Backflip (figure skating)
[1] The next time the backflip was done in competition was in 2024, at the European Championships, by French skater Adam Siao Him Fa, during his free skating program and while it was still an illegal move.
Skaters and coaches acknowledge both the potential risk of performing backflips and the excitement the audience expresses about seeing them during ice shows and competitions.
[3] In 2018, she said in a TEDx talk that her mother, Suzanne Bonaly, encouraged her to practice "forbidden" moves like the backflip, even though her coach "told her off" for attempting them.
[7] During a practice session for the short program at the 1992 Winter Olympics, Bonaly did a backflip and landed "very close"[8] to Midori Ito from Japan.
[8] Ben Wright, a referee from the U.S., told Suzanne Bonaly before practice that her daughter was not permitted to do the move, something she regularly performed during her exhibition programs.
The Baltimore Sun also stated that for two years, figure skating officials like Wright had suspected Bonaly of using the backflip to intimidate other skaters.
[8] At the 1998 Olympics, Bonaly was injured and recovering from a severe ruptured Achilles tendon that had threatened to end her figure skating career two years earlier, so she considered dropping out of the competition.
He won the gold medal by more than 20 points for the second time in a row, even though the move was still illegal,[6] telling the spectators, "I've actually done this back flip for you people.
Figure Skating that he was able to recognize the irony in having to make the deduction in Siao Him Fa's scores and called it "a full circle moment for me".
[2] The backflip ban was lifted prior to the 2024–2025 season, when it and other "somersault type jumps" were removed from ISU's list of restricted moves and elements.
The ISU's agenda for its congress in Las Vegas in June 2024 included a proposal to remove backflips from the restricted list,[4] stating that the reason for doing so was that "somersault type jumps are very spectacular and nowadays it is not logical anymore to include them as illegal movements";[4] the proposal passed and the ban was removed from the sport's rules.
The backflip is not assigned a point value and is not a required element, but it is allowed to be included as part of the choreographic sequence during the free skating program.
[9][2] ABC News reported that backflips "almost immediately"[9] began to appear in lower-level competitions, including at the Lombardia Trophy in September 2024, when Ilia Malinin from the U.S., who won the event, successfully executed it.
[2] Skaters, including Kubicka, Bonaly, Siao Him Fa, and Bradley, who also performed backflips in ice shows for many years, acknowledged the risk associated with the move.
[4] Malinin told NBC Sports that spectators at ice shows and competitions "really went wild over" the backflip and that it inserted a surprise into his programs.
