Brennan: Triple axel marks huge positive turnaround for Mirai Nagasu heading into women’s competition
Triple axel stamps her as contender
GANGNEUNG, South Korea – Eight years ago, Mirai Nagasu was a 16-yearold Olympian with big dreams who finished fourth at the Vancouver Games and thought the best was yet to come.
Four years ago, Nagasu was a 20year-old figure skating veteran plunging into the depths of despair after being left home from the Sochi Olympics by a committee decision.
Today, the 24-year-old Nagasu is riding high on the shoulders of her sport, having accomplished something only two women before her have done in the history of figure skating: land the vaunted triple axel in the Olympics.
Less than 30 seconds into her long program in the team competition Monday, Nagasu took off for the jump she has admirably been trying all season, with mixed results. This time, there was no doubt. She powered into the air with such strength and landed with such surety that, for a moment, you wondered if the eye was playing tricks on you. It looked so easy, with so much space between Nagasu and the ice, could it really have been the triple axel?
Yes, it really was. Nagasu became the first American woman to land the most difficult of the six triple jumps at the Olympics. Japan’s Midori Ito landed it in Albertville in 1992, and Japan’s Mao Asada landed it three times in Vancouver in 2010 and once in Sochi in 2014.
That’s it. That’s the elite company Nagasu found herself in as she gathered her thoughts after becoming such a key player in the USA’s successful effort to win a second consecutive Olympic team bronze medal.
“I am very fortunate that I’m American so I’m the first U.S. lady,” she said. “This is a journey that started with me wanting to become better and improve and change myself. It doesn’t happen immediately. It was rough. I would have dreams that I could do this jump, then I would try it on ice and I would fall. But I knew in my heart this day would come.”
With a start that historic, Nagasu was on her way. The axel was the first of eight triple jumps in a meticulous long program, perhaps the finest of her career, and certainly the best when it mattered most, helping to seal the Americans’ team bronze medal that had looked a bit precarious overnight with Italy closing in.
Nagasu ended up beating everyone in a very strong field except for OAR’s Alina Zagitova, the sport’s new 15-yearold “it” girl. The judges can’t get enough of her, throwing points at her as if they were flowers flying from the fans in the stands: a whopping total of 158.08.
Nagasu was next with 137.53, a personal best that just beat Canada’s Gabrielle Daleman, the reigning world bronze medalist, with 137.14, and Italy’s Carolina Kostner, the revered 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, with 134.00.
This is rarefied air for Nagasu, and it propels her at least into the conversation for the women’s individual competition later in the Games. Zagitova and countrywoman Evgenia Medvedeva, the two-time defending world champion, are expected to battle for the gold and silver medal, with a pack of strong skaters right behind them.
As of now, Nagasu has joined that group. The triple axel is that much of a game-changer.
“Today was a really unforgettable experience,” Nagasu said. “From the beginning, I was very nervous because this is a team event, so I felt responsibility. It is a job. I owe it to my teammates.”
Then she delivered, and she almost couldn’t believe she did.
“This is awesome,” she said. “I remember watching (2014 U.S. Olympian) Gracie Gold in Sochi being the last person to skate, and I was like, oh my god, I don’t know how she did it. It is a lot of pressure to know my teammates are relying on me and to have to pull out a good performance. It is a lot of expectation, so to deliver on it like I did …”
She trailed off. Words weren’t necessary anymore. Her statement had already been made.