[10] Gailhaguet discovered Bonaly and invited her to train with him in Paris; her mother accompanied her there and her father stayed in Nice.

[18] After earning her third national title, Bonaly competed at the 1991 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she won the gold medal.

[13] She attempted a quad jump during her free skate, but it was underrotated; she was so sure that she had landed it cleanly that she threw up her arms in excitement, tripped, and "belly flopped on the ice",[9] as The New York Times put it, "for no apparent reason".

[13] In January 1992, Bonaly again won the gold medal at the European Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland,[13] with "a cautious performance that was still good enough to win".

[21] As a citizen of the host country, Bonaly was chosen to represent France's athletes by taking the Olympic Oath.

[5][6] Before the Olympics, The New York Times reported that Bonaly and her mother "engaged in a series of disputes"[22] between her coach, Didier Gailhaguet, and Annick Dumont, her choreographer, which the French federation helped mediate.

[23][9] He also stated that Bonaly's mother had "made some enormous tactical errors, like changing Surya's Olympic long program at the last minute".

[22] Johnette Howard of Sports Illustrated said that Bonaly's decision to attempt the jump "scuttled her chances" at winning the gold medal in Albertville.

She made two month-long visits, in June and September, to train with coach Frank Carroll in southern California, at a rink The New York Times called "both a touchstone and a refuge" for both Bonaly and her mother.

[18][26] For the 1993—1994 season, Bonaly came in first place at the 1993 NHK Trophy, the 1993 Grand Prix de France, and again at both the 1994 French Nationals and the 1994 European Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Figure Skating Championships the previous month, reported that Kerrigan's "principle opposition", after coming in first place after the short program, was from Bonaly and Baiul.

[29] At first, Bonaly refused to join Sato and Szewczenko and take the podium during the awards ceremony and then pulled off her medal "in disgust"[30] and as a protest against the judges' decision; she was booed by the crowd.

She won the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, which had to change venues due to lack of ice at the original rink.

[35] She came in second place at the 1995 Hersey's Kisses Great American Figure Skating Challenge, competing for Team World.

The Tampa Bay Times called her performance "smooth and exciting after falls and mistakes by several of the top skaters", and also said that Bonaly was noted for being "more of a jumper than an artist on ice", although she had been working on her presentation scores because the judges, as she put it, "always have considered it a fault of mine".

According to The New York Times, she "even went out of her way to thank" Kwan, who came in fourth place over all, stating that "without the young American's dynamic, third-place performance in the free skate, Bonaly would have had to settle for bronze and [Nicole] Bobek would have gotten the silver".

She had tied for the last spot in the finals, but her fifth-place finish in the free skate at the NHK Trophy was the deciding factor that took her out of the competition.

[2][6] The French federation initially decided not to name her to the 1997 European Championships in Paris, believing that she lacked fitness, but Bonaly successfully appealed.

[54] Mike Penner of the Los Angeles Times reported that due to her injury in 1996, Bonaly was still "out of shape" at the 1998 European Championships, so as he put it, she "ran out of gas midway through her [free skating] program—doing little more than gliding across the ice for the last two minutes".

[21] Penner blamed Bonaly's low scores in the short program, along with those of Chinese skater Chen Lu, to ageism.

Penner, who stated that Bonaly and Chen "felt the sting of the judges’ crackback against the aged", reported that both skaters performed clean and pleasant programs.

Bonaly's coach, Uschi Keszler, called her triple toe-triple toe combination jump "very difficult" and her spins "beautiful".

[48] Bonaly had pulled her groin muscle the day before the free skate; her injury was so severe, she was unable to walk, had to be carried up the stairs, and considered dropping out of the rest of the competition.

[6] As Rihanna Walker of The New York Times put it, "She was still determined to compete, however, and to leave the ice giving people something to talk about".

[49] Bonaly fell on a triple jump, and as Du put it, "regained her composure, and backed into a spontaneous backflip";[6] at the time, she was only skater in the world capable of successfully accomplishing it.

[55] The audience reacted with astonishment; when she finished her program, she "bore an exuberant smile" and "turned her back to the judges and bowed first to the fans".

She also performed in shows in Russia with Evgeni Plushenko and was a guest skater at Ice Theatre of New York's December 2008 gala in NYC.

She appeared in the Netflix documentary series Losers, which explores the lives of individuals who bounced back from loss or perceived failure.

"[65]Bonaly takes part in numerous conferences and events directed to encourage the participation in sport of people of colour.

She also became active in animal issues, participating in numerous PETA's campaigns against Canada's seal hunt and the fur trade.