Nagasu’s triple axel a singular feat for U.S.
Team gold goes to Canada’s free skaters; Rippon helps Americans capture bronze
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — Mirai Nagasu and Adam Rippon shared tears of sorrow when they were left off the Olympic team four years ago, each of them passed over in decisions that could have gone either way.
They shed tears of joy together Monday.
The veteran figure skaters put together flawless back-to-back performances, Nagasu becoming the first American woman to land a triple axel in the Olympics, Rippon nailing both of his triple axels. They helped earn the United States the bronze medal in the team competition.
Canada won the gold medal, with the Russians taking the silver.
“For both of us to be on this team, and to be on the same floor in the village, it’s all super exciting,” Nagasu said. “He won’t stop talking about how exciting this all is, and I go: ‘Adam! Adam! You know we still have a job to get done? We still have to skate
well!’ ” They skated better than well. It was Rippon who led off the final day of the team event, when the Americans were still in a nipand-tuck struggle with Italy for the podium.
The 28-year-old, wearing a sequined outfit that sparkled like a million diamonds, dumped a planned quad lutz but otherwise ripped through his routine with confidence and precision.
His jumps were sharp. His lines were smooth. His emotion, as usual, was worn on his sleeves.
Rippon thrust his arms out with a triumphant grin when he finished his program, basking in a loud ovation from a crowd filled with plenty of American fans. He then began skating circles on the ice, admitting later he wanted to spend as much time as possible before stepping off.
“It felt worth the 28-year wait, you know?” Rippon said. “I was sitting backstage and I thought: ‘You know what? I still feel like I might throw up. And I might miss every element in my program.’ But I said: ‘You know what? I trained so hard, and I know when I get out there, I’m going to go for everything. Take one element at a time.’ And I was able to do that.”
He finished with 172.9 points, less than a point behind Russian skater Mikhail Kolyada and less than seven points behind Patrick Chan, part of the winning Canadian squad. More importantly, he finished ahead of Italy’s Matteo Rizzo to build on the U.S. cushion.
It’s hard to believe Nagasu could squeeze much more out of her routine.
After finishing fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Games and getting passed over for Ashley Wagner four years ago for Sochi, the 24-year-old made a long-awaited return to Olympic ice. And she did it by etching her name in the record books with a triple axel for the ages.
Like a great locomotive, Nagasu began picking up speed the moment her music began, uncorking the same vexing 3½-rotation jump on which Chan fell an hour earlier. She landed it to a roar from the American contingent seated at one end of the ice, joining Japan’s Midori Ito and Mao Asada as the only female skaters to land the jump in Olympic competition.
“I could see my teammates standing out of excitement,” Nagasu said, “and at that moment I wanted to stop the music and get off, but I still had my whole program ahead of me.”
She somehow managed to calm her nerves, hit every jump the rest of the way and score a personalbest 137.53 points to finish second behind Russian star Alina Zagitova. Her tremendous performance nearly clinched the bronze medal, and it became official when siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani took the ice for the free dance — the final event in the competition.
“I don’t know if you could tell — it was more something I could feel — but to nail it the way I did, even out of the corner of my eye I could see my teammates standing out of excitement,” Nagasu said. “And at that moment I wanted to stop the music and get off, but I still had my whole program ahead of me, and to complete the performance to the best of my ability is really exciting.”
Nagasu had poured herself into mastering the triple axel.
“It’s historical and something no one can take away from me,” Nagasu said. “I wanted to make America proud.”
Nagasu, 24, landed the jump at the Gangneung Ice Arena under enormous pressure, the first of five women to perform her free skate on the final day of competition toward the Olympics team medal.
With the U.S. squad sitting in third, hopelessly out of gold medal contention yet under threat of losing its provisional bronze to Italy, Nagasu took the ice and held nothing back in the 4½-minute program she had scripted to music from “Miss Saigon.”
The triple axel came first, and she delivered, completing all of the tricky rotations and landing solidly on one foot. Her coach pumped his fists and leapt in excitement. From there, it was as if an anvil were lifted from Nagasu’s shoulders, and she didn’t miss a jump or put a skate wrong. As her program wound down, she was beaming, completing her final triple loop and finishing with a layback spin of sheer beauty and release.
Nagasu shook her fists twice as her teammates gave her a standing ovation, aware of her sacrifice and courage.
The high-risk triple axel, which actually demands 3½ rotations in the air because skaters take off from a forward position and land facing backward, was the first jump in her program.
Tonya Harding was the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition but failed in her attempt at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. A decade later, 2006 world champion Kimmie Meissner became the second American woman to land the jump but, like Harding, didn’t do so at the Olympics. Nagasu joined their ranks last fall, landing one in international competition.
Zagitova, the rising star from Russia and current European champion, topped Nagasu’s score by 20 points.
The 15-year-old stamped herself as the main challenger to countrywoman Evgenia Medvedeva for the gold in the individual event with a brilliant combination of jumps, spins, artistry and overall presence.