JUMP FOR JOY!
HISTORIC TRIPLE AXEL HELPS U.S. TAKE TEAM SKATING BRONZE
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — It took the talent, grit and artistry of eight American f igure skaters over three days of competition at the Gangneung Ice Arena to deliver the U.S. a bronze medal in the team event at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
But the most magical and pivotal contribution came from Mirai Nagasu, and it was over in an instant. In the span of one glorious eyeblink, Nagasu, who had been snubbed by U.S. skating officials for a spot on the 2014 Olympic team, poured all she had worked toward these past four years into the opening jump of her free skate on the final day of the team competition.
And when she landed solidly on one foot, after making 3 ¹/₂ rotations in the air, Nagasu made history, becoming the f irst American woman to land the high-risk triple axel in Olympic competition.
Her 4 ¹/₂-minute program, set to music from “Miss Saigon,” demanded eight more triple jumps, as well as high-diff iculty spins. But with history now on her résumé — and her U.S. teammates weeping and cheering, fully grasping the depth of her courage and the trials of her career — Nagasu, 24, sailed through the remaining elements of her program with the joy of a child romping on a playground, grinning more broadly each time she ticked off a skill.
Triple Salchow. Double axel-triple toe loop-double toe loop. Triple Lutz-triple toe loop. She could do these jumps in her sleep.
“Yo u did it, g i rl ! ” s c re a med her te a mmate, pairs skater Alexa Scimeca-Knierim, from the U.S. team’s rinkside seats, loud enough for Nagasu to hear as she went into her final jump. She giggled to herself, which made her smile even broader.
“It’s historical and something no one can take away from me,” Nagasu sa i d afterward. “I wanted to make America proud.”
That she did, contributing nine valuable points to the United States’ bronzemedal effort.
Canada, which boasts the world’s top ice dance pair, won gold. The Olympic Athletes from Russia took silver, giving the motherland they are forbidden from acknowledging at these Olympics its second medal. Under International Olympic Committee sanctions following evidence of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Sochi Games, Rus-
sia was banned from these Olympics but, in a compromise, was allowed to send 168 athletes absolved of any part in the scandal to compete under a stateless “OAR” banner.
The men’s f re e s kate kicked off the competition. American Adam Rippon, 28, was elegant in his Olympic debutt. But Rippon omitted his planned quadruple jump at the outset, substituting a double axel instead, and judges deemed hi s t r i pl e Lutz under-rotated. His score, 172.98, was more than four points off his season’s best mark for the program, and it placed him third among the f ive competitors — putting the U.S. two points further in arrears to Canada and one point behind OAR.
Siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani returned to the ice one day after doing t hei r short prog ram to compete their free dance and contributed another nine points toward the U.S. tally, f inishing second to Canada’s top-ranked duo.
The women’s skate represented the moment Nagasu had waited for since her fourth-place f inish at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
She awoke at 4 a. m., nervous about shouldering such a responsibility for her teammates and her country. But she didn’t give a thought to omitting the risky triple axel. That jump — and the prospect of becoming the first American and just the third woman in history to land it at the Olympics, after Japan’s Midori Ito and Mao Asada — was the sole reason she kept training after being passed over for the 2014 Olympic team. Even before she could do the triple axel, she dreamed she could. She dreamed of landing it so much, in fact, she thinks she may have taught it to herself subliminally.
The falls, the bruises and aches over the years attest otherwise. But Monday was her moment. It was her vindication.
“Midori Ito, Mao Asada and now Mirai Nagasu — all Japanese heritage,” Nagasu said afterward, with a proud smile. “But I am fortunate that I am American, so I’ll be the first U.S. lady to have landed the triple axel [in Olympic competition]. So today is a day of accomplishment for me.”