Shedding tears of joy
Nagasu, Rippon help lead the U.S. to figure skating 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 today. 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 nip-and-tuck struggle with Italy for the podium. The 28-yearold, 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 Italian skater Matteo Rizzo to build on the U.S. cushion.
“We made a few changes with my coach and I was able to put together a strong performance,” Rippon said, “but there’s definitely a few points I want to squeeze out of this performance. I have one week until the individual and I’m going to be squeezing the hell out of it, you can believe that.”
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 personal-best 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.
As the “Shib Sibs” twizzled across the ice, Rippon put an arm around Nagasu and kissed her cheek.
No tears, though. Only joy.
SUNDAY ROUNDUP
Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer broke his own Olympic record in the men’s 5,000 meters to win his third straight medal in the event, Felix Loch missed his shot at a third straight luge title with a wobble on the last run and, in a biathlon stunner, Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe missed their targets and both missed out on medals.
Earlier, Simen Hegstad Krueger led a Norwegian sweep and won the men’s 30-kilometer cross-country skiathlon – despite crashing on the first lap.
The men’s downhill was postponed until Thursday because of strong winds. But other medals were scheduled to be awarded in the men’s 10-kilometer sprint in biathlon, the ladies’ moguls in freestyle skiing and men’s luge singles.
Swirling winds blew from the bottom of the mountain during the slopestyle, and the 5-foot-5, 116-pound Gerard took advantage of the quick reflexes he honed while growing up just outside of Breckenridge, Colorado. He took a risk on the second-to-last jump by trying a 1080-degree jump off the quarterpipe side of the kicker instead of going straight through the jump and flying higher. Gerard then closed with a backside triplecork 1440.
It all added up to a first-place score of 87.16 – and a gold medal.
“Just having fun snowboarding,” Gerard said.
Canadian teammates Max Parrot (86.00) and Marc Mcmorris (85.20) took bronze and silver, respectively.
RECORD BREAKER
Kramer won the 5,000 in 6:09.76, besting the mark of 6:10.76, which he set in 2014 in Sochi.
He also became the first man to win three golds in the event, using a late kick to beat Canada’s Ted-jan Bloemen.
Kramer has a chance at winning two more golds in other events: the 10,000 next Thursday and the team pursuit.
NO LOCH IN THE LUGE
Loch’s reign came to a sudden and shocking end, with David Gleirscher a surprise men’s luge gold medalist and Chris Mazdzer giving USA Luge its first men’s singles medal. Germany’s Johannes Ludwig took third.
Gleirscher, who had never medaled in a World Cup singles race, finished his four runs in 3:10.702 for the gold, Austria’s first in men’s luge in 50 years.
Loch struggled in the final run and slipped all the way to fifth, ending his bid to become the second slider to win the event three consecutive times.
TARGETING BIATHLON
The 10-kilometer biathlon, expected to be a two-man race between Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe, sent shockwaves through the biathlon world.
Arnd Peiffer of Germany con- nected on all 10 of his targets to win gold, ahead of Michal Krcmar of the Czech Republic and Dominik Windisch of Italy.
The top-ranked Fourcade missed three of five shots from the prone position, forcing him to do three penalty laps. The Frenchman finished eighth overall. Thingnes Boe, a Norwegian ranked No. 2, missed three from the prone position and one from the standing position to finish a distant 31st.
MOGULS GOLD FOR FRANCE
Perrine Laffont gave France its first women’s gold medal in the moguls in the 26-year history of the event, landing both her jumps without a bobble in the snow and cold.
The 19-year-old Laffont’s score of 79.72 was more than two points better than 2014 gold medalist Justine Dufour-lapointe of Canada, who had to settle for silver.
CRASH AND BURN – THE FIELD
An early crash couldn’t keep Krueger from gold. His Norwegian teammates then helped complete a sweep in the crosscountry ski race.
Krueger slipped when the mass start began and his right ski came out from under him, causing him to fall. Russian athletes Andrey Larkov and Denis Spitsov toppled over Krueger and the three ended up at the rear of the field by the time they untangled.
Krueger stormed back, though, and took the lead with 5 kilometers remaining and powered his way to gold.
NOT SO FAST
The men’s downhill was supposed to be the first race of the 11-event Alpine program, and it had been scheduled Sunday. But race organizers ruled it needed to be rescheduled three hours before it was supposed to start because the gondola lift used to carry teams and officials up the mountains couldn’t operate.