Surya Bonaly Speaks Out for PETA
Skating fans will remember French figure skater and three-time Olympian Surya Bonaly for her high-flying jumps, athleticism and flexibility. Or you may remember Bonaly for her defiant attitude at the 1994 World Championships where she believed she was robbed of a gold medal and so stood beside the podium instead of on it. She eventually accepted her silver medal, but took it off immediately and was then booed by the crowd. Even better, in her last amateur competition Bonaly included an illegal backflip in her free program as a special sign of her 'love' for the judges.
The three-time World silver medalist (1993-1995) is back in the spotlight as the star of a new ad for PETA encouraging people to speak up for seals. You can see the ad and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot here. (Caution: the ad is violent as you would expect.)
For another point of view, Darren writes about how the seal hunt may not be as bad as Surya and PETA make it out to be, though it looks pretty barbaric in Surya's ad.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Surya was one of the best, she was a pioneer with her back flips and the leg up behind her head spin. her backround in tumbling and gymnastics really helped.Why did they outlaw her BACKFLIP? no one else could do it and GOD FORBID A BLACK GIRL BE BETTER THAN WHITE GIRLS AT SKATING !!!!! She was a better skater and an artist than KATERINA WITT! in 88 witt came off like a floozie with her costumes her pout.(if only debi thomas could have SKATED A CLEAN PERFORMANCE !!!)anyway SYRA WAS ONE OF THE ALL TIME GREATS !