Surya's comeback!!

[Spun Silver]

Well, I can't believe a 34-year-old COULD come back. But if she could pull it off, I wouldn't see it as taking a spot from a kid, but rather breaking the age barrier in skating. That's worth doing - if it's possible.

It is one of those things that could be either exhilarating or embarrassing, depending on how it turned out... more likely the latter, I'm afraid.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

I'm all for Surya to have a come-back. She has to be in shape from all the shows she does. I do not judge her attitude or her temperment. I judge her skating.

Joe

 

[blue dog]

Did Surya actually do anything to give up her eligibility? Simply saying "I'm retired" won't keep you from reinstating. Skaters have to compete at a non-sanctioned event to lose eligibilty. There aren't many of those left. I think if skaters stay away from Ice Wars, then they can still go back to eligible skating. I doubt that Surya would really want to return, though.

Yes. Even though she competed in World Pros (which ended up being sanctioned when she turned pro--Michelle on it once, and so did Yags), she also won the US Pro Championships (held in West Virginia, of all places)--the second place finisher was Tonya Harding (her only pro appearance--she beat Kwiatkowski, Flack-Burghardt, and Manley). That championship was not sanctioned by the ISU or USFSA.

 

[antmanb]

Well...based on what I saw Surya do at Champion's on Ice this past summer, she would have probably placed in the top 3 at Europeans. Her abilities are on par with those of Kostner and Meir and certainly more advanced than the other participants.

Surya looked so healthy and trained and sleek. It looked like she had been preparing to compete in Turin, but did not get the call. Better late than never.

Oh come off it...when was the last time Surya landed a triple flip or a triple Lutz?? Before her achilles injury. By the time Nagano came around she still couldn't even land a triple loop and "only" had the sal and toe as triples.

Props to her for getting the triple loop back as a pro and keeping those triples. Even greater props for the backflip on one foot straight into both trilpe sal and triple toe (which she has done over the years). But re-instating....that is as likely as it was for Oksana and Tara (??? who could barely walk let alone sakte) for 2002, or any claims from Sarah hughes that she might have another stab at the Olympics.

It just isn't going to happen. Surya's footwork from her eligible days would need a heck of a lot of work to even start getting more than level 1's. Her spins weren't that great either...though i guess she has/had the Biellmann.

Also i don't know what the tules are with regards to citizenship in the US, but Surya is now a US citizen...would she have had to give up her french citizenship to get the US one? If so then she would have to compete for the US....

Ant

 

[antmanb]

Yup! But she also demanded that her daughter refuse a silver medal at some competition because Yuka Sato was placed above her... I think it was Worlds in the early 90s... And while Surya was indeed ROBBED (and probably the only time I'd use that wording...) it was totally shocking (albeit ballsy...) for a skater to refuse a silver medal. Obviously, this did not improve Surya in the eyes of the ISU and I'm sure it cost her a world title & olympic medal.

Suzanne did not play... these newbie moms need to take a class... they don't have a thing on the original "skating mom from hell"

NO Madame Bonaly was one scary *****!

It was 1994 worlds that Surya didn't refuse the silver medal but rather she took it off once it was placed round her neck...i've no doubt she still has the medal

Since that stunt came after the 1994 Olympics - are you saying that it was that stunt that stopped her from Medalling in Nagano??? By then Surya wasn't quite healed up (a little like Hongbo ni Turin) and hadn't managed to get all her triples back. Surya was a jumper primarily and that is what left her with teh silver medals when competing amongst more well roudned peers. By Nagano she knew she didn't have a chance when the rest of her flight were repeating triple lutzes and/or flips and she was having to wheel out two triple toes and two triples salchows (hell she even through a third one that didn't count because of Zayak). Sutrya knew she had no chance and her big finger to teh establishment was a back flip landed on one foot......for that

Ant

 

[antmanb]

A typical Surya LP layout is 3-lutz/3-toe, 3-flip/2-toe, 2-axel, split jump/3-toe/1/2-loop/3-salchow, 3-lutz, 3-loop. That would score well under CoP.
!

I'd be interested to know when was the last time she did a program like this? I can't imagine it was any time after about 1993 or 1994....i seriously doubt 14 years on she can still pull off even a solo triple lutz let alone a triple lutz/triple toe combo.

Ant

 

[Mafke]

It was 1994 worlds that Surya didn't refuse the silver medal but rather she took it off once it was placed round her neck...i've no doubt she still has the medal

I could agree with the 1994 result, what I couldn't agree with was the 1993 world championships where she lost to Oksana (two-foot) Baiul of all people. I know judges were charmed by Baiul's smile at the time, but honestly, her _skating_ technique wasn't any more polished than Bonaly's.

I don't believe for a second that Bonaly wants to return to eligible competition. Of course the powers that be wouldn't let her if she did, but that's immaterial because I'm sure it's approximately the next to last thing on earth she wants in terms of skating.

 

[Mathman]

...the next to last thing on earth she wants in terms of skating.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

This thread seems like a bonaly walked in and so many cries came out to 'step on it'.

She was no worse than Baiul;s two foot landing jumps and Baiul is stil two footing her jumps as a pseudo entertainer if she makes the rotations.

Joe

 

[Mafke]

I'm sure it's approximately the next to last thing on earth she wants in terms of skating.

