THE SURPRISE THAT SHAKES THE OLYMPICS: One hailed as a legend, the other once judged harshly — will today’s glory erase the debt of the past? Ilia Malinin has just rewritten Olympic history with the first legitimate flip on figure skating, a moment that sent the world into a frenzy of excitement. But immediately, social media exploded as many mentioned Surya Bonaly — the Black female athlete who performed a similar move more than 25 years ago, when it was banned and mercilessly punished. From “too dangerous” to “a creative masterpiece,” from judgment to praise, the flip suddenly became a mirror reflecting the controversial double standards in figure skating. The more glorious Malinin became, the more agonizing the question for Bonaly grew: would history truly be fair to those who had paved the way?
Malinin made history with his Olympic backflip, but some say the glory was owed to a Black skater MILAN — Ilia Malinin , the U.S. figure skater nicknamed the…