THEthe ice ofIce Skating Arena in Milan Cortina 2026 trembles with enthusiasm. TO getting even someone like Novak Djokovic to stand up has thought of it Ilia Malinin. The US star performed a backflip thrilling, transforming figure skating into a high-flying show. But do you know that until recently this leap was considered an act of pure rebellion?
The history of the backflip in figure skating
The first to officially perform the somersault backwards in one international competition it was the American Terry Kubicka. It happened right in 1976during the Innsbruck Olympics and the subsequent World Championships. Kubicka left everyone speechless by landing the jump with incredible precision. However, his feat had a paradoxical effect: instead of being celebrated, it frightened the sport’s top brass.
Ilia Malinin performs a backflip (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Why was the ban triggered?
Immediately after Kubicka’s performance, theInternational Skating Union (ISU) decided to ban the maneuver. There were two reasons. First of all, lto safety: the risk of falling on the neck or head was considered too high for a sport that at the time was all about grace. The second motivation was purely aesthetics: in 1976 you landed on two feet from the backflip. For the judges, this “wasn’t real skating”since the cardinal rule is that each jump ends up on only one blade.
Surya Bonaly’s rebellion
The ban lasted almost 50 years, but in 1998 the French Surya Bonaly he decided to rewrite history. During the Nagano Olympics, he landed a backflip on one foot (a monstrous technical difficulty). Despite the perfection of the execution and the fact that she had solved the “problem” of landing on one foot, the judges still penalized her. It was an act of rebellion that made her an eternal pop icon.
Surya Bonalay’s forbidden backflip during the 1998 Nagano Olympics (Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The backflip at Milano Cortina 2026
Everything has changed to June 2024when ISU removed the two-point penalty for flips. Today, on the Italian slopes of Milan Cortina 2026the backflip has become the symbol of a skating that is no longer afraid to dare. Ilia Malinin and his colleagues are the children of that revolution that began in ’76, but with the freedom to fly without being punished.
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