Okay, no one asked, but we'll have a multiple choice quiz for the answer to the musical question: What's the only thing one ice Surya Bonaly would _less_ rather do than return to eligible competition for the loathesome French federation?

a) be runover by a zamboni
b) find herself unwittingly between Didier Gailhaguet and a discreetly sealed, non-descript envelope
c) a RBO Paragraph bracket
d) compete in the Depends! Professional World Championship!

 

[blue dog]

Okay, no one asked, but we'll have a multiple choice quiz for the answer to the musical question: What's the only thing one ice Surya Bonaly would _less_ rather do than return to eligible competition for the loathesome French federation?

a) be runover by a zamboni
b) find herself unwittingly between Didier Gailhaguet and a discreetly sealed, non-descript envelope
c) a RBO Paragraph bracket
d) compete in the Depends! Professional World Championship!

c) a RBO Paragraph bracket.

She was horrid in school figures and footwork...her three-turns would be level .5 (if such a level existed)

 

[emma]

Okay, no one asked, but we'll have a multiple choice quiz for the answer to the musical question: What's the only thing one ice Surya Bonaly would _less_ rather do than return to eligible competition for the loathesome French federation?

a) be runover by a zamboni
b) find herself unwittingly between Didier Gailhaguet and a discreetly sealed, non-descript envelope
c) a RBO Paragraph bracket
d) compete in the Depends! Professional World Championship!

OMG LOL

 

[waxel]

I remember there was often speculation that Surya was not even actually "FIGURE skating" because of the lack of edging and, well ... figures.

Seems to me that she often followed her back flip with a 3sal (rather than a 3toe)?

I'm certain she isn't returning ... but it would be a cackle to see her back shaking up the stodgy ISU.

 

[dizzydi7]

Surya's Comeback

I hope this will never happen. Surya is a wonderful athlete but she has no artistry. I don't think she would fend well under COP. She has no feel for music and connecting moves.....well forget about it.

Dizzy

 

[slutskayafan21]

I could agree with the 1994 result, what I couldn't agree with was the 1993 world championships where she lost to Oksana (two-foot) Baiul of all people. I know judges were charmed by Baiul's smile at the time, but honestly, her _skating_ technique wasn't any more polished than Bonaly's.

I don't believe for a second that Bonaly wants to return to eligible competition. Of course the powers that be wouldn't let her if she did, but that's immaterial because I'm sure it's approximately the next to last thing on earth she wants in terms of skating.

I think she was robbed in 93 but not in 94 or 95. In 94 or 95 she had too many small mistakes, and her triple-triples were cheated, not clean. In 93 she had an amazing technical performance, and Biaul's technical marks should have been blown away her hers, not just .1 per judge back as they were, and Biaul's artistry was overwrought and overmarked IMO. In 93 I had Bonaly and Chen, maybe even Sato, all over Biaul in the long program, although I was fine with the short program judging.

 

[evenstar]

Even if Bonaly returned and attempted her "typical" program, I highly doubt her triple-triples would be ratified. It's pretty much impossible to do a triple-triple from a standstill on the ice, as Bonaly's 3z-3ts were.

 

[blue dog]

I think she was robbed in 93 but not in 94 or 95. In 94 or 95 she had too many small mistakes, and her triple-triples were cheated, not clean. In 93 she had an amazing technical performance, and Biaul's technical marks should have been blown away her hers, not just .1 per judge back as they were, and Biaul's artistry was overwrought and overmarked IMO. In 93 I had Bonaly and Chen, maybe even Sato, all over Biaul in the long program, although I was fine with the short program judging.

I don't know how bad 1993 WC's were, but didn't Baiul not land any combination jump?

 

[Mafke]

She was horrid in school figures and footwork...her three-turns would be level .5 (if such a level existed)

True, Bonaly was universally acknowledged to be really, really bad at figures. On the other hand, she did learn and compete in them at an international level (just .... badly).
But, she was starting in the senior ranks at the very end of the figures era, so I think like Yamaguchi she just resigned herself to bad showings in figures for a couple of years before she didn't have to worry about them anymore (rather than buckle down and improve in them as some before her had).

On the other hand, according to one (apocryphal?) story about Baiul, as a pro(?) she saw Boitano practising bracket turns and didn't know what they were(!) and couldn't do them when she tried (not suprising if that was the first time she tried).

I've been tempted to try to look thru her programs to see if she ever does a bracket but I'm too lazy.

 

[Mafke]

I don't know how bad 1993 WC's were, but didn't Baiul not land any combination jump?

Just checked and she did no combo! She did an inside axel-double axel sequence very late in the program but two-foots the 2 axel.

I still scratch my head over how she beat Bonaly's program, IIRC my personal rankings for the LP were Bonaly, Chen, Baiul.
No, it's not all about jumping, but the gap between jumping skills _was_ pretty large here (Baiul did 5, none in combination and IIRC Bonaly did 7 including at least three in combination) and more importantly there wasn't a lot more going in terms of skating either. She did an awful lot of simple skating and an awful lot of posing in place. That (at the time) Baiul's victory was celebrated as a triumph of traditional technique vs an upstart jumping bean seems like a very bad joke now.

I do think Baiul had tremendous talent and potential, but I think it was destroyed by being rewarded too much too early.