Surya Bonaly is not actually from India; her parents were hippies who had an India fixation. They adopted Surya and chose an Indian name--and the rest is history. Surya was an athlete even very early on. She tumbled. She did gym-related feats. When she arrived on the ice, she seemed to intuit that this was where she belonged--and she seemed to transfer her gymnastics skills into this new setting, with ease. Everyone knows about the back-flip. Bonaly could do this on the ice, and could land on one skate. Also, she could land quads easily; other women weren't having that particular success. (Rehearsal was different from performance. Bonaly's coach urged her *not* to attempt a quad in performance, but Bonaly, being Bonaly, tried, nevertheless--and failed.) A main feature of the young athlete's persona was a kind of imperiousness and candor. Bonaly wouldn't worry too much about conventions. This inevitably pushed her into trouble zones; she would be penalized for an i...