“Wish there was somebody back” – Surya Bonaly on lack of role model during early days
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Surya Bonaly
Former French Olympian Surya Bonaly revealed how she didn’t have any local role models who looked like her while she was growing up in Europe. The World Championships silver medal winner commenced her ice skating career in the early 1990s while growing up in France.
The renowned figure skater, who was adopted from an orphanage in Nice by a white couple, would often look around the rink only to realize she was the only skater of color at many events in Europe. In a recent media interview, Bonaly shed light on this in detail while dwelling upon a few other topics as well
“I wish there was somebody back in my day who was able to do that for me,” Surya told TODAY. “You always need someone to be the first to do something. I didn’t have that, so in my case, I had to be the one for Europe.”
“It’s amazing to think it took that long for it to happen at the Olympics, that it was 30 years ago that I was really pushing myself to go forward,” Bonaly said.
“Being judged on physical appearance and characteristics was unfair”
Earlier, Andrea Jordan, the chief operating officer of Figure Skating in Harlem, has made her young, colored skaters know all about Bonaly during the month not only celebrating the Olympics but also Black history.
“Being an athletic woman of colour, but also in many ways being judged because of her physical appearance and her characteristics in a way that was unfair, to be able to break through all of those barriers and still persist in that spot and accomplish all that she accomplished is remarkable,” Jordan told TODAY.
“For us, as I think about her meaning to our skaters, representation matters. Young people need to see individuals that look like them on and off the ice.”
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Sachin Arora
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