Amongst the Olympics, Mirai Nagasu’s Name is a Reminder of the Model Athlete’s Epitome

(Source) (Mirai Nagasu at the U.S. championships during her silver medal performance. Photo: Tony Avelar/AP)

With the current excitement of the 2022 Beijing winter Olympics, the world is abuzz with discussion on who will take gold and which country will top the medal count, especially for this year’s figure skating Olympics.

While figure skating is just as much of a sport as football and hockey, it’s also an art form that requires artistry and emotion. The appeal of watching skaters glide across the ice comes from the ability to present their athleticism on an emotional level, which has attracted many fans of the sport over the last few Olympics, including myself. While watching the Winter Olympics this year, I wondered if this was really all an athlete was meant to be; to score the goals, win first place, and go home with the gold glimmering around their neck. Even an artistic sport like figure skating seemed extremely pressuring and focused on the numbers and competition. The skaters have gotten younger and younger over the years, with a 15-year-old Kamila Valieva shocking everyone through her incomparable figure skating, yet not without the pressure and controversy of taking performance-enhancing drugs. And afterwards, a heart-crushing scene of Valieva falling on the ice during the women’s free skate program on Februrary 17th, tears streaming down her face. I was reminded of world-renowned Japanese-American figure skater Mirai Nagasu, who had been through the same pressure and pain as Valieva as a young skater along with her own story of trials and tribulations. She skated competitively for the last time in the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

Qualifying for US figure skating championships, her second national-level competition, she won the junior level short program as 1st place and became a national competitor with her combined score of 155.46.

Raised in Arcadia, California, to immigrant parents from Japan, Nagasu still had to face her own human struggles. Her parents owned a Japanese sushi restaurant in Arcadia, where Nagasu used to sleep in the storage room. She remarked that she grew up “seeing them put in their everything and work every day”, and that they taught her to stay humble and to stay hungry at all times to always look for ways to better herself.

For Nagasu, being second-generation Japanese-American is vital to her identity. However, when she was required by Japanese law to relinquish her dual citizenship before her 22nd birthday, she chose US citizenship likely due to her strong standing of being nationally American. She noted about her two-sided upbringing, “I’ve always felt I’m a little too Asian for the US, but when I go to Japan, I stand out like a sore thumb.” She noted that at times she feels that she doesn’t fit in anywhere, but that nonetheless she’s proud of being American. “I love America because for me, representing America means representing all of the cultures of the US.”

Nagasu carried her cultural pride with her as she built up her career repertoire as a 7-time US national medalist and becoming the youngest woman at age 15 since Tara Lipinsky in 1997 to win the US Senior ladies’ title, being the 2nd-youngest in history at the time.

Representing the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympics at age 16, she placed 4th in the ladies’ event, making her Olympic debut. However, still being a teen, Nagasu was forced to take responsibility for being a champion from a young age, as well as managing her mental health and pressures of victory.

When Nagasu was cut off the three-person Olympic team and narrowly missed her shot at her second Olympics in Sochi 2014, she fell into a depression. The US Figure Skating’s selection committee claimed her 7th-place finish at Nationals the previous year and inconsistent international results a poor fit for the Olympics. While this put a pitstop in her career, Nagasu took it as a learning experience, saying to the Boston Globe: “Although I don’t ever want to relive not being named to the Olympic team, it was one of those moments where I decided to challenge myself and keep going.”

Nagasu found strength in her hurdles. Missing Sochi gave her an opportunity to work on her triple axel, the most daunting and hardest jump in figure skating. “Some of what could be considered a low point was actually - I don’t want to say a blessing in disguise, but a turning point to where I am now.” While working to master the jump, she worked on recovering from her depression.

(Source)( Mirai Nagasu after winning silver at nationals. Photo: Tony Avelar/AP)

After 2014, Nagasu stayed in skating, found a new coach in Colorado, and looked to plan her life beyond the sport by enrolling at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS), where she focused on business administration.

In 2016, Nagasu was called just days before the World Championships to fill in for an injured Polina Edmunds, who was chosen over her to participate in the 2014 Sochi Olympics just two years prior. The World Championships were held in Boston, where Nagasu’s love for the city arguably sparked and began. At TD Garden, the crowd cheered and vaulted her career back into action. But 2016 was the same year her hip pain started, severe pain shooting down her right leg and at one point preventing her from even bending her knee.

Having to face injuries is a pressure that the majority of sports have placed on their athletes; fellow renowned skater Yuzuru Hanyu admitted in February 2021 to taking painkillers to last him through a severe ankle injury during the Pyeongchang Olympics. For Nagasu, her hip injury was just as much a test of endurance, neglecting her health in order to keep herself skating and training. Her bittersweet efforts ultimately landed her a 2nd place finish at the championships and put Nagasu onto the Olympic team for the 2018 Winter Olympics, eight years after her first Olympic debut.

(Source) (Nagasu after landing the triple axel. Photo[above]: Maddie Meyer/Getty)

After years of practicing, Nagasu landed the triple axel jump for the first time in the fall of 2017 at the 2017 C.S. U.S. Classic international competition. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Nagasu made history in what would become the highlight of everything she worked towards. Nagasu landed a clutch triple axel in the Olympics, which led the U.S. team to bronze in the team figure skating event, making her a two-time Winter Olympian and bringing her name into the limelight. She became the third womens’ figure skater, and first American woman, to land a triple axel in the Olympics.

