This is the first Olympics in 50 years where the move hasn't been illegal—and Malinin’s backflip has long been known as the “Bonaly flip.”

Ilia Malinin’s backflip has been openly embraced, but it was received differently decades ago when Surya Bonaly performed the move at the 1998 Games.

That red poor-boy cap from the 1998 Nagano Games you wore in elementary school? It’s now practically a fashion collectible. There’s even an official Olympic Heritage Collection offering limited re-issues of vintage T-shirts and memorabilia.

Two Olympic judges were banned after one proposed a plan to rig the winners of the figure-skating event of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. The 2026 Winter Olympic Games are currently underway across Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy and there has been plenty of drama.

Nevertheless, it is Malinin getting showered with praise, prompting many on social media to lament the way his achievement has eclipsed that of Bonaly, who is Black, and wondering if that is due to the color of her skin.