” said Bonaly. “We definitely can mix both aspects of being pretty and be tough and be able to jump.”
Bonaly’s comments speak to the ways in which girls and women athletes are often bound by the politics of beauty when it comes to competition, where athleticism and strength are often deemed counter to ideal notions of femininity and grace.
As a Black woman, Bonaly’s athletic career was doubly bound by the intersection of race and gender in a sport historically residing in a white space. Sociologist Elijah Anderson defines it as an area in which the presence of Black and other people of color are unexpected, unwelcome, and/or marginalized.
We are now a week into Black History Month. So far it’s been marred by the murder of 22-year-old Amir Locke in Minneapolis, bomb threats made against several HBCU campuses by domestic terrorists and Black NFL coaches being humiliated in the head coaching process once again.
Those are more reasons as to why Bonaly’s contribution to skating is worthy of reflection.
As a Black skater in a white space, she was a highly visible figure for a time in the 90s. However, her unconventional style as a skater didn’t fit the traditionally white space and was often devalued in competition— a familiar experience for Black athletes in these spaces. Figure skating, much like gymnastics, takes the exploits of Black girls and women athletes and either penalizes them or regards them as spectacle.
Black women and girls in sports often challenge the existing norms. They bring with them a unique sense of style and athleticism which tend to be viewed as threats to the status quo.
Bonaly’s single-blade backflip is like previous performances of gymnast Simone Biles. Both have dynamic skills that have not been attempted by others competing the women’s category as they were deemed unsafe.
It’s important that I say competition in the women’s category to highlight the ways in which sport language reinforces a binary gender category which is harmful on its own. It also places those who compete as girls and young women in the awkward position of being adultified and hypersexualized within certain sports.
This includes figure skating and gymnastics.
Nevertheless, the backflip in figure skating remains an illegal maneuver in competition by the standards of the International Skating Union (ISU) despite being performed successfully in exhibition events, and even landed by Bonaly during the Nagano Games.
Despite how much Bonlay’s presence disrupted the figure skating status quo, many believe that she remains an underrated figure in the sport. I for one, think she is worthy of more recognition.
Black women and girls, including athletes like Bonaly, should be lauded for pushing the boundaries and creating an atmosphere in which skills become integrated into the mainstream off their labor.
Had Bonaly not attempted the quad 30 years ago would Ando have attempted it in 2006? Would Valieyva now hold the title as the first ‘woman’ to successfully land it in competition? Maybe. Maybe not. But Bonlay laid the foundation for future skaters to attempt it.
Black women’s physical strength tends to be viewed negatively through a masculinized lens, where the same attribute is lauded in non-Black women.
The legacies of imperialism, racial slavery, white-supremacy, and patriarchy continue to shape our world view, and therefor how Black women and girls as athletes are perceived. Nevertheless, Black women and girls leave imprints in sport that cannot and should not be ignored. They transform sports in ways that are not only exciting to watch but challenging to normative ideas about the incongruity between strength and femininity.
The seeming disconnect between being strong and being feminine is one that haunts Black women and girls in ways it does not latch on to others.
As we reflect on the contributions of Black people in our society this month, perhaps it is also time that we shake loose the shackles of Eurocentric ideologies about strength and gender, so that the skill of women like Bonaly is no longer viewed as an aberration. The presence of Black women and girls in sports challenges traditional understandings of strength, grace and the feminine in ways that make room for more expansive understandings of each.
That deserves recognition.
Bonaly was an early champion of women and girls in skating being viewed as more than objects of beauty. They were possessors of strength and skill who can perform feats often left to the purview of men.
So, as we recognize the 15-year old Valieyva for her tremendous accomplishment, let us do so with the understanding that it was made possible in part by the work laid by Bonaly (and Ando) before her.
Innovation in sport, and women’s sport, cannot ignore its linkages to the creativity and strength of Black women. Bonaly aided in the changes of women’s figure skating just as Simone Biles and other Black gymnasts, like the women of UCLA, did in revolutionizing floor routines.
They are changing their sport against the intersections of racism and sexism that threaten to stifle them. Black girls, and women athletes are revolutionaries. Not just in February but all year long.
So, let’s lift them up because Black women and girls deserve it. Period.
