Surya Bonaly in NYC

On January 21, Surya Bonaly will be performing at Rockefeller Rink in NYC. Recent interview with Surya the last time she was in NYC: http://www.lifeskate.com/skate/2008...-las-vegas-and-thats-totally-by-accident.html

Thanks Susan for this great interview.

It's nice to see that someone is taking the time to talk to skaters that have long since retired from competition. Us old timers (like me) really like to hear up dates about the skaters that we remember.

Bonaly had (and is still having) one of the greatest post-competion runs of all all time. In COI, while Olympic champions came and went, the guts and glue of the show were Surya, Rudy Galindo, Victor Petrenko (OK, he was a Oly gold guy), the acrobats and Irina Grigorean (the hula hoop girl ).

Surya was one of the most popular skaters on the U.S. pro circuit. I remember one of those "USA versus the World" cheesefests, where the USA always won no matter what the skaters did. But this one time Surya and Candeloro skated so great they just had to give it to the World team.

My favorite Surya story: There was an ice show in Sun Valley where Sale and Pelletier were the headliners. But when Jamie and David arrived, they found out that they didn't have the right kind of work permit to perform in the U.S. So at the last minute they called up Surya in Las Vegas. She threw a couple of costumes in a bag, hopped on the red-eye and saved the show.

Interesting and a bit perplexing timing. With US Nationals going on at the same time... and NBC providing coverage... and Rockefeller Center being NBC's home... why wouldn't they do more in the way of 'big screen' broadcasts... or Today Show antics... to promote US skating and skaters? Nothing against Surya, she's a wonderful professional... but couldn't help thinking about the many missed opportunities by the supposed marketers of this sport.

I saw Surya in Hartford, CT at the COI show back in April, 2006. That was quite a show.