Surya Bonaly

I was thinking about those stunts in Reebok Fantasy NFL videos. The stunts look real, but are they? Then I remembered Surya Bonaly, the black French Olympic figure skater, did a backflip at the Olympics. It caused quite a stir with the crowd and with the announcers. The first 45 seconds of this video are damaged, but after that it clears up.

My wife and I had been watching the figure skating competitions for a while, and we had never seen anyone do a backflip on the ice, so when we saw this we were amazed. Later on there was demonstration program where skaters should show off for the crowd, no judging involved, and one of the male competitors did a backflip. I thought it was Brian Boitano, but he wasn't even there, so I don't know who it was. Anyway, this made me think that any skater competing at this level is probably capable of such a move. You don't see backflips in competition because they are against the rules. I think the deal with Surya was that she had fallen once and figured she had already lost the competition, so she did it for the crowd, and for the in-your-face effect to the judges. Who knows?

My point is there are layers of talent behind what we see in public performances. Professional entertainers (which includes professional athletes) can spend inordinate amounts of time perfecting their craft, which is what makes me think those Reebok fantasy videos could possibly be real. Then again, the videos were made by a company called Blue Room. Blue Room? Would that name have anything to do with Blue Screen? Maybe it is all just a fantasy.