THE OLYMPICS / WINTER GAMES AT ALBERTVILLE : NOTES

In the controversy category, French figure skater Surya Bonaly scored a perfect 6.0 this week.

In practice Wednesday, she performed an illegal back flip that international figure skating officials believed was intended to intimidate the favorite in the women’s competition, Japan’s Midori Ito.

The officials reprimanded Bonaly, a former gymnast, warning her not to do another back flip in practice.

Friday, they told the French figure skating federation that, as with the other skaters, only two people would be allowed to stand in the area at the end of the rink reserved for coaches during Bonaly’s freestyle program.

That meant that either one of her two coaches or her mother would have to go. The mother went.

“That’s why I skated so badly, because my mother wasn’t with me,” said Bonaly, who finished sixth in the freestyle program, falling to fifth overall after a third-place finish in Wednesday’s original program.