Surya Bonaly

Quick Facts

Surya Bonaly Biography

Surya Bonaly is one of the most popular and richest Figure Skater who was born on December 15, 1973 in Nice, United States. As of June 1, 2023, Surya has a net worth approximately $5 Million. During the 1987-1988 season, Surya Bonaly became the French junior champion of figure skating in Cherbourg. At the French Senior Championships in Grenoble, she ended up in fourth place and was then sent to her first ISU Championship, the 1988 Junior Worlds in Brisbane, Australia and finished 14th.

Surya Varuna Claudine Bonaly was born in Nice, France on 15 December 1973. Initially named Claudine, she was adopted at 8 months old from an orphanage by Suzanne and Georges Bonaly, who gave her the name Surya. A word meaning “the sun” in Sanskrit. Suzanne worked as a physical education teacher and Georges as an architect for the government. Journalists, mainly American, began in the late 1980s to claim that Surya Bonaly was born on the Réunion island and was found lying on a coconut-strewn beach. The skater’s passport, however, indicates that she was born in Nice. The story spreads as she prepares her first European championships in 1989. Surya Bonaly believes that the media couldn’t accept that a young black and adopted woman could have been born in France. For Didier Gailhaguet, first coach of her competitive career, the media attention given to the skater allows her to achieve better results in international competitions. He later admitted fabricating the story in order to draw attention to his skater, adding that he only mentioned the Reunion island because he dreamed of going there on vacation. When Surya approached the age of 18 and began researching her birth history, she discovered that her biological mother is indeed from the island and her biological father from the Ivory Coast.

In 1984, Surya Bonaly watched the Winter Olympic Games and discovered there the skater Katarina Witt: she then decided to do the double axel and broke her ankle. She had to wear a cast for two months, and decided to continue practicing the flute until the summer. When she returned to the ice rink, the French team trained by Didier Gailhaguet took every available space on the ice, preventing Surya from training. Suzanne Bonaly then asked Didier Gailhaguet to give her daughter an hour on the ice, and the coach agreed. She tried again to do a double axel with her broken ankle, which impressed Gailhaguet, who later claimed that “France had no hard fighters”. He then proposed to Bonaly and her mother to come for each training session, which would last three weeks. At the end of the course, Bonaly has almost reached the level of the members of the French team, already managing to land a double axel and a triple jump despite a short time spent on the ice. Gailhaguet asked her to move to Paris to train with him all year round.

The Bonaly family then moved to Paris. For six months, while training in Champigny-sur-Marne, she was home schooled and lived in a van with her parents. Philippe Candeloro mentions the fact that the family was accompanied by five dogs at that time. He also notices the severity of her mother, who pushes Surya to train hard but also very closely governs the social life and hobbies of her daughter. A year later, she joined the French National Team. She then became the center of the media attention among the French figure skaters, by being constantly put in the spotlight by Gailhaguet. At the age of twelve, under the impulse of Gailhaguet, she learned to do a backflip on the ice: Gailhaguet claims to have only transposed onto the ice what she was doing on a regular basis. She made her first backflip on the ice and in public at a gala in Annecy in 1986. Also in 1986, at the age of thirteen, she became a junior tumbling champion at the World Championships. The same year, again in tumbling, she won a silver medal in team at the World Championships with Sandrine Vacher, Corinne Robert and Isabelle Jagueux at the Palais omnisports of Paris-Bercy.

Surya Bonaly Net Worth

Surya is one of the richest Figure Skater from United States. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Surya Bonaly 's net worth $5 Million.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

Surya Bonaly height 5 ft 4 in Surya weight Not Known & body measurements will update soon.

Surya Bonaly Boyfriend

According to our records, Surya Bonaly is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of January 12, 2023, Surya Bonaly’s is not dating anyone.

Relationships Record : We have no records of past relationships for Surya Bonaly. You may help us to build the dating records for Surya Bonaly!

Facts & Trivia

Surya Ranked on the list of most popular Figure Skater. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in United States. Surya Bonaly celebrates birthday on December 15 of every year.

What is Surya Bonaly doing today?

She’s now a coach. Bonaly became an American citizen in 2004 and lives in Las Vegas. There, she coaches skating at the Las Vegas Ice Center.

Why did Surya Bonaly do a backflip?

Prior to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Bonaly ruptured her achilles tendon. She placed 6th in the short program. Unable to complete her planned routine or a successful triple Lutz due to injury, she decided to perform a backflip with a split landing on one blade during the free skate.

Was Surya Bonaly robbed?

Bonaly thought she was robbed and defiantly stood beside the medals platform rather than on it. Although she was coaxed into standing on the platform, Bonaly took off her silver medal after it was presented to her and was immediately booed by the crowd.

Did Surya Bonaly ever win an Olympic medal?

Bonaly participated in three Winter Olympics, and though she never medalled at the Games , she is still considered one of the greats from the sport, as the five-time European champion and winner of three silver medals in the World Figure Skating Championships.

Why did Surya Bonaly take off her medal?

So Bonaly finished in second, with a silver medal — for the second year in a row. Bonaly was visibly distraught. What she saw as unfair treatment from the judges had become routine. After receiving the silver medal on the podium, she took it off.