After stepping away from the competitive side of skating, Nagasu described to Andscape her legendary Olympic experience, “It was everything I wanted it to be. Although I made some mistakes, if it were perfect, it would be boring.”

She continued, “To be the only female even attempting it in the competition is something I’m really proud of…Four years ago I was crying because I couldn’t even make the Olympic team. To break down that barrier and achieve that is something that I’m really proud of.”

(Source) (Photo: Amin Mohammed Jamali/Getty)

The success resulted in a variety of post-Olympic opportunities, some including an appearance on ABC’S “Dancing with the Stars” and a tour with “Stars on Ice.” However, Nagasu’s hip pain still affected her day-to-day life. “I had persevered through [the injuries] to achieve my lifelong goals at the Olympics. It was not easy, and figuring out what surgery was right for me was difficult.”

Nagasu decided to partake in a surgery at Boston Childrens’ Hospital with a daunting 6-12 months of potential recovery time and time away from the sport. With worry of her future skating career, along with the pandemic climate, she took the risk as a means to take care of her body. However, the decision wasn’t easy for her because “As a skater, any surgery is even scarier because you don’t want to be off the ice for any period of time.”

The success resulted in a variety of post-Olympic opportunities, some including an appearance on ABC’S “Dancing with the Stars” and a tour with “Stars on Ice.” However, Nagasu’s hip pain still affected her day-to-day life. “I had persevered through [the injuries] to achieve my lifelong goals at the Olympics. It was not easy, and figuring out what surgery was right for me was difficult.”

Nagasu decided to partake in a surgery at Boston Childrens’ Hospital with a daunting 6-12 months of potential recovery time and time away from the sport. With worry of her future skating career, along with the pandemic climate, she took the risk as a means to take care of her body. However, the decision wasn’t easy for her because “As a skater, any surgery is even scarier because you don’t want to be off the ice for any period of time.”

(Source) (Nagasu coaching young skaters at Northstar Ice Sports in Westborough. Photo: T&G Staff / Ashley Green)

While in rehab, Nagasu remarked about the time of healing that contrasted so starkly from her previous lifelong rigorous training, noting that she would feel that the exercises during rehab were too easy. “The athlete in me wanted more. But the PT would have to tell me, ‘We have to give your body a chance to heal.’”

(Source) (Nagasu coaching young skaters at Northstar Ice Sports in Westborough. Photo [above]: T&G Staff / Ashley Green)

After her period of recovery, Nagasu wasn’t ready to step completely away from skating. She took back to the ice and started training again, working hard to land triple axels once more, but chose to step away from the competitive side of skating. Instead, she retired and started coaching various levels of skaters, making her appearances at rinks in Peabody and Westborough. As of now, she can be spotted at a variety of rinks from MetroWest to the North Shore, skating and teaching around Boston.

In July 2021, Nagasu went to the Mount Prospect Ice Arena in Chicago with former Team USA Skater Michael Bramante to give skating lessons, hoping to share her excitement for skating with the next generation, stating that she is “just one of those people who really enjoys skating and all aspects of skating.”

“To be able to take my experiences and kind of try to use whatever I have learned to help motivate and progress the younger generation is something that gets me out of bed after every morning.”

(Source) (Nagasu, post-Olympic, in Boston. Photo: PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBAL STAFF)

To step away from a career you’ve worked for since you were a child is a big shift, and her sudden career detour may seem disappointing for fans. However, Nagasu may think differently. She previously had to juggle training for competitions and events, school, and public appearances ever since she was a teen. She reflected on her Olympic experience in Pyeongchang, “What I did at the Olympics was great, but it doesn’t define me as a person.”

As she stated, Nagasu is working to redefine herself past her praised Olympic title. Between previous physical therapy appointments and thoughts about her future, Nagasu completed school remotely, graduating from UCCS with a degree in business administration in December 2020. When asked about life after Olympic success and the psychological adjustments needed to take place, she said, “I’ve had to continue my education, and I’ve taken on an internship because my skating isn’t going to carry me through the rest of my life. I want to find things outside of skating that I can really enjoy.”

Nagasu said what she also really loved to see and was proud of was the younger girls at the rink trying a triple axel, stating that the learning environment was “really exciting to watch.”

She also looks forward to how the next generation of Asian Americans will take over the world scene, noting the differences between the childhood upbringings of first- and second-generation, U.S.-born Asian-Americans. “Our generation wants to stand up for what they believe in, and are about representation and having a voice.”

Nagasu acknowledged her luck in growing up in a very diverse and well-rounded climate in California, being able to have Asian-American role models like Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan. She now knows the importance of encouraging Asian-American representation and breaking the barriers in order to redefine what American means. “Once one person is able to do it, people realize we’re able to achieve things that we don’t even know that we can.”

But just how much influence can just one individual athlete have? Across the country, in the small corner-state of Massachusetts, Nagasu’s words are being heard by the next generation. Amongst Nagasu’s coaching around parts of Boston, young student skaters are taking to her as a primary inspiration. I talked to Shivani Bandaru, an LHS student figure skater who’s personally seen Nagasu coaching and in action on the ice.

“She [Nagasu] honestly does so much on and off the ice. I read about all the things she does for her community, and I see how kind and humble she is at the rink, and it makes me want to be a better person. I admire how Mirai Nagasu is constantly pushing the sport forwards, physically and artistically. Not everyone can make history, but we can at least love what we do